I’m dropping a small gallery of photos from a 1st Birthday celebration to which I was invited.

On Saturday the 17th, my son and I went to The Forge: Lemont Quarries, an adventure park covering 300 acres around some of the many quarries along the I&M Canal. It had a soft opening last year, with restricted access under current COVID guidelines. Among its attractions is Eight Towers Adventure, billed as “the largest aerial adventure course in North America.” The towers offer various methods of climbing, leading to four over-water zip lines. The water is a quarry with kayaking, paddleboats, and canoeing. There’s also a laser tag course, hiking, mountain biking, and bouldering trails. The area is also connected to trails along the I&M Canal.

While I wanted to try out the zip lining, I ran against a sad limitation: maximum weight to take part in the “adventure” features was 250 pounds. I’m, um, a few pounds beyond that. So I was allowed to switch to an hour on a kayak. And now I have more incentive to try and get my weight down.

Along with some time on the water, we got to spot the rentals for mountain bike, trailheads, and a stage for a live music show. We got to the food stand just in time to snag some hot dogs. And I got a local beer to go with my dog.

Pollyanna Brewing Summerly

Drinks at The Forge were all in cans. The usual Light and some White Claws. But there was also some Goose Island 312 and two beers from Lemont’s own Pollyanna Brewing Co.

I went with their Summerly, partly because it was in the bigger can. It’s a beer with three kinds of wheat malt, and “hundreds of pounds” of raspberries.

I had no glass, but I spotted a bit of bubbly pinkish beer on the can rim. There’s a pleasant raspberry nose against a slight beery smell. Taste is light and, yes, summery. Raspberry leads the way, just tart enough to be noticed. Wheat beer backing just lets the fruit do its stuff.

The quarry here also has Pollyanna On the Ropes, a pale ale clearly intended as a tie in to the location.

The Forge: Lemont Quarries is at 1001 Main Street, just past downtown Lemont.