Biking Illinois :: Bring Your Quiver to the River

Ride 33: Bring Your Quiver to the River

Biking Illinois: 60 Great Road Trips and Trail Rides

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Kankakee, IL August 22, 2005

I named this ride mostly because the turnaround point on the Kankakee River Trail is an archery range, but the title also reminds me of Iron Maiden's "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter" (I'm not a fan of the band or the song, but I love the title). This was my first visit to Kankakee River State Park with bicycle, but I ran a 10K footrace on the same trail (mostly the crushed limestone portion, as I recall) back in October 1999. Below you can see the front of the customized t-shirts they handed out for that event:

A short trail at the south end of the parking lot leads to the main trail. Yes, that is a strange place for an ice locker.

And here's where the real trail begins.

This is all that remains of the town of Altorff (later Altorf) Mills.

It takes a while to reach a good view of the Kankakee River.

C.A. Bert Stevens, founder of the park, is honored with a big rock.

The trail has a variety of bridges. The most notable is the bridge over Rock Creek on the right.

Rock Creek has carved some impressive bluffs over the years (looking upstream on the left, downstream on the right).

And finally, here's the end of the trail:

After I finished riding this trail, I headed for Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Unfortunately, the trails there were not developed enough to use in Biking Illinois. Maybe there will be a permanent trail system in a few years.