North Branch Trail, Forest Preserves of Cook County (Illinois)

Walking/Hiking Trails: North Branch Trail (“North Chicago”, Skokie, IL area)

I have always liked walking and very basic hiking, even as a kid, but I have never really experienced trails.  As a child, I dreamed of completing (with a team of dogs) the Iditarod Trail, but I had never knowingly sought out any walking or hiking trail and completed it.  No, I was “planning” for a 1,151 mile race without ever experiencing the completion of a double digit mile hike/trip.

My first experience with completing a trail was the North Branch Trail in Illinois.  When my husband, Lucas, would be called to his current client, the family (my daughter, Catawba-Lynn and I) would head down (from Wisconsin) and stay in a hotel in the Skokie, Illinois area.  Lucas would go work and I would hang out with our daughter.  I am not much of a city person, so even though I was that much closer to Chicago, I still kept my distance.  Don’t get me wrong, when the family stayed in Chicago, again on business, I enjoyed taking Catawba-Lynn to parks, playgrounds, the zoo, the Field Museum, and the Shedd Aquarium.  We saw free things, walked around, and experienced being in the city.  But we did not shop or stop anywhere to eat.  Too much money, too many calories and too much stress (for me). On the first trip down, Lucas was scheduled to work two or three days.  He would work and I would make sure everything else ran smoothly.  If Catawba-Lynn needed something, I was on it.  I ironed out his clothes from travel and hung them up in order of how he would wear them.  I organized our food in the room (I must travel with snacks and Diet Coke). 

I would wake up earlier then the family to procure free food from the breakfast area then pack a lunch for Luke and get the both of them up and ready for the day.  Throughout the day, if Lucas needed food or drink, he would text me and I would be on it (if I was not too far away from the car).  I would then either make, pick up, or suggest dinner and have it ready, at work evenings end.  This arrangement worked out for us. 

Everything was set for the first day of on premises work when morning came.  But what would Catawba-Lynn and I do while Lucas was working?  To make sure everything would run smoothly, we drove the less than a mile from the hotel to the place Lucas would be working to check out the building.  Seemed easy to get to, no vehicle restrictions, so we were good.  Down the road from the building was an open green space, a park of sorts.  So, we drove over and took a peak and noticed that there was a trail that went through the park.  That evening, back in the hotel room, I used Google Maps to check out the area, and low and behold, it was a trail.

I did not know how long it was at first, but upon my first day there, I found it was a 14.5 mile down and back path with a 4.4 loop at the end.  18.9 miles all together.  However, I was walking the trail with my daughter in a stroller.  I would park the car in a parking lot and hop on the trail and move.  I would need to walk for a while, get to a parking lot (using parking lots as trail markers) and then turn around and walk back to where I was parked.  So essentially, this trail was 33.4 miles for me, as I would have to walk the down and back trail twice (to a check point and then back to my car) and could do the loop in one go.

I was excited.  So excited!  Something clicked in me.  I had to walk this trail!  I have a weird need to finish things or it nags at me and I am competitive – the competition usually being against myself.  Lucas was scheduled to work two or three days that first week and in two weeks, we were going to be down again for him to work in person.  I had a couple of days – dodging rainy weather, fulfilling husband’s meal requests and a one year old – I got in my head that I was going to walk the whole trail in the first two weeks (6 days) we were down there.

To give you some perspective, this is the Dianne that decided that she had to finish this trail in a couple of days.  It is a bad picture, I had to crop out Catawba-Lynn – she is getting her picture taken next to a truck tire – but the point is, that Dianne decided that she should push a stroller (stroller, not the Chariot yet) and walk – no complete – this trail!

Two months later, in the Skokie area again, Lucas is working and we are celebrating his birthday by taking our daughter to a playground at the mall.  By that time, I completed the trail and went through one of the hardest things I ever had to do (my walking dog, Broli, was no longer with me).  I had spent hours walking all over the North Chicago suburb area by then.

So do you want to hear about the trail or about how I pissed myself a mile from my car?  Yeah, it sucked.  The worst.  I’ll get to both.

I started walking this trail when I weighted around 270 pounds.  I knew I needed to lose weight, but I was only half committing.  I was walking the dogs a lot but was making not so great food and calorie decisions.  I was not weighing out food and recording calories as much as I should.  I had recently closed my black light, indoor miniature golf business and quit work to support Lucas in his business endeavor.  Things were changing in my life.

