York Woods Revisited: October 3, 2012

Our walks have grown less frequent and less exciting with the change in weather. As the sun is setting sooner, we normally walk near our house or use the stationary bike inside. But with the leaves turning we will try to revisit some locations to show how beautiful they look in other seasons.

My husband and I normally carpool as our workplaces are in the same town and it saves gas, which is ever important in this economy. When we drive separately for various reasons, I have been trying to stop by York Woods in order to get a quick walk in before going to pick up the boys.

Yesterday as I was walking along, admiring the color of the trees, I came across a deer on the path! Since York woods is quite small (you can usually see a road through the trees on any part of the path) the normal wildlife is squirrels and birds. So I had to take some pictures so I could share them with you. I also took some pictures of the beautiful colors along the path.

Cricket Creek again: September 3, 2012

For Labor Day we decided that we didn't want to travel too far from home for our walk, so headed to Cricket Creek again. No deer this time, but it was the perfect time of day/year to hear why it was called Cricket Creek! If I can get it loaded, I did take a video of one of the meadow areas with the symphony of the crickets.

This time we parked at the Fullerton parking lot and walked north from Fullerton to Lake street before heading back south towards the ponds. It was a cooler day, but sunny, and there is no ready source of shade, so make sure to reapply sunscreen. I didn't and I had a very red back for a few days.

The fine gravel is great for strollers, although it makes for some dusty feet/wheels. The terrain is relatively level, so no worries about hills. Cricket creek is part of the Salt Creek trail, so lots of bikers around. No model boating that I saw, but they do have one of the three ponds dedicated to that. The other two are for pole fishing, and we did see a few people trying their luck.

Other than the sunburn it was a satisfying walk, and we even did about 4 miles instead of our usual 3.

Lake Renwick - August 4, 2012

Since we were going down for a birthday party in the area, we planned on stopping by this preserve before the party for lunch and a walk. Well, we didn't get ready on time, so we stopped before for lunch, but had to wait until after the party for our walk. It rained in the afternoon so by the time we came back it was slightly cooler, but mostly humid and lots of Mosquitos. We probably won't try this one again unless we're in the area.

The gazebos are very nice- we ate lunch in one. No tables, just benches, but one is right on a fishing pier, another has a nice view of Turtle Lake, and a third is surrounded by the wild grasses. There may have been more, but those were the ones we saw. It was heron mating season so we did see some herons in the distance. The trails were paved and relatively level. Lots of bikers at the time we came, but the path is wide enough that there weren't any collisions. We looped around one area that was 1.25 miles and then went partway down the 2 mile path that goes to another parking area. Very peaceful, very pretty, but too many bugs.

Blackwell Forest Preserve: July 28, 2012

This may have been my favorite 10,000 steps this summer so far! Blackwell is in Wheaton, IL just off of Butterfield Rd and Winfield. It was a gorgeous mid-80 degree day, and we packed a picnic lunch of wraps and berries to take with us.

After eating our lunch and running around a little bit with our nearly 3-year old, we decided it was time to try and climb the mountain. Mt Hoy is 836 feet above sea level and used to be a landfill. It has a gravel path running up one side that makes the climb a little easier, and an alternative steeper grass path on another side. The gravel path was not very stroller friendly, but we decided to try it anyway rather than carrying our 4 month old, and I carried the nearly 3 year old's stroller while he walked. It was slow going on the .5 mile climb, but we were in no rush. Our 3 year old collected rocks from the path to throw into the nearby bushes, and we zigzagged to get the stroller up the mountain. The view from the top was very nice, and it's also fenced off so we didn't need to worry about our 3 year old falling down the steeper sides.

After walking back down the mountain, we drove over to another area in order to get close to the entrance of a walking path. Horses are allowed on the path, and we had the joy of walking behind a pair for a short while. The riders got a kick out of our 3 year old pointing and yelling "cow!" Luckily they took a side path before he had to see them create any road apples, but we did come across a few piles later on and passed by them to the chorus of "ew! Smells!"

The trail we took goes past a few small ponds, an archery range (currently closed), and then into a nice wooded area. The path was gravel and well maintained, so a nice smooth ride for the strollers. It goes across a creek and continues north to another part of the preserve, I think I read that the trail totals were about 8 miles. We turned around after approximately 1.5 miles and headed back to the car.

All in all a beautiful place for a walk, and we will definitely come back for another try at a different trail and possibly future camping trips!

Songbird Slough: July 14, 2012

While there isn't too much to see at Songbird Slough other than a bunch of prairie grasses, the sounds definitely make the preserve worth the visit. While you can still hear the interstate not too far away, the dominant sounds are cicadas and other insects buzzing, and songbirds chirping and singing. We weren't able to get any pictures of the birds, but they were plentiful.

There are two paths that we saw and tried. One is very smooth asphalt, which is about a mile long from the entrance of the preserve to the picnic area. The other is a path through the prairie grass to the pond area. While the asphalt trail is very stroller friendly, the grass path definitely is not. But it is the only way to get to the small pond.

Overall a very relaxing walk, even though we had to do another mile afterwards at home as the total trail was only 2 miles. We also had a little green stowaway that made it into the car.

York Woods: June 18, 2012

York Woods is off of York and Harger Rd, in Oak Brook IL. It's a small forest preserve, and only has one small trail- maybe 1 to 1.5 miles long, but adding in that it is about a mile from my work I got a good 2.85 miles out of it.

There isn't a sidewalk on part of the walk from work to the preserve on Harger road, so I would suggest driving and parking and the just looping the trail a few times if you're walking around rush hour (which I was).

The whole trail is part of the Salt Creek trail, even though you don't really see the creek here. It is paved and relatively flat, only one with a steeper hill, and if you go north and then east, you can make sure you are going downhill rather than up.

Not much in the way of wildlife- some birds and butterflies. I almost got a picture of a butterfly but my phone was too slow to load the camera.

All in all a beautiful walk not far from work, worth doing during a long lunch break, or after a stressful day.