Horseshoe Lake
Ernie Chiles, my old high school earth science teacher, and I talked about riding the Katy Trail when I came back home to Cape Girardeau this October, but it wasn’t to be. Neither of us had enough miles in for the year to be comfortable with a 225-mile ride. On top of that, the weather had turned cold and rainy.
Horseshoe Lake was a nice compromise
I had seen some routes for this weekend’s Tour de Shawnee. Some of them were through some challenging hills, but one of them looped Horseshoe Lake, an old oxbow from the Mississippi River.
I decided that the Horseshoe Lake ride would be scenic, with light traffic and leave us with the option of extending the ride if we wanted to.
It was a good choice. When we got back to the starting point, we debated going on, but decided that we’d rather quit wanting more than to add another 20 hard miles to the ride and wishing we had bailed early.
View Horseshoe Lake, Ill. in a larger map
Note: the larger map IS easier to read. Click on Sat to see satellite photos of the area.
What’s an Ernie Chiles you ask?
Read all about Ernie on my Cape Central High blog.
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5 responses so far ↓
1 Nancy
// Oct 31, 2009 at 1:49 am
Thanks for putting this on your webpage.
Hope to see you back to Horseshoe Lake and Tour De Shawnee October 23, 2010
“On The Road Again”
2 Ken Steinhoff
// Oct 31, 2009 at 10:00 am
Nancy,
I usually come back to Cape around that time of year, maybe next year will be the time I do the ride.
Maybe Ernie will be up for the hills next year.
3 Nancy
// Oct 31, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Thanks Ken.
October in Southernmost Illinois is indescribable(sic). You have to see it to believe it.
Nancy
4 Ken Steinhoff
// Oct 31, 2009 at 8:27 pm
October across the river in MO is (a) really pretty, (b) really hot, (c) really cold, (d)really rainy or (c)+(d) or (b)+(d).
It’s always a crapshoot.
Like the little girl with the curl, when she’s good, she’s really good; when she’s bad, she’s horrid.
At least you folks scored a good weekend for the Tour.
5 Nancy
// Nov 1, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Well I guess that I am prepared for the extremes.
A year and a half ago I moved from Lander, Wyoming back to Southernmost Illinois. I am the only person in town with a snow blower in my shed.
Both Southern MO. and Southern Il. are very beautiful. The people are very friendly and I love to shop in Cape and eat at O`Charlies with my grandaughter. Have a good week.
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