Meacham Grove Forest Preserve & The Temporary Tunnel of Gold

Though it’s fairly close, we hadn’t been to the Meacham Grove Forest Preserve in a few years, so on the last Saturday in October, I suggested a walk. Bright, warm and little wind: a good day for it.Meacham FP

The path around Maple Lake – called that on maps, anyway – takes you about halfway before you come to another path: a section of the North Central DuPage Regional Trail. We headed west on that trail. Meacham Forest Preserve October 2024

At first the trail passes Spring Brook and Meacham Marsh. The Meacham brothers were earlier settlers in this part of DuPage County and the village of Bloomington was once known as Meacham’s Grove, as a waystation on the Chicago-Galena Stagecoach Trail.Meacham Forest Preserve October 2024 Meacham Forest Preserve October 2024

At that moment in October, the trail winds into a tunnel of gold. That’s what I’m calling it anyway, mostly formed by a canopy of maple leaves. Canada has no monopoly on them, even if they put it on their flag.Meacham Forest Preserve October 2024 Meacham Forest Preserve October 2024 Meacham Forest Preserve October 2024

Roselle Road divides the preserve. The other section is accessible by footbridge over the road.Meacham Forest Preserve October 2024

All these years in the northwest suburbs, and we’d never ventured across the bridge. In the western section of the preserve, the North Central DuPage Regional Trail connects to a half-mile loop, Savanna Trail. Not quite a tunnel of gold, but not too shabby in its foliage.Meacham Forest Preserve October 2024 Meacham Forest Preserve October 2024 Meacham Forest Preserve October 2024

There’s a metaphor in those leaves somewhere: a brief blaze of glory near the end.Meacham Forest Preserve October 2024 Meacham Forest Preserve October 2024

Or maybe leaves are leaves are leaves.

Deer Grove Ahead of the Greening

Not long ago, on one of the warmish days we had before the more recent chilly run, we made our way back to Deer Grove Forest Preserve in Palatine, one of the many such green spaces in the northwest suburbs. Except it hadn’t greened yet. The last time we were there, during the pandemic spring of 2020, it was full spring and lush green.

Still, there’s a certain charm to the slumbering brown-gray earth, provided the air isn’t that cold and the paths are fairly dry. Had a good walk.Deer Grove Forest Preserve

Trees before budding. It won’t be long.Deer Grove Forest Preserve Deer Grove Forest Preserve

Grassland waiting to green up. That will come even sooner.Deer Grove Forest Preserve

Recent rains – including much of yesterday – are hastening things along. I cracked the window last night to listen to the micro-splash rhythm of the falling rain, but didn’t leave it open too long, as cold air snuck in along with the pleasurable sounds.

Mallard Lake on a Mild February Sunday

An unusual run of warmish days for February so far, and by that I mean above freezing every day and a completely melted snow cover. Local plants aren’t fooled, keeping their earth colors for now.

The scene Sunday at Mallard Lake. A few other people were around, walking the trail around the lake. Not everyone was at a pregame gathering.Mallard Lake Mallard Lake Mallard Lake

There are islands in Lake Mallard, and where there are islands, there are bridges.Mallard Lake Mallard Lake

The stroll was a touch melancholic, since we couldn’t bring the dog, who is too frail for this kind of walk any more. Just a touch, since she’s still with us, just slow moving.

Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve

On Saturday, we made our way to the edge of Lake Michigan.Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve

We’d come on the sunny last day of September to Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve, a unit of the Lake County Forest Preserve District. For a little more than a century, the U.S. Army maintained a presence at Fort Sheridan and in surrounding acreage for a shifting variety of uses, until base closure turned the site mostly over the private development, with a relatively small slice added to the forest preserve system.

The decommissioning was in the 1990s. I remember writing about the redevelopment, but after I quit much local reporting about the Chicago area ca. 2005, I tucked whatever I knew about Fort Sheridan in a remote filing cabinet in my memory. That is, I forgot it until not long ago, when I noticed the forest preserve on a map – a paper map – and determined to go, since we were due for lunch with Wendy and Ted later in the day in Evanston anyway.

This forest preserve is only partly forest. We took short trails through prairie. Much is prairie. Much is prairie. Much is prairie. Much is prairie.

A ravine runs through it.Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve

Coloration has started. Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve

Barely but vividly.

