Section Hiking Chicago

I miss hiking. At home I could go any weekend I chose and disappear onto the Appalachian trail or one of the endless side trails in Shenandoah National Park with names like Little Devil's Staircase, Matthews Arm, and Old Rag. I for some reason find great enjoyment in just being outside and walking for many hours at a time. Sometimes I did it for the beautiful views that the Blue Ridge Mountains had to offer but most of the time I did just to hike, just to be out in nature walking around and talking with friends.
I thought that the midwest had robbed me of this joy. The midwest for all intensive purposes might be the most boring terrain I've encountered ever. It is flat. It is filled not with trees but with an infinite amount of corn and soybeans. It is 16 hours of driving west of 12 hours of driving east to get to anything that might conceivably be deemed a mountain. 4 or 5 hours away in Wisconsin there may be something that resembles outdoor activity. But here in Chicago I had all but given up on interacting with nature. I at one point thought my love of the outdoors would make me an active member of the Outdoor Adventure Club at the University but in the end I came to find that there were none of my traditional outdoor adventures to be had.
My love of walking however has persisted. I had originally gotten the idea to walk from Hyde Park to Pilsen after thanksgiving dinner when my friend Charley and I were just sitting in my room feeling gluttonous. I thought that if I walking to Pilsen would be the only way to actually deal with the excessive amount of turkey, potatoes, and tofu stir fry (oh uchicago) that I had eaten. But on that occasion the food come got the best of us. So this past weekend I convinced my friend Sean to begin this grand trek with me. I envisioned Pilsen as our destination but he being more pragmatic suggested we go through Chinatown and stop there and see how we felt. So we began our long trek up through Bronzeville and towards Chinatown upon which it began to pour rain. Undeterred by the weather we carried on until we were completely soaked and took refuge in a grocery store to ride out the storm. We continued on and eventually made it to Lao Sze Chuan for dinner. At this point we knew it would be dark by the time we walked to any other public transportation option so we boarded the redline homewards.

However, I was still determined to make it to Pilsen on foot. Sean However suggested we walk to there from Chinatown since we had already made the trek to Chinatown once. Then it all started to connect for me. It was like Chicago was the Appalachian Trail, too long to do in a single day, so unless you camped along the way you'd have to do it in sections. Conveniently Chicago, unlike the Appalachian trail, has a complex system of public transit that makes ferrying oneself to a starting point and homewards from endpoints rather easy. Upon this realization we've now planned to complete a grand loop of Chicago (I'm modeling myself after this map I saw of a guy who did a few hundred mile long loop around Alaska, though I admit my journey will be a bit easier and more food filled). Next we'll go from Chinatown to UIC via Pilsen. Eventually we'll make it all the way up to the northwest side and then across over to Devon followed by a a southern return to hyde park closer to the Lake.
Since I can't finish the rest of the Appalachian trail in Virginia this summer then I might as well complete my Chicago trail.