Drifting away

This has been quite a fallow period for the driftless area blog. I'm still hoping to post on occasion. The Contador-Schleck battle in the Tour is reason enough alone (if you're a sports fan, tune in tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. EDT). I've taken to Twitter: create a login and follow me @bobdolgan. Much easier to keep up-to-date and I can span about a zillion topics at once.

Long ride

The Taste of Chicago is the last place where you would actually want to consume food. Huge crowds. Miles of pavement. Barrels of garbage. Searing heat. Ring-billed gulls circling you're every move. I've long held the view that it's best to stay away.

Yesterday, though, I decided that if I can't beat 'em, join 'em. I targeted two vendors--Vermillion, for its mango-cumin fries, and Pegasus, for its loukaneko Greek sausages. The fries did not disappoint, a wonderful blend of tangy and spicy. The sausages were good, too, served on a buttery pita.

The 8-mile bike ride to the Taste was mostly uneventful. I tacked all the way there in a 15 to 25 mph wind from the southwest. There were thousands of people on the lakefront, many who disregarded the bike path and focused on sauntering, standing and wandering. Thankfully, nary an accident was to be found.

The ride back wasn't as smooth. Navy Pier was closed (because of the fireworks?) so I had to take a bizarre route north. I was south of the Chicago River and needed to get over it. The problem was I was the path was at ground (river) level (most all the streets in this area are one or two stories up). I biked west along the river, discovering some beautiful quiet spots I never saw before--even a riverside wine bar--a reminder that getting lost can be a good thing. I plowed through the crowds and finally got to Columbus Drive. It was two stories above me, accessed by a metal spiral staircase. I decided to forge on to Michigan and the stairway there. I biked under Michigan Avenue on a catwalk over the Chicago River and discovered a wide balustraded cement staircase. I slung the bike over my shoulder and proceeded up to Michigan.

From there, I walked the bike--no way I'm biking on taxi-laden Michigan--all the way to Huron or thereabouts. I got on the bike and pedaled toward the lake, free of the bulk of fireworks traffic. Somewhere near Chicago Avenue and the lake, I took a tunnel under Lake Shore Drive to the lakefront path. Again, slinging the bike over the shoulder and proceeding down steps.

People were starting to gather all along the lakefront at this point, but few were biking north. I made great time with the tailwind. Near Irving Park Road, I began encountering people walking to the Montrose fireworks display. I was hoping I could still see the display, but time was running out. The plan was to watch from friends' 22nd floor apartment in Edgewater.

I got on the bus at Sheridan and Lawrence and within about 15 minutes made it to the apartment building. It was raining a little, but not enough to stop the show. I made it to the 22nd floor and saw not one but all three fireworks displays! And I even had enough time to drink a beer.

Bicycle kicks

There's been a strange energy all day in Uptown as we prepare to host one of three lakefront fireworks displays. The lakefront parking lots have been jammed since 9 a.m. Organizers have actually moved the fireworks launching area nearer to the Montrose Dunes preserve. The dunes themselves will have additional temporary fencing and an army of security, volunteers and lifeguards.

I'm biking right into the maelstrom this afternoon. I'll be leaving one sea of humanity for another--the last day of the Taste of Chicago. Then I'll dodge another mass of people, for the Navy Pier fireworks display, only to encounter the first mass again as I approach Montrose. Good times! It should make for compelling reading later.

New watersheds

A new front has opened in the fight to stop the asian carp's encroachment on the Great Lakes. The ugly bottom-feeders have now reached Huntington, Ind., via the Wabash River (and Ohio and Mississippi watersheds). Huntington is a few miles from Fort Wayne, and there are ditches and waterways that connect it to the Maumee River, which feeds into Lake Erie. (If Chicago has to re-reverse the river, Fort Wayne should have to fill in those ditches, I say!) Another report says the carp has moved up the Ohio River as far as Indiana, but that no breeding records exist for the Ohio stretch. Phew. Moving farther up the Ohio would tap into another set of waterways that would draw it closer to the Great Lakes.

Hilly Ohio

There's a special place about 18 miles east of Cleveland. A place with great views of the city's skyline and Lake Erie. A low mountain amid the uplands of the western flank of the Allegheny Plateau. A place where dark-eyed juncos, winter wrens and black-throated blue warblers breed at the periphery of their range--perhaps the only place in Ohio like it. It's Gildersleeve Mountain, and the latest addition to the blogroll is the From Gildersleeve blog.

Bearing point

Black bears are advancing into southern Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin DNR and a post on the Stray Casts blog. A bear was photographed near Madison, and several sightings have been recorded recently in the southern part of the state. This raises the rare prospect of bear sightings in northern Illinois. The nearest established population of bears, in my analysis, would be near Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, 230 miles away. It's a tough call, though, with populations about 250 miles away near Cadillac, Mich., and a similar distance away in northeast Wisconsin.

One of the commenters in the above link references a bear sighting in Bureau County, Ill., about 100 miles west. I did a quick search of area bear sightings and found that a lot of people feel the local DNRs are covering up the number of bears, cougars and wolves in the Midwest. Take this forum, for instance. It would have you believe Vigo County, Ind., is home to scads of black panthers.

Carp discovery

The local media is reporting that the first asian carp has been found in a Chicago waterway. A commercial angler landed a 19-pound carp in Lake Calumet, a few miles downstream from Lake Michigan. This follows the recent fish kill on the Calumet River that didn't find any carp, and the kill a few months ago on a canal near Joliet that found one of the bottom-feeding exotics. Just to recap, there long have already been reports of the carp in inland Chicago parks. The carp already likely has infiltrated northeast Illinois via the Des Plaines River system, which flows all the way to southeast Wisconsin and is barely separated from the Chicago River (and the Great Lakes). Carp DNA already has been found in the Calumet and Lake Michigan.

Michigan pols are already reacting to the latest carp news, and this likely will revive the topic since the Supreme Court declined to hear the case few months ago.

Elsewhere, U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias believes that the Chicago River should be re-reversed. So now one of our greatest engineering marvels has become a campaign issue. Maybe we can go back to the old Chicago portage that Marquette and Jolliet used to get from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River. I stick by my previous post that we need to keep the current system, in part because sending sewage toward St. Louis is as Chicago as it gets. The Ward Room blog comes out in favor of the re-reversal, agreeing with most environmentalists.