Out Our Front Door

In my ongoing quest to promote all of Chicago’s coolest organizations, I recently went on an overnight ride with Out Our Front Door, a local bike camping and adventure group. OOFD organizes guided bike camping trips starting from the city. One of their core values is educating people about the local area and helping us appreciate and explore the beautiful places that are, well, right out our front door. The rides are beginner friendly and very inclusive. If you live in the Chicago area, check them out!

The Ride

I signed up for the “Flock off the Block” ride to Camp Sullivan, which is just south of the city in Oak Forest, IL. Most OOFD rides have a single group of 10-15 participants, but this one works a little differently: four groups (over 100 people total) start from different points in the city and all converge at Camp Sullivan at the end of the day, where we’ve rented out just about the entire campground. My group started from downtown Chicago and rode about 40 miles.

OOFD rides go on rain or shine, but we were fortunate to have beautiful weather—sunny but not too hot. We met up at the starting point around 8:30 AM and enjoyed some coffee and donuts while introducing ourselves. Our guides gave an overview of the ride and handled some last-minute business, and then we were off and rolling.

The beginning of our route took us down the Lakefront Trail. The first couple miles through downtown were really crowded—even more than usual because it was the weekend of the Air and Water Show—which made it difficult to stick together as a group, but once we got south of the museum campus it was smooth sailing. The southern half of the Lakefront Trail is really underrated in my opinion. It’s way less crowded than the northern half with fewer intersections and interruptions.

Eventually we turned off into the city, where our route wound through a few neighborhoods before reaching our lunch stop at the Hyde Park farmers market. I lived in Hyde Park for my first year in Chicago, so it was nice to ride through the neighborhood. It’s far out of my way now so I don’t get down there very often. The farmers market was small but lively. I wish I’d been able to stock up on produce!

After lunch our route meandered (sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident) through the south side of the city. We stopped for another quick break at Brainerd Park, where our guides shared some history and fun facts about the ecology of the Chicago area. Did you know that Chicago falls along the Mississippi Flyway, a major bird migration route? I didn’t! Apparently you can see hundreds of bird species passing through the city during their spring and fall migrations. It’s a big hotspot for birdwatchers. Fun!

The biggest hiccup of the day came when Sam got a flat tire. I had come prepared with a spare tube, but I had forgotten that her rear wheel uses a bolt-on axle that requires a 15mm wrench to remove. I didn’t have that wrench with me and neither did our guides (and I can’t really blame them, as just about all bikes use a quick release or thru axle). I rode to the nearest Ace Hardware about a mile and a half away to buy an adjustable wrench, but by the time I got back the group had tracked down someone else with a wrench and the flat was already being fixed. (One nice thing about OOFD rides is that there’s probably at least one person in your group who works at a bike shop and is very good at fixing flats!)

Once we got south of the city we followed some very nice bike trails along the Calumet River. It made for a pleasant, easy ride. (There were also a few busy roads and tricky intersections, but they were few and far between.) Eventually we turned on to a gravel path and then we soon emerged into Camp Sullivan.

OOFD had reserved the pavilion and large field surrounding it, a few cabins, and a few campsites in the woods. We staked out a spot in the field and set up our tent, then headed back over to the pavilion area to hang out and get ready to eat. Dinner was catered by a local Mexican restaurant and a wide selection of beer was provided by Pipeworks Brewing (known for their fun can designs). After dinner we had a bonfire and live music provided by the… Flesh Panthers. Maybe not a band name I would have picked, but they were pretty good! Check them out on Bandcamp if you’re so inclined. The only thing missing from an entertainment perspective was lawn games (promised but not delivered, probably because most groups arrived later than planned). It was a fun night! We went to bed pretty early after a long day, but the party definitely carried on without us for a few hours.

We woke up to a dewy but otherwise beautiful morning. After a quick breakfast of donuts, oatmeal, and granola bars, we joined up with the first group departing back to the city. Lots of people wanted to get an early start, and this group was even larger than our group yesterday. We took a similar but slightly more direct route back to the city, a little over 30 miles in total. We had one main stop around the halfway point at Wild Blossom Meadery (I tried a pomegranate mead, which was pretty good) and then we headed straight to the city. The ride conveniently ended just a couple blocks away from my apartment, so that was nice! After two long days of riding it was nice to get home.

Closing Thoughts

Overall I had a great time on my first Out Our Front Door outing. It was a fun ride with a good group of people. My one complaint is that I wish we’d kept things moving a little better—it took us about 9 hours to ride just over 40 miles. That’s partly because of the intentionally slow, beginner-friendly pace, but it’s mostly because we made frequent stops and each stop dragged on longer than it was supposed to. But I understand the difficulty of corralling such a large group, and otherwise I thought the experience was fun and well organized.

I’m looking forward to more OOFD rides in the future!