The whole North Branch Trail is paved and is a multiuse trail.  So you can run, bike, walk, roller blade, horseback ride, and do other activities.  It was exciting for Catawba-Lynn when we would cross people on their horses.  She would stare in awe.  Many people would walk their dogs on the trail.  Sadly, we were not walking any of our dogs, as the hotel did not allow dogs, so our pups would stay with my parents when we were out on business.  And there were many bikes.  Some people were casual riders, just out to see the scenery, and others were serious riders.  There were no problems on the trail so long as all the users abided by very simple rules.  Stay on your side – keep on the right of the path.  Yield to the appropriate activity.  Foot traffic was to stay on their side, bikes would yield to walkers, signaling their intent to pass and everyone yielded to horses.  Horses got whatever space and time they needed.

There are parts of the trail that are not paved – and I did not find these parts until after I finished the trail for the first time.  These became some of my favorite areas to walk in.  I was excited that I could find views like this in the Chicago area:

I never felt in danger on the trail, but I definitely preferred the North section over the South section of the trail.  The trail on the southern end was more in the woods, less fields, crossing under busy roads and walking along roads.  But, no complaints – the trail was amazing!  What a jewel, this close to Chicago and people can “feel free” on the trail.  (That was the slogan for the trail – “feel free” or something like it.  City officials, or those that make decisions for the city knew people had stressful jobs and lives living in the city.  The intent for this trail was to have a place to go, like a trail or park system that could be used by anyone, for free, to come out and recreate and deal with stress in a healthy way).

I would take pictures of the trail map as I walked along, so that if I forgot how far out I was away from the car, I could pull up a picture of it and figure out where I was.

The trail was flat, with some hills to go over streets on bridges.  There are turns and flexes in the road that add visual interest.  I did not get down past Sidney Yates Flatwoods often.  I walked it the one time and wanted to do it again, but never got back out there.  My daughter was becoming more and more mobile and she needed more stimulation throughout the day.  In the beginning, I was able to tie some toys to the stroller and talked to her as I walked.  I would ask her to point things out like trees and leaves, I would ask her what color the grass was and would push a couple of buttons on her toys.  She was very happy with this.  Then she would fall asleep, as I tried to time my walks around some type of a nap time.

St. Paul Woods, I feel, may be the most beautifully wooded area on the trail, but for ease of the flow of the work week, Catawba-Lynn and I frequented everything from Glenview Woods through Glenwood Equestrian Center.  Harms Woods North was within walking distance of the hotel and there was ample parking there for the days that I needed to vacate the hotel room and wait 5 hours for Lucas to finish work.  The bathrooms had running water and were clean.  And it was right down the road from Luke’s work.  Catawba-Lynn and I spent hours in this area.  The black dotted trail was a lot of fun.  It was simple, flat, gravel, and I walked that circle countless times, especially when Catawba-Lynn was old enough to walk and listen to me.  We were away from the road and so out of most danger involving a toddler.  She delighted in picking up acorns to feed to the squirrels.  And so this is the route that we took for squirrel food.

There is an orange dotted line on the map near Glenview Woods.  I fell in love with this area.  Again, walking distance from the hotel and easy for me to do the day that we were leaving to go back home – this trail gave me a workout at times.  This was an unpaved trail that felt as though it changed from visit to visit.  It was a mudded path, not gravel, and so the terrain changed with the weather and seasons.  This was definitely a “quality” walk over a “quantity” walk.  (In a previous post, I stated that I have two main types of walks: quality and quantity.  Quality may be short, but it is unpaved, varying elevation trail.  Quantity is a good long walk that gets me out and moving.  Both are great!  Some days I crave one more than the other).

There was a time or two that we were covered in mud from our adventures walking around near the river.

This area is also where we got to see quite a many visitors.  Birds, squirrels, and chipmunks darted around the trails.  This was normal.  But it was cool to catch a glimpse of deer out running on the trail.

But my favorite part of this trail was Erickson Woods, North through the loop.  And I loved the simplicity of the loop so much that I only walked Erickson Woods to Tower Road twice before I just parked at Tower Road and walked the loop.  For the longest time, I had to get to Tower Road and walk the loop at least once each week we were down in Skokie.  I love the lagoons.  It was quiet.  (There is a stretch near the freeway – but trees and shrubs mask most of it).  It was peaceful.  In the summer the lagoons blew cooler air.  I loved it.

The trail has excellent amenities.  It is well marked, clean and groomed.  Garbage cans dot the trail.  There is ample parking.  I never had to leave an area and drive to a different lot to park.  Bathrooms are located in many areas.  Most are port-a-potties, but a handful of the bathroom are actual bathrooms with plumbing.  But sometimes frequent bathroom facilities are not enough.

There has been a time or two that I have been talking about my weight loss journey.  Sitting here, as half the human I am, I can look back and say “count calories, make wiser decisions, move – be active” but I remember the hell that I went through to get here – it is just not always on the tip of my tongue.  And a time or two, people have said “must be nice being able to lose weight” or “it’s just easier for some people.”  And I just smile, because if that is your attitude towards weight loss, you need to change it.

