High of 70 degrees.
Friday, September 25
Early in this day, I walked through the city of Fort Sheridan. This was an active military base for almost a century. Troops were mobilized from this base for the Spanish-American War in 1898 to Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the 1990s (and all wars in between). It is now a combination between a museum and a new development with plans to put a golf course in the open land to the north of the parade grounds. There is even a massive model of a red tail hawk's nest (see photo of me sitting on a very large egg).
Just south of Fort Sheridan, there is a fenced off area that was once a dumping site (photo through fence of grazing geese). There are signs along the way forbidding the disruption of topsoil, so there must be some pretty toxic stuff remaining there, and this land goes right up to the lake.
South of this area, I picked up the bike trail that parallels the Metra line for miles. It was nice to see so many kids riding their bikes to school in the morning. In Winnetka, I left the path and walked on Sheridan Road all the way into Evanston where I would spend the last night before finishing my Lake Trek. I was able to get down to the lake at some of the parks along the way. And, in Wilimette, the white, ornate Ba'hai Temple emerged from behind some trees, startling me with its imposing presence (last photo).
