General Cycling Discussion - Suggestions for northern Il or southern WI rides?

My 5 year wedding anniversary is coming up fast! Mary and I spent our honeymoon riding in Long Island, and want to spend no. 5 riding too (road this time around).

Any suggestions for a nice overnight or day trip? We were in Lake Geneva on a business trip a couple of years ago and loved it. Maybe we will head back there, but I'm waiting for some good advice.

Thanks all,

Chip

This may not be the kind of thing you're thinking of, but the Fox River Trail/Prairie Trail runs from Aurora all the way up to Genoa City, WI. From there it's about 10 more miles to Lake Geneva. It's a really nice ride, and if it was me (I'm in Schaumburg, so somewhat close to the trail and somewhat close to Wisconsin) I'd ride up there one day (I think it'd be about 55 miles from my house), spend the night (or two) and then ride back.

Thanks, Neil!

Is the trail suitable for road bikes, i.e. paved?

Thanks again for the info.

Chip

All but the last 7 or 8 miles at the northern end is paved. That section is gravel, which goes just fine (if a bit slow) on my hybrid with 700x38C tires, but I'd probably take an alternate road route if I had smaller tires (or was in more of a hurry).

http://www.mccdistrict.org/Maps/Prairie-Trail2.jpg is a map of the McHenry County portion of the trail, which used to be a nice .pdf but they got rid of that for some strange reason. http://www.co.kane.il.us/Forest/frtrail.htm shows the Kane County portion.

Have you picked up the Chicagoland Bicycle Map from the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation yet? It covers a pretty huge area of northeast Illinois, all the way up to the Wisconsin border, and it would be good for finding ideas/routes. I just got the recently-published 4th edition in the mail yesterday (less than 24 hours after I ordered it!) and it's really nice. http://www.chibikefed.org

Mineral Point, WI is a nice area for riding. Rolling hills, interesting town, not a lot of traffic.

There are some great supported rides coming up in Wisconsin in the next 2 months, you can check out some at the website http://mikebentley.com/bike/mwrides.htm Some that have had great reviews are the Trek 100, Tour de Forte, and Chocolate City Bike Ride in Burlington.

The southern kettle moraine has some good off-road trails, and there are many miles of roads that just beg to be ridden. You may want to contact a local bike shop in either Lake Geneva or Burlington for some specifics.

Sorry, I am about 50 miles too far north to give you specific ride routes - I usually go on supported rides & follow the arrows when I ride in that area.

The Chicagoland Bicycle Map won't do much for you if you plan on being that far north. It only covers the Chicago area and the immediate cities around it. :( I've used the hell up out of that map, and I'm looking into breaking into Northern Illinois myself. I got a book called "Bicycle Trails of Illinois" by the American Bike Trails. The Third Edition is the newly revised edition, and you can order it from the major bookstores.

Koffee

If you head up to the area around Waterford, WI there are some great roads with little traffic. There's also many organized rides coming up in the NW burbs of Chicago as well.

Originally posted by Koffee Brown
The Chicagoland Bicycle Map won't do much for you if you plan on being that far north. It only covers the Chicago area and the immediate cities around it.

Hmm, yeah, the CBF map only goes about a mile into southern Wisconsin, but it's great for the 7-county region of northeastern Illinois, including Chicago, Joliet, Aurora, and all the suburbs from Crete in the south up to the WI border. Maybe you're thinking of the Chicago Bike Map published by the City of Chicago? That's a good map too, but it only covers the city and is completely different from the CBF map.

Of course the map still won't tell you anything about specific rides or scenic routes or anything like that, but it's an invaluable tool for getting around the suburbs (and it's a pretty good general-use map too!)

Check out the Grand Illinois Trail. (http://www.bikelib.org/trails/git/) You can download the cue sheets at that link. The GIT is a 475 mile loop around Northern Illinois. Ride some of it, or all of it. I believe that it is mostly paved.

For a day trip, run up to Kettle Moraine State Forest (http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/parks/specific/kmn/) near Eagle Wisconsin. Kettle Moraine is best known for its overused mountain bike trails, but there is some great road riding in the area, too. Stop by Backyard Bikes (http://www.backyardbikes.com/) at the La Grange General Store to get a map of potential road rides. Be sure to make a side trip to fill your water bottles at the Flowing well on Clover Valley Road south of Whitewater.

yeah, the kettle has great road rides. i'd also suggest bed and breakfast's near galena. nice romantic get-aways without the lake geneva type gouging. mchenry county has great routes into wisconsin. maybe mchenry county bicycle club can help. they are sponsoring their famous udder century this june 1st starting from union, il (a wild west village) - and home of my century PR in 1997 (5:33) but i digress.

i've done the trail from genoa city to elgin. it's ok. the area i've riden the area between lake geneva and whitewater before. good roads. but lake geneva and galena is more "special" for your 5th. for the whole anniversay experience i'd recommend galena. (but galena is a weekend thang, not a day trip for you)

or i can make a que sheet for you for riding in mchenry and kane county. horse farms, apple orchards,..

look up bike shops in towns like lake geneva, burlington, WI

Yeah, I only have the Chicago Bike Map.

I have the book that I mentioned which gives all trails in Illinois, including the ones that lead into Wisconsin.

I may get my hands on the CBF map at some point.

Koff

Yes, http://mikebentley.com/bike/mwrides.htm has some good rides listed. I just took a look at it again myself and found a couple of rides in July and August I want to look into.

The Kettle Moraine is great riding. The link posted earlier had some good information in it.

If you are in the Madison, WI area you have the choice of a number of trails. The Military Ridge State Trail is the longest, 43+ miles from just outside western Madison to Dodgeville. It is a very pleasant ride, with a few minor hills, and many great views. The Sugar River Trail is also near Madison and is a shorter ride. There are also routes that connect from Dodgeville area's Gov. Dodge State Park through to Spring Green (Site of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesan) and back to Madison. It is a great area to ride. Photo's from ride last summer can be seen at http://world.std.com/~dpbsmith/amm/