Day 552 – US – Illinois [DeKalb to St Charles]

08/10/21

37km

  From DeKalb (Illinois) to St Charles (Illinois)

North America

On the Great Western Trail, a nature run all the way to St Charles, a quaint little town on the Fox River

Early morning on the Great Eastern Trail

As I am getting nearer to Chicago, I am mindful to plan my route and avoid the main axes of traffic. Today was perfect in this sense. I ran the whole way on the Great Western Trail, a dust road set in nature, frequented mostly by cyclists, dog walkers and a few runners. As I set off in the morning, a veil of foggy humidity was still wrapped up around the ground, making everything look quite eerie.. and beautiful.

Tiny and noisy Chimpmunk!

As I was running alone, I saw a splatter of red in front of my eyes, realised it was birds and followed them around as they settled on a tree and set off again… No time to grab my camera. I Googled for red birds in the region and the answer came: what I saw was the state bird of Illinois, the Cardinal! How stunning… I also got to see a lot of little chipmunks along the way, they are a bit less shy than squirrels and I managed to snap a few pictures.

St Charles on Scarecrow Festival week-end

I reached St Charles, a quaint little town set by the Fox River. For the next three days, the town is hosting the Scarecrow Festival, with over 100 of these displayed around town. I indeed saw quite a lot, they are really getting into the Halloween Spirit over here. I ran past a real estate office that was pumpkin’d out like I have not seen before!

Enjoy the video of today’s run: https://www.relive.cc/view/vPv4yx74nRO

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: