For April we’ll be doing another rails-to-trails route. This time it will be the Valley Line Trail. From Weston’s we’ll head east to Labagh Woods where we’ll pick up the Weber Spur for a bit. Heading north, at Bryn Mawr we’ll branch off to the left to pick up the Valley Line Trail. The section within Chicago is sometimes referred to as the Sauganash Speedline. From there it’s just a straight shot on the trail heading NNW. The trail is paved. We’ll take a slight detour north of Howard to quickly do the rounds of the nature trails within the Emily Oaks Nature Center. After that we’re back on the trail passing through downtown Skokie. After our walk, Village Inn in Skokie will be perfect for some refreshment. Total distance will be around 7.5 miles.

Options for the trip home are a little more limited since it’s the weekend. The quickest way would be to grab the Pace 250 Dempster bus to the Pace Milwaukee Ave. Pulse bus. Pace says it’s around 45-50 minutes back to JP. If people are really ambitious it’s around a five mile walk back down Niles Center Rd /Central Ave. It would be around a three mile walk to get in the range of the CTA 85A Central bus. Of course we could simply admit failure and grab a couple Ubers.