All right, I'm off to ski/walk the Chicago lakefront between Thorndale and 71st with nearly perfect snow conditions. If I don't show up for the QuaranTunes! Zoom concert tonight at 8 PM ( https://www.facebook.com/events/459003125141169), please send a search party to the Burnham Nature Reserve. #Biathlon

Caught the Red Line at Wilson with my skis. Guy on train asks for a light. “You want a light to smoke on the train?” I say without thinking. “You’re not supposed to smoke on the train, my friend.” Luckily, instead of getting angry he just shrugs and switches cars.

Before exiting the train at Thorndale, I notice that a young young woman is looking at Greek flashcards. “ are you going to Greek school at the church [at the north end of Lake Shore Drive],” I ask. “Yeah,” she says with a laugh.

...”Have fun,” I say and exit. I walk a few blocks east to Thorndale Beach and Emanuel Congregation synagogue. A lady walking her dog looks at my skis and says, “This is your kind of weather, huh? She’s cold.” “I bet!” I say, before stepping into my bindings to start my trip.

Skiing conditions are excellent. 7°F cold isn’t too bad.

Cutting across Hollywood Beach. A couple throws a ball to their dogs that barely misses my skis. “Sorry sir!” the woman apologizes.

Skiing on the snowy revetment past the meditation point fire rings, towards foster Beach. In addition to seagulls there are large black crowd loudly cawing.

Having cut across foster Beach, I’ve now skied a little over a mile, with about 17 more to go. It’s nine Fahrenheit and I am pleasantly roasty-toasty. (Warm, not high.) looking towards Montrose Beach, I can barely make out the outline of the Hancock tower.

Seniors walking, one of them with ski poles, plus joggers and a cop, around Argyle.

Sunken @DivvyBikes station at Montrose Beach. About 2 1/2 miles down, 15 1/2 to go. Looks like I’m going to have to unclip for the first time to cross the plowed road in front of me.

View from Montrose harbor. The skyline is getting more distinct. Rather than head west to the lakefront trail, I’m going to take the gravel road that runs along the shore to the Waveland clock tower.

I see my first skier of the day skiing through the golf course next to the gravel road. (i’m generally opting for snowy paths when possible so that I don’t wear myself out skiing through thick snow.) “Nice conditions, huh?” I say.

At the clocktower, 3700 N.

Another view.

Bird sanctuary south of the clock tower. I have to head west to the lakefront trail here to get around Belmont Harbor.

Someone left birdseed all over this bench, and the squirrels are feasting. I also saw a cardinal.

I’ve connected with a Lakefront Trail, which doesn’t have enough snow to comfortably ski on, so I will have to ski alongside it. Here’s the totem pole near Addison.

I’m now at the north end of Belmont Harbor, across the street from Temple Emanuel synagogue. There are lots of people strolling and jogging on the trail.

At Belmont Avenue now. Conditions south of Addison have not been great, with a choice between marginally enough snow on the trail, or slogging through heavy snow next to the trail. Would not recommend this stretch for a recreational ski.

Giant green Keith Haring-like figure at Briar. Or it might even be a Keith Haring sculpture, I can’t recall.

Conditions are better now that I’m south of briar heading to Diversey. There’s a brought expanse of nice snow.

Sculpture of a Native American family just south of the Diversey bridge.

Correction, that last sculpture is north of Diversey. Here’s another one nearby, a giant windmill-like sculpture that used to stand on someone’s lawn on Armitage Avenue east of Halsted, until too many neighbors complained about it.

Lots of ducks at the entrance to Diversey Harbor. I guess the water is somewhat warmer here.

Yet another sculpture of a Native American, right by the Diversey bridge. OK, lots of interesting stuff to look at here, but I better make tracks if I’m gonna get to South shore on time.

This monument stood in front of the theater on the lake building back when it was a tuberculosis sanitarium. They reinstalled it in 2015 when the building was rehabbed to add a fancy restaurant. This is at Fullerton.

I cut across the peninsula south of Fullerton which was very nice. I was able to ski in somebody else’s tracks. South of there the ped path is closed for reconstruction after being destroyed. The more inland path is completely clear. In fact, a snow plow driver just passed by.

Skiing next to eight lanes of Lake Shore Drive traffic, not ideal. If you ski this way and aren’t in a hurry, it’s probably much nicer to detour west to the parkland by the zoo.

I detour across North Avenue Beach to get away from the traffic for a bit and check out the beach house that looks like a boat.

North Avenue chess pavilion. The trail is technically closed south of here and not plowed, so it should be smoother sailing.

Snowy skyline.

Cutting across Oakstreet beach. Here are some frozen chunks of sludge just off of the coast.

Made it around the notorious Oak Street curve, where high waves have nearly dragged many cyclists into the lake. The lake is pretty much frozen, or at least totally still, so not much of an issue today. But this area would be impassible with a regular bike now anyway.

Lake Point Tower. Alice Cooper used to have a condo here. For all I know he still does.

The new vista tower looks good from the Navy pier flyover.

They punched a hole through the historic bridge house of Lake Shore Drive to make room for the Navy pier Flyover bike bridge.

I’m at Monroe Street, so I’m finally, technically about to cross into the South Side. Had to takeoff my skis and walk to cross the river. The bike path is plowed here, pedestrian path is snowy.

A gnarly sculpture near Balbo drive.

At the Shedd Aquarium. The trail is plowed here, so I think I will ski on the lower “sea walls” level.

Passing by the Adler planetarium.

A break for hot tea and cookies by Soldier Field.

Yes, in the age of anti-fascism, Chicago still displays an ancient Roman pillar donated to the city by Benito Mussolini, with an inscription saying that it was donated during the “fascist era”

Apologies to anyone who was following my cross-country ski trek on Twitter and was wondering why my feed stopped a few hours ago. I found out the hard way that my new phone charger isn't compatible with my old spare batter and ran out of juice.

It was probably for the best anyway, because I was running out of time, and my body was starting to complain after 13 miles of skiing on mixed terrain. I'm looking forward to a long hot bath tonight!

I got off the trail at 35th Street, so I will return in the near future to complete the route to 71st. I had great transit karma, and the #35 bus and the Red Line got me back home to Uptown in no time.