My 1st time riding the ILRA Badlands FAT BIKE trail

For years I have heard about “the Badlands” at Island Lake State Rec Area (ILRA) but never had a chance to ride there. So, when the chance to get a guided tour popped up, I grabbed my gear and headed for the door. Developed over many years of park users exploring the old gravel pits and dunes, this area has been undergoing a manor reclamation project. Recently the DNR and MCMBA have been working to make turn them into a year round fat bike oriented trail system. While there is ongoing reclamation work happening, there and areas that are off limits, the remaining vast open space and small patches of woods made it fun and interesting (we ended up with 12 miles). My friend Tim showed us around, and I am glad he did. Much of this area is unmarked and bi-directional with nearly no way points to navigate from. We did discover there are some Purple flags that help when a turn or intersection was nearby. We started from the Spring Mill Pond parking lot in ILRA and followed Tim around just taking it al