I had two sections left to walk and I would have finished the 33.4 mile trail in those first two trips.  I wanted – no needed – to do this.  I had to.  I had to prove to myself that I was capable of walking this trail, that it did not matter that I was medically morbidly obese, that for a woman my height, I could literally weigh half what I weighed and be considered a healthy weight – that I could do it.  I was going to use this huge personal victory to fuel this adventure that I was trying to be on – my weight loss journey.  Two sections left.  I ached.  I was wearing my shoes down – there were holes forming in the soles of my shoes.  I was a bit too large for most other shoes to comfortably fit me, so I was stuck wearing these mesh slip on things that were falling apart.  My body was used to walks – I walked the dogs at home – but after 45 minutes I was back in the house.  Not on the trail.  I was sweating.  I was nasty.  I had sweat everywhere and I was uncomfortable.  I could not keep my feet dry – even though I packed a change of socks – and I kept getting blisters.  My feet would hurt, the blisters would form, the blisters would break, my feet would hurt, another one would form.  I had bloody, scraped off skin under my breasts because I had a large chest that would sway with my movements, regardless of what sports bra I wore.  My legs and backs of my knees had rashes from sweaty clothing.  And I walked.  And a blister formed on my foot.  And I walked.  And a second blister formed under the first blister.  And Catawba-Lynn was peacefully sleeping, so I walked.  And I hurt.  It hurt with every step.  Every step I took – pain, fire, pain, hurt – it sucked. I cannot tell you how much it felt like my foot was on fire.  And I needed to pee.  And I was walking so slow because I hurt.  And the car was a distance away. Too far away.  And the third blister formed under the other two blisters.  It was like I was walking on a painful ketchup packet.  I carefully took each step.  Pain zapped through me each time I took a slow step.  And I needed to pee.  And then the pain wasn’t so bad.  But I needed to pee. Slowly I could barely feel the pain in my foot – because I had to piss so bad!  I could speed up a little, but I really needed to pee.  I was limping through the trail hoping to see a bathroom – port-a-potty would do – I would use it with the door propped open for all I cared so I could keep an eye on sleeping Catawba-Lynn – I could not leave my one year old daughter in a stroller outside the bathroom while I peed – I had to be able to see her – but for fucks sake I had to take a piss – I couldn’t even feel the fire in my foot because my brain could only concentrate on how much I just had to piss!  And I couldn’t hold it.  As I walked, limping along with my messed up foot, bleeding chest, rash laden legs, and the stench from my sweat that could rival a garbage barge, I pissed myself.  I could not hold it anymore.  It wasn’t a little bit of urine, it was my whole bladder.  I was mortified.  I was so thankful that no one was around – but what if I passed someone on my way to the car?!  What the fuck!!? Everyone was going to see this – what the hell was I going to do?!  And I did – I passed people on the trail.  People jogged past me on the trail.  I could see them coming.  I knew they were going to be able to see me – I knew they were going to be able to smell me.  So, I did the only thing I could do.  I blamed my daughter.  Yep.  As the jogger approached, I crouched down at my sleeping daughter in her stroller (so that the jogger could not see the full state I was in), and I fluffed my daughter and softly exclaimed “oh no!  Your diaper!  You peed through.” (To explain the smell).  I doubt this worked.  I am pretty sure every jogger knew I was a mental nutjob, but it kept me going. 

I got to my car.  I loaded my daughter into the car, put her stroller in the back and grabbed some of the extra plastic bags that I kept in the car in case I forgot a dog poop bag on the dog walks.  I placed these on my seat so that I would not ruin my car.  I found my spare clothes in the back.  I drove to Harms Woods North to use the bathroom there, a bathroom with a real stall and running water, so I could clean myself up with paper towels and baby wipes and get changed before I had to walk through the hotel lobby in front of the attendants.  I cleaned up as best I could.  I changed.  I walked through the lobby.  I showered in our room.  I played with Catawba-Lynn.  Lucas called to be picked up from work.  I limped down to the car, Catawba-Lynn in my arms, and we went to pick up Lucas.