Beverly Lake ’23

The snow forecast for Friday night didn’t show, though a little rain came the next day. Sunday turned out warmish, around 50 F., and mostly clear.Barrington and Golf roads

We made our way in early afternoon to Beverly Lake, which is on forest preserve land almost as far west in Cook County as you can go.Beverly Lake

The map’s misleading, or at least incomplete. It depicts the 22-acre Beverly Lake, but most of the trails are in open space to the west and northwest. The trails are marked for cross-country skiing, but on Sunday, they were merely soggy in a few places.

“We’ve been here before,” I said. Yuriko didn’t remember, since it was a while ago: a warm day in April 2004, when we got a break from the kids for a few hours. I probably wouldn’t have remembered if I hadn’t written about it.

The lake.Beverly Lake Beverly Lake Beverly Lake

Trails wide and narrow.Beverly Lake Beverly Lake

We came across a half-dozen volunteers removing invasive species and making a bonfire out of the debris. An older member of the party, maybe the leader, was keen to explain what they were doing. The enemy, he said, is buckthorn. Once he pointed it out, I started seeing it in a lot of places, including along some of the trails.Beverly Lake buckthorn

The buckthorn is the vine-like branches hanging and clinging every which way on the forest trees.

“… buckthorn species were first brought here from Europe as a popular hedging material,” explains the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. “They became a nuisance plant, forming dense thickets in forests, yards, parks and roadsides. They crowd out native plants and displace the native shrubs and small trees in the mid-layer of the forest where many species of birds nest.”buckthorn

Even more menacing in black and white, I think.

Heron Creek Forest Preserve

At about 7:05 Central this evening, we were out walking the dog in cool, but not cold temps, with a cloudy haze covering most of the sky. As we headed west on a neighborhood street, I noticed two lights next to each other, just poking through the haze not far above the trees. For a moment, I though it must be an airplane. But it didn’t appear to move.

Then the clouds cleared just a little and I realized the lights were Venus and Jupiter. I remembered all at once something I’d read and then forgotten — that they were supposed to be in conjunction soon. As in, today.

They came and went from behind the clouds for a few minutes. When I got home, I stayed outside and watched from the front yard. One of our neighbors came out to walk his dog, and I pointed it out to him.

“Cool,” he said. I agree.

About a mile north of the town of Long Grove’s shopping district is Heron Creek Forest Preserve, a unit of the Lake County Forest Preserve District.Heron Creek Forest Preserve

There was still enough afternoon warmth left on Sunday to take a mile-and-a-half looping walk through the preserve, which at 242 acres, isn’t that large. Some parts of the gravel trails were muddy, marked with rims of dirty slush.Heron Creek Forest Preserve

For us, that mostly affected our shoes. For the dog, who lives closer to the ground, that eventually meant a bath. But we all enjoyed the walk through the pre-spring vegetation.Heron Creek Forest Preserve
Heron Creek Forest Preserve
Heron Creek Forest Preserve

The diminutive Heron Creek.Heron Creek Forest Preserve
Heron Creek Forest Preserve

As far as I can tell consulting maps, this little creek begins at a small lake not far west of the forest preserve, and heads east till it joins Indian Creek, which is a tributary of the Des Plaines River. Heron Creek’s course is entirely north of the aforementioned Buffalo Creek.

Also cool. Just not as epic as two worlds appearing close to collision.

Ned Brown Forest Preserve (Busse Lake) ’23

We’ve been to Ned Brown Forest Preserve more recently than February 2012, but I can’t remember when, so it’s been a while. With temps above freezing and the sun shining as brightly as it can in February, we decided to take a walk there on Sunday.

Good thing we weren’t in the mood for a picnic.Ned Brown Forest Preserve

Plenty of people had been there before us.Ned Brown Forest Preserve

But no bicycles. That’s the best thing about these trails in winter. In warmer weather, especially on a weekend, you play dodge ’em with the two wheelers if you’re a mere pedestrian.

Ice fishing is at your own risk on Busse Lake. Does it look like a good day for it?Ned Brown Forest Preserve

Apparently it was, at least on a small sliver of the surface. Of course, we’ve had some deep cold recently, so I guess that’s what kept these people from dropping into the icy drink.Ned Brown Forest Preserve

Fun for some. For our part, we walked around to the dam that forms Busse Lake by blocking Salt Creek. This is the view from the dam toward the lake.Ned Brown Forest Preserve

Toward the spillway.Ned Brown Forest Preserve

We decided not to take the nearby Salt Creek Trail, though we have before.Ned Brown Forest Preserve

Two roads diverged in a wood, and we —

We took the one more traveled by,

And that has made no difference at all.

