Brazen farmers

Officials on Monday discovered three football fields of pot growing in a single forest preserve--within the limits of Cook County! As incredible as this is, marijuana was grown throughout several forest preserves and the growers were living alongside them. I admit it, I've thought about camping on park district land as a literary experiment. But to live there and cultivate there is absurd.

Tour cracks

All hell has broken loose in the Tour today, and it'll be a wonder if the race is actually completed. Another team left, this time Cofidis, and the race leader, Michael Rasmussen, has been removed.

Meantime, as I prepare to head to Canada, Ontario residents are concerned about the perils of backyard wildlife.

Borat's lament

World cycling suffered another blow today when star rider Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for a blood transfusion at the Tour de France--this after winning yesterday's stage and Saturday's stage. Meantime, he strangely finished 29 minutes off the pace on Sunday. The positive test took out the rest of the Astana Team as well, including fifth-place rider and former podium finisher Andreas Kloeden.

The Astana Web site bears a startling resemblance to Borat's Web site. Both are from Kazakhstan.

Yahoo sciurus

I was asked offline what I would call my squirrel research vehicle a la Darwin's HMS Beagle (see previous post). I'm thinking it would be the Rodentia. What I don't know is what this vehicle would look like. Perhaps it would involve a crane that brings the passenger into the treetops.

Also, today, another coyote ran wild in Lincoln Park (I suppose all coyotes run wild, actually).

Rubber rodent

On Friday, I drive to Cleveland for the start of what promises to be a memorable outdoors adventure. Saturday morning, two of us will depart for the French River region of Ontario, about 10 hours north of Cleveland. (Two more adventurers will join us Monday.) Our destination is a series of glacier-carved lakes that are surrounded by dense woodlands. There really isn't a park here, but this is lightly used public land and access is free. It's easy to find nice camp spots on beds of moss that cover massive, flat slabs of granite.

The main activity will be fishing, with some canoeing as well. Fishing is sort of an ancillary enjoyment for me; I'll enjoy swimming, birding, paddling, stargazing and relaxing just as much. And, from what locals say, the real fishing is about three hours north of here. Mostly we will be fishing for bass and pike. The preferred method is to throw weedless, topwater lures into beds of lily pads. The moss mouse, above, is one of the favored lures. It can be reeled across lily pads without getting snagged and is particularly appealing to largemouth bass. We also will fish off points, jetties, shoals and drop-offs in hopes of landing smallmouth bass, perch and maybe even a pickerel. We do occasionally eat our catch, but mostly throw the fish back.

I'd like to blog live from one of the small towns in the vicinity. It's been five years since I've been to this place so it'll be interesting to see if any public Internet connections have been established. More updates to come!

Fashion off-sets

Today, we made another pilgrimage--this one to uber-hip enviro-conscious outfitter Nau. A lot of the clothes at Nau are made from a space-age material that comes from recycled plastic bottles. Some of the fashions are almost too cutting edge (I felt like one of the Griswolds after their Rome shopping binge). The jackets look something like Han Solo's in "Empire Strikes Back."

Still, I admire the sustainability ethos. Nau stocks a limited supply of clothing in-store and encourages customers to try on clothes, order in the store and have garments shipped to their homes (shipping is free and you get 10 percent off on the purchase). Five percent of profits are donated to nonprofit organizations, many of them local. Nau has only four locations, and Chicago's is in Lincoln Park.

Bass pilgrimage

Last weekend, we visited Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World in Bolingbrook. (I'm preparing for a fishing trip to Canada in the next couple weeks. More on this later.) This hunting and fishing emporium is a destination for anyone who's ever thrown a line in a farm pond or anyone seeking a vest with deer on it. Walking through the doors is a bit like walking into an amusement park that has taxidermy everywhere. There were some fierce fox squirrels on display. For fishing equipment, this was well worth the trip.

Also, news came across this week that a kangaroo in a diaper was hopping across Wisconsin.