Lucas asked how things went “today.”  Lucas is my husband – I have nothing to hide from him and I felt I did not need to hide anything that day either.  So I told him.  Everything.  He stared at me, jaw ajar, eyebrow raised.  “You.  You pissed yourself?”  he asked.  Maybe I should have kept it a secret.  “Yeah.  It sucked.”  I responded.  We got out of the car and started walking to the hotel, I was limping.  “And you plan on walking tomorrow?  Why?  Just do it a different trip!”  he said, commenting on my limp.  I could tell he was questioning my sanity.  Or our marriage.  “I can’t babe!  I have to do this tomorrow.  I have to finish this!  I started this – I have to do it!  We do not know when we will be back again, and it does not matter.  I need to finish this, this trip, tomorrow!”  I said, huffing along.  Lucas just looked at me.  He said nothing – it would have just ended in a fight.  He knew what I was going to go do the next day.  I was going to go out and do the loop – 4.4 miles.  And I did.  And I finished the trail.  I could not believe it!  The loop was beautiful.  I was at peace knowing that once I got halfway through the loop, there was no way for me to get out of completing the trail.  Catawba-Lynn was happy being out on the walk and was too young to understand my personal accomplishment.  Lucas was happy for me but did not see why I needed to finish the trail that day.  But he congratulated me and supported my endeavor.  Lucas was the only one that knew just what I went through to complete that trail.  I told several other people of the blisters that I accrued along the journey.  It was evident, as I had to take it easy the rest of the week and let my foot heal.  Honestly – I got these triple blisters several times after this too – but they did not hurt as bad – I just dealt with them.  I worked through the blisters, ignored my bloody chest, cleaned up and cared for the rashes on my legs from heat and sweat, and just got used to my unbearable stench, making sure to clean up immediately after all walks.  And I do not know if things would be the same now if I would not have pressed on and finished the trail in my original time allotment.  If I backed down from this trail, would I have continued to do so?  If I got a blister, would I have stopped walking?  If it was hot, would I have decided to blow off walking?  I do not know.  I do know that this walk set a precedence for walks and adventuring.

To the people that think my weight loss has been easy, or that it must be nice, or that I do not understand, or question if I had to work for it, – I understand the frustration of weight loss.  I get it.  And I know it is hard.  But never did I ever find an easy way out.  I worked for this.  And I am sharing my experiences to help other people get through it too.  I did it.  I went through this insanity.  I went through this hell.  You can do it too. What pulled me away from North Branch Trail, even the loop walk that I loved?  Catawba-Lynn did.  She got a little older and wanted to walk – wanted to play – wanted to do – not just ride with toys and conversation.  I first found the Chicago Sculpture Park.  It is a couple mile trail with sculptures and art along the trail.  (Many Pokémon gyms and spins there for when my husband and I were playing the game).  This allowed her to look at new, interesting things and get our and experience some of them.

What pulled me away from North Branch Trail, even the loop walk that I loved?  Catawba-Lynn did.  She got a little older and wanted to walk – wanted to play – wanted to do – not just ride with toys and conversation.  I first found the Chicago Sculpture Park.  It is a couple mile trail with sculptures and art along the trail.  (Many Pokémon gyms and spins there for when my husband and I were playing the game).  This allowed her to look at new, interesting things and get our and experience some of them.

The Sculpture Park was good for a visit.  There was some parking, not much.  There were port-a-potty bathrooms that were heavily used but had a cleanout schedule that was followed.  This space was much more urban, and I prefer less congested spaces.  I also took Catawba-Lynn to playgrounds. 

Roosevelt Park was one of my favorite playgrounds in the Chicago suburbs to take Catawba-Lynn to.  The picture does not do the park justice, but I snapped this picture because I was/am so proud of her tenacity to do physical activity.  She does not shy away from it, she jumps right in.  This was my biggest reason for losing weight – I wanted to be a good role model for my daughter.  I wanted her to grow up with a healthy normal.

Wagner Farm is a farm in the middle of the city, North of Chicago.  Farm animals, crops, a small store and interactive activities are in store for visitors.  Tawbs (Catawba-Lynn) loved it!  I loved it.  It was a great change of pace.  We did not do as much walking as I normally liked and there was not a playground for Tawbs to play on, but the activities got her up and moving while she was learning about the ins and outs of farms and farming responsibilities.

Techny Prairie Park and Fields was great.  There was walking which was paved or gravel.  There were educational displays and exhibits along the trails.  And there were playgrounds.  Catawba-Lynn and I went here several times.  I could get some walking in, Catawba-Lynn and I could read the educational displays and Tawbs could play on the playgrounds a bit.  The picnic area allowed for an easy and convenient place to stop and eat lunch.  The wildlife here was interesting.  There were so many grasshoppers – I had never seen so many in one area!  And one week we met this little guy:

Catawba-Lynn was beyond intrigued with the crawfish.  But what was the place that became our go to place in the Chicago area?  I will tell you in the next post!  Seriously – the weight loss journey can suck and can be downright miserable – but you can do this.  It may get embarrassing at times – but keep it up!  The reward is worth all your work and efforts.  This has been my reward:

A healthy daughter that gets excited about walking, exploring and the trails.  Hope everyone is doing well!  Take care and have a great one!