Jerome Huppert Woods

As forecast, temps didn’t break 80 degrees F. on Saturday. A good day to hit the trail.Jerome Hubbert Woods

A trail, anyway. The one we hit happened to be the Des Plaines River Trail, which parallels the river of that name, on a short section through Jerome Huppert Woods. The place might be named for this man, a casualty of WWII. How many Jerome Hupperts have there been? He was from Wisconsin, so that would be a little unusual, but hardly impossible.

The woods are a small slice of undeveloped land along the river. My guess would be that the Cook County Forest Preserve District was able to acquire most of the land along the Des Plaines because it is prone to flooding. A little further from the forest preserve land at that point, the suburb of River Grove surrounds the area, and it’s fully developed.

The reach the trail proper, you go along a connecting trail from a parking lot and recreation field to a short, graffiti’d tunnel under a road. Jerome Hubbert Woods

There’s enough undeveloped land in the area to support some large fauna, looks like.Jerome Hubbert Woods

I don’t look at the creature and think Bambi. Rather, I think, deer ticks, vector of Lyme disease. Best to keep your distance. Still, it was nice to see.

Recent rains seem to have created, or at least enlarged, a stagnant pond that isn’t visibly connected to the river.Jerome Hubbert Woods

Otherwise, lots of green. Lots of flowers. Lots of trees.Jerome Hubbert Woods Jerome Hubbert Woods Jerome Hubbert Woods

With views of the Des Plaines from time to time.Jerome Hubbert Woods - Des Plaines River

Along with abandoned structures.Jerome Hubbert Woods

Eventually, we came to River Grove’s River Front Park, where we turned around. Not before resting a few minutes in the park gazebo, though.Jerome Hubbert Woods

As always, nice to find a gazebo. Obscure suburban parks are better for them.

Rocky Glen Waterfall

When you see a sign like this, it’s good to follow it to the named destination. Especially if you already know something is there.

Rocky Glen Waterfall

The last time we tried to visit Rocky Glen Waterfall was last summer. Apparently there’s swimming in the area, because when we got there, parking was scarce, but people in bathing suits were common.

I figured in April, particularly a cool April day, crowding wouldn’t be a problem, and it wasn’t. We arrived in the area in mid-afternoon Easter Saturday.

The waterfall, on Sawmill Creek, is part of Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve in DuPage County. One short trail goes to the waterfall, others snake around near the creek.Rocky Glen Waterfall
Rocky Glen Waterfall
Rocky Glen Waterfall

The waterfall. Niagara, it ain’t, but it is pleasant.Rocky Glen Waterfall

A nearby sign says that the falling-water feature was built by — of course it was — doughty members of the CCC. They were from a camp in the nearby Fullersburg Woods, V-1668, and its men quarried stone near the current site of the falls, and built other infrastructure along Sawmill Creek.

V for veterans. So not just doughty, but doughboys. That same camp did work at Fullersburg itself.

The creek just downstream from the falls, forming a pond-like spot. Rocky all right.
Rocky Glen Waterfall

We followed a path downstream along the creek a quarter-mile or so. The view of the falls from some distance.Rocky Glen Waterfall

A short distance away, ruins of the CCC presence.
Rocky Glen Waterfall

Our path doubled back to a short bluff overlooking Sawmill Creek where it makes a bend.
Rocky Glen Waterfall

Look at that, I told my family. Besides the size, how is that different from that Instagram- famous river bend in Arizona? My family scoffed at the comparison, mildly, but I stand by it.

Poplar Creek Forest Preserve on the Equinox

Sunday and Monday were warmish and mostly pleasant. In typical March style, at least in Northern climes, the rest of the week has been chilly and damp. The persistent drizzle, I suppose, will be a factor in the greening of April. But for now it merely inspires muddy paw prints whenever the dog comes back in.

On Sunday, we took a walk in a section of the Poplar Creek Forest Preserve — officially Arthur L. Janura Forest Preserve, but I’ve never thought of it as that — that we hadn’t been to before, despite having lived in these parts nearly two decades. It’s just off Shoe Factory Road, a name I’ve always liked.

That day might have been the vernal equinox, but the flora knew it wasn’t quite spring yet.Poplar Creek Forest Preserve

Near the intersection of Shoe Factory and Sutton Road (Illinois 59) is a place called the Great Egret Family Picnic Area, at least according to Google Maps.

The sign in situ makes no such naming claims.Poplar Creek Forest Preserve

In fact, so weathered is it that it barely makes any naming claims, though I can make out FAMILY PICNIC AREA. The sign is the only way we’d know that, since there is no evidence of tables or any other picnic infrastructure. Just a place to toss your picnic blanket, it seems.