Prairie Landing
Monday, March 21, 2005
To the prairie!
Yesterday we wanted to go for a walk, but we couldn't think of anyplace to go. Not Uptown, not Ravenswood, not Lincoln Park, not by the lake. Finally I realized what was missing: non-city walking options. Colliculus and I had not set foot on ground that was not city, highway rest stop, or the suburbs and beaches of Delaware since a drive to Massachusetts in November 2003. Yes, a drive.
Our ignorance of Chicago hiking options was complete. We didn't know if there were any hiking trails nor how long it would take to get to them. Another thing we wondered was, if we did find a place to go hiking, would it have trees? Or are we too far west for that?
I can't believe we went this long before wondering about this, especially since in Baltimore and Providence, we used to go hiking pretty regularly.
So Colliculus did some Internet research and found the Argonne Nature Preserve, which has something like 9 miles of trails. Not bad, considering it's just southwest of the city. We drove out there and what did we find but trees! Lots of them! Pines and maples and sycamores (which I misidentified as birch trees, but Bitter Orange, who was equally citified in the matter of Chicago hiking but otherwise significantly more knowledgeable in the ways of the woods, corrected me), and creeks and even some gentle rises. I wouldn't go so far as to call them hills, but there were definitely slopes. Also a lot of prairies. Not all of the prairies were called that on the map -- there was at least one that was called a savannah -- but I for one was not fooled.
There was also a waterfall:
Something really funny about this jaunt: The people I invited to come, plus the people I told about it afterwards, all said the same thing: "Hiking? Where?" They had this incredulous tone, as if you can't go hiking, or at least it's not something that anyone would ever suggest doing. If I had suggested skydiving, I'd have gotten a less quizzical reaction than that. Because at least everyone knows where you go skydiving.
Except one of my coworkers, who said, "Isn't that where they have buffalo?" I said I doubted it, seeing as how it's crammed between a railroad and a highway with a research center dedicated to alternative energy smack in the middle, but she was pretty sure they did. I'll let you know if I find out about that. All we saw was a hawk.
Our ignorance of Chicago hiking options was complete. We didn't know if there were any hiking trails nor how long it would take to get to them. Another thing we wondered was, if we did find a place to go hiking, would it have trees? Or are we too far west for that?
I can't believe we went this long before wondering about this, especially since in Baltimore and Providence, we used to go hiking pretty regularly.
So Colliculus did some Internet research and found the Argonne Nature Preserve, which has something like 9 miles of trails. Not bad, considering it's just southwest of the city. We drove out there and what did we find but trees! Lots of them! Pines and maples and sycamores (which I misidentified as birch trees, but Bitter Orange, who was equally citified in the matter of Chicago hiking but otherwise significantly more knowledgeable in the ways of the woods, corrected me), and creeks and even some gentle rises. I wouldn't go so far as to call them hills, but there were definitely slopes. Also a lot of prairies. Not all of the prairies were called that on the map -- there was at least one that was called a savannah -- but I for one was not fooled.
There was also a waterfall:
Something really funny about this jaunt: The people I invited to come, plus the people I told about it afterwards, all said the same thing: "Hiking? Where?" They had this incredulous tone, as if you can't go hiking, or at least it's not something that anyone would ever suggest doing. If I had suggested skydiving, I'd have gotten a less quizzical reaction than that. Because at least everyone knows where you go skydiving.
Except one of my coworkers, who said, "Isn't that where they have buffalo?" I said I doubted it, seeing as how it's crammed between a railroad and a highway with a research center dedicated to alternative energy smack in the middle, but she was pretty sure they did. I'll let you know if I find out about that. All we saw was a hawk.
