I worked in Evanston, Illinois, just a few blocks from the campus of Northwestern University. And, if you’ve ever lived in a college town, you will be aware of the bonuses that a campus can provide. For the purposes of this site, those bonuses were a really nice exercise path that skirted the huge campus lagoon near the Lake Michigan shore, beautiful scenery, and some nice outdoor sculptures.

On just about every work day when the weather was good, as soon as quitting time rolled around, I would switch into a pair of good walking shoes that I kept at work, put on a t-shirt, and head over to the campus.

I had my hike timed so that I could get back to the Metra station to catch the commuter train home two hours later.

First there were five blocks straight to Evanston’s lakeside park which had an exercise path that connected seamlessly with Northwestern’s. This is the spot where the two paths meet and one exits the city park, and enters NU’s campus.

That path entered the university campus very near the Medill building seen here.

I shot this photo from the location marked with a yellow X in the old aerial photo, below, that shows the same building in 1907.

What is of interest about this old photo, besides how few campus buildings existed then, is that it shows that if someone had walked the same route then, that I walk today, he would have to hold his breath for an awful long time, because his entire route would occur in the water that occupies all of the right side of the photo. All of the land on which I hiked around Northwestern’s campus did not exist in 1907.

Of course, not all of that area is land. A large part of it is the lagoon that sits between the campus buildings and the lakeshore. You can get an idea of its size in these photos.

The exercise path winds it’s way along the undulating shoreline of the lagoon.