North Avenue Walk Across Chicago

We're walking north. North Avenue, that is. As you may have guessed, North Ave was the northern border of the city when the street was named.

In keeping with tradition, we're meeting at Dunkin Donuts. Luckily enough, there's one at the SE corner of North and Harlem where we'll start our ~9 mile adventure. (The map says it's on the NE corner next to Starbucks but it's not.) Not the most spacious of all DDs but we're not moving in, just visiting briefly. North is the dividing line for several neighborhoods. North straddles Chicago and Oak Park to start. Then we'll walk through N Austin, Humboldt Park, Wicker Park, Lincoln Park and Old Town among others. Also known as Illinois Route 64, this road was chosen because yours truly was born in '64. We'll finish at either Lake Shore Drive or stay on 64 which turns into LaSalle just before the lake and finish at North Ave Beach.

Take the North Ave bus (72) west to one block east of Harlem where the route ends. Other options are the O'Hare blue line to Harlem (90) and then bus it south or the green line to Oak Park and bus it north.