I started the morning driving to Home Depot on US30 to get some flowers for Carol's tiered garden. It's become overgrown with thistle which her German neighbor Ursula loved because of the birds that would come to eat the seeds. Ursula died eight years ago and the thistle has multiplied, taking over her gardenbed. I want to plant colorful perrenials to add some color to her otherwise green display. I managed to plant six plants before the heat forced me indoors. It was even too hot for Zeke, who insisted on watching me dig holes only a few feet from me.
At 3:12pm I was back on the ELT in center Highland, where I left off on Wednesday after chatting with Nicole and Maria. I parked under the Ridge Road overpass (not realizing there is a large, free city parking lot across the street) and walked north.
This section in Highland is a mile long, passing northwest, behind businesses and an older housing development, but then starts developing side trails that aren't marked. I had to detour from my path and return to the main trail leading west toward Wicker Memorial Park. The ELT goes through a tunnel under US41 and continues north along the eastern flank of Wicker Park. The old park maintenance road is now part of the ELT before it crosses a ditch, goes over a bridge, then follows the levee west along the Little Calumet River. To the north is new construction, a Super Walmart and a Cabelo's bordering I-80/94. This shopping area is part of Hammond.
Clouds were again darkening. I left my rain jacket in the car and enjoyed the warm, breezy weather. I didn't want to be burdened with the jacket. My goal was to make it to the interstate and turn around, and hopefully not get drenched in rain.
The ELT meets up with the Monon Trail which continues west over another ditch, then parallels the ELT going northwest before it meets up with the ELT as one trail. Munster is to the west, Hammond is to the north. The trail goes to the west of the shopping complex and circles around it to the north. A man was playing fetch with his two pitbulls by the overflow pond next to the trail. I could see the trail then meeting up with the interstate and going underneath it. It is here that I turned around. I will do the Hammond section next week as long as this cool streak continues.
This is not a very scenic part of the Erie-Lakawanna trail. It's more of a connector section that serves a purpose for the locals who use this section to ride their bicycles in their neighborhood, walk their dogs, take their strollers out. There are no lights, no signage. One could easily get on the wrong trail here.
I took a different route for the return walk, walking across the Cabelo/Walmart parking lot and connecting back with the ELT at the bridge across the Little Calumet River. Doing so cut off a half-mile. I then stayed on the trail going south to Ridge Road before going east on Ridge Road back to the overpass and my car.
I went back to Griffith, wanting to try out a brewpub there. Tonight's choice was the Pokro brewpub on Broad street. The place doesn't look like much from the outside, but it's rather nice inside. You walk into a small bar to the right and a large tabled area to the left. In the back is a second tabled room for the meadery. The brewery is named after the owner, brewer and manager, David Pokropinski.
I sat at the bar and ordered a flight of six beers. They were all good, but I especially liked the cream ale. I had pierogies to go with the beer. The samplers were five ounces each so I didn't go to the second brewpub, the New Oberphalz brewery, on Main street. That one specializes in German beers.
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