(click on any photo to enlarge)
The photo above shows a part of the Old Plank Road Trail where we started our ride heading East out of Mokena just west of Frankfort. We parked at a shopping mall parking near a Meijer that was just off of Wolf Road.
As you can see by the writing on the building, this is where the Old Plank Road Trail goes into Frankfort. The trail was fairly wooded from where we got on to this point but then it goes through a little section of the town.
The Old Plank Road Trail arch is pretty cool looking as you take the trail into Frankfort. At this point you ride through town and past some shops and restaurants.
Well, this was October and as you see there were all kinds of riders out on the trail as we went through town. I was not sure WITCH way to go at this point. :-)
OK, so much for bad humor. We continued our ride east to what was the end of the trail at this time. Well, sort of. This photo was taken where you cross Western Avenue. The trail was being extended but was not quite complete at this time.
The trail was just gravel here in preparation for new blacktop surface. We tried to ride this part of the trail for a little way but as you can see the trail was thick, loose gravel and really difficult to ride on. We just turned around and will have to ride that section on another trip.
A short time after this ride in October (2015) we read some news stories about how this part of the trail is now complete and the Old Plank Road Trail now connects to the Thorn Creek Trail.
Back on the other side of Western Avenue is where the trail continues back west. This is a pretty busy road so I hope they have some kind of decent trail crossing here.
This is a close up of the start of the trail just west of Western Avenue. As you can see this is (or used to be anyway) Mile 0.0! I'm not sure if they will be changing all the mile markers now that the trail has been extended west from here.
Here's the photo tour of the Old Plank Road Bike Trail from New Lenox (just east of Joliet) to Park Forest (just west of Chicago Heights). This ride was from October, 2015.
Old Plank Road Trail Photos 1 - Mokena to Western Ave < you are here
Old Plank Road Trail Photos 2 - Park Forest to Butterfield Creek
Old Plank Road Trail Photos 3 - Hickory Creek Preserve
Photos © Copyright Rob Chapman, about-bicycles.com. Photos with * Copyright Dale Kiffel.