I&M Canal Bike Trail
Ghost Bridge and Abandoned Locks

Fall Photo Page 13
(click on any photo to enlarge)

This is as we approached  the Ghost Bridge that I mentioned before on our way back. The top of the bridge is gone and only the stone pillars remain out in the woods and overgrown. I called this the Ghost Bridge because it is just a faint vision of what it must have been when it brought so much life to the region.

This structure is just east of Buffalo Rock State Park and a few miles west of Ottawa.

A view of the Ghost Bridge pillars through the trees. I would actually like to know what this structure was when it was alive active. It is interesting to see this out in the woods and it looks even more ghost-like when the sun is going down.

The colorful tall grasses, trees and rock walls along the Illinois and Michigan Canal Trail. I really tried to capture the colors along the trail in these photos. I may have gotten close in some cases but there is really nothing like actually being there.

This is close to the same location as above but with a view of the reflections in the water below. The canal is clearly visible on this part of the trail unlike some other parts of the trail where it just seems like you are out in the woods somewhere.

This is looking up the steep hill that leads to the dried out lock #11 that we rode by after passing through the town of Ottawa earlier in the day (on our way west). Lock #11 is located just west of the town of Ottawa.

Here's the other "famous" about-bicycles photographer :-) creating another image for our I&M Canal photo tour. Notice the small colorful leaves on the right side of the lock...

As you can see this photo is from our trip back (from Split Rock to Marseilles) and it is much later in the day.

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Yep, this is the photo (of the red and yellow leaves on the wall of the abandoned lock) that was being taken in the photo above.