OOFD: Decemberg

You may have heard a thing or two about Chicago winters. The bitter cold, the biting wind, the general unpleasantness. So it would be crazy to go on a bike camping trip in the middle of December, right? Well… yeah, probably.

But against better judgment, I signed up for the “Decemberg” trip with Out Our Front Door, the same organization I did an overnight ride with back in August. It’s a 2-day ride with an overnight stay at Camp Reinberg in the northwest suburbs (that’s where the name comes from: December + Reinberg = Decemberg). I had been on the fence about signing up until I talked to a friend who did the ride last year—he said he had a great time, so I decided (perhaps in a lapse of judgment) to sign up. Maybe it would be fun, and besides, what’s the worst that could happen? (Probably frostbite.)

And it was fun! We were lucky to get some unseasonably warm weather, which helped, but I think I would have had a good time even in more typical Chicago winter weather.

The Ride

The ride started early on a chilly Saturday morning—it certainly felt like winter on my ride to the starting point. We met at Roscoe Village Bikes, where thankfully the owner opened the shop early so we could eat donuts and take refuge from the cold. Once everyone arrived we had a group of about 40 people. Pretty impressive! (A handful of people dropped out at the last minute, probably after deciding that bike camping in the Chicago winter is, in fact, crazy.)

After some quick introductions and a few words from our guides, we were off and rolling. The weather stayed pretty cold throughout the morning and for a little while I wished I had warmer gloves, but I warmed up after an hour or so of pedaling. The temperature warmed up to the mid-thirties by late morning, which is just about the best case scenario for this time of year.

We rode along the 606 Trail and then through Humboldt Park, and then we took a pretty straight shot west out of the city. About 12 miles in we reached the Forest Park Blue Line station (one of the ends of the Blue Line), and then we left the city streets and rode on some nice dirt/gravel bike paths that I hadn’t been on before. We spent probably about half of the day’s 45 miles on trails, including the Illinois Prairie Path, Salt Creek Greenway, and Busse Forest Trail. All of the trails were nice, and I’ll probably check them out again over the summer.

We stopped at a few spots along the way and our guides told us about the history of some of the areas we were riding through. We learned about the Forest Preserves of Cook County, which were established over 100 years ago when people were concerned about natural habitats being destroyed after a period of huge population growth in Chicago and the surrounding area. The forest preserves were the first of their kind in the country, and they’re still going strong today, recently growing to over 70,000 acres.

The most important stop of the day, of course, was for lunch. We stopped at Portillo’s, the classic Chicago hot dog joint. (I actually packed my own lunch, but I got some fries and enjoyed the Portillo’s vibe.)

After lunch we only had about 10 miles to go until camp. We took a pretty straight shot there and rolled into Camp Reinberg a little after 4pm, just in time to catch a really nice sunset. I think we picked Camp Reinberg for two reasons:

1. It’s named after Peter Reinberg, the first president of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, so it fits the theme of the ride really well.
2. Far more importantly, they have heated cabins! I don’t think very many people would have signed up for this ride if it meant sleeping in a tent, myself included. (One guy opted to sleep in a tent, though. I’m not sure why—you’d have to ask him.)

Our guides cooked a huge chili dinner in the campground kitchen, and we all had a nice night eating dinner and drinking beer around the campfire.

If the day one weather was just about the best case scenario (mid-thirties and sunny), then I don’t know what to call the day two weather. It was unbelievably nice—it got into the fifties in the early afternoon. That’s practically beach weather in Chicago! It hardly felt like December for the Decemberg ride, but I don’t think anyone was complaining.

We took a slightly more direct route back to the city, but it still involved some scenic detours. The highlight was a short section of the Des Plaines River Trail, which is a long and winding unpaved trail and one of my favorites in the area. After that we rode straight over to Evanston, made a quick stop for lunch, and then straight back into the city, with people peeling off at different points to return to their homes (and enjoy the beautiful afternoon).

All in all, it was a fun trip! I rode about 100 miles over the two days, and I learned about some new paths and trails that I’ll surely check out again in the future. With the unseasonably warm weather I feel like I didn’t quite get the authentic Decemberg experience, but I think I’m OK with that. Maybe next year I’ll sign up again and we’ll get snow and ice and freezing temperatures. We’ll see.