Great Lakes - Good Chicago to Madison Route

I posted a moment ago about a route to Milwaukee. It didn't show up, I don't think. Good thing, it turns out. I'm going to Madison. :)


CHICAGO TO MADISON: THe Route?

Looking for: stretches of path, safe, fast....

Anyone know of a good way to go? I got my tires all pumped up...

THank you.

No. Sorry. I commuted between Chicago and Madison every weekend for 2 years. The only way to get there without riding 160+mi is to take the Van Galder bus and pay the $10 to store your bike on the underside.

*Edit* 2 weeks to 2 years.

No. Sorry. I commuted between Chicago and Madison every weekend for 2 weeks. The only way to get there without riding 160+mi is to take the Van Galder bus and pay the $10 to store your bike on the underside.


No disrespect intended, but wouldnt "every weekend for 2 weeks" be exactly one or two times, depending?

I was hoping for a kind of small highway, bike trail combo style of getting there...

How about Barrington to Madison?

First, take the Metra (the only way to fly) NW line from Chicago to Barrington.
http://metrarail.com/Sched/cnw_nw/cnw_nw.shtml

Then, take this route from Barrington to Lake Geneva,
http://www.chicagotriclub.com/info/directions.asp


Then, use these maps to get from Lake Geneva to Madison, they are very accurate in terms of biking conditions,
http://www.dot.state.wi.us/travel/bike-foot/countymaps.htm

You will go through Walworth, Rock and Dane counties, you may go through Jefferson county as an option insted of Rock county

You can probably get a few people to put together a route, but it's not going to be short. If you can get out of the city to Lake County, I can get you to Lake Geneva or thereabouts. Need someone to get you the next step. - TF

If you go Metra, go to Fox Lake - a lot closer. - TF

Metra to Harvard would be good also. Fox Lake it is difficult to find a good route from there without riding a mile on Rt 12 then taking Wilmot Rd into Wisconsin. From Harvard I'd head west to the Long Praire Path and stony bridge trail to Rockton. I posted a route on Bikely for this. Then from Rockton make your way up on country roads Northwest to Madison.

here is the link to the route I posted. It is one of my favorite rides. From the metra station I go a bit out of the way on Country roads to get to the Long Prairie trail. RT 173 is more direct but busier.

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Harvard-Metra-and-Long-Prarie-Trail

I live in Evanston and commute to Highland Park when I am not traveling somewhere. I grew up in Madison, Wisconsin.

I have posted several pieces of these routes at www.gpsies.com, a German site that has an excellent interface for laying out bike routes. Here are some scenarios:

1. Most of the way out to the Elgin area you can ride on city bike lanes or the Illinois Prairie Path. At Elgin, take the Fox River Trail north to McHenry. There, you catch the Grand Illinois Trail (mostly on small roads) west to Freeport. At Freeport, take the Jane Addams trail north to where it becomes the Badger State Trail. The Badger State Trail is almost finished, but has a section that is only single track still. You can shortcut north of Rockford over to the Badger State Trail using minor roads, and shorten this route by about 20 miles.

2. Same as above, only take either the Lake Shore path and the Green Bay Trail or use the Skokie River or Des Plaines River trails to get north to the Lake Bluff or Libertyville areas. From Lake Bluff, there is a marked route west to McHenry. I have this route posted at gpsies.com.

3. An alternative to the Grand Illinois/Jane Addams/Badger State Route (which takes you well to the west of Madison) is what I call the "Hypotenuse Trail." A network of county roads from the Lake Geneva area up to Dane County. I have it charted at www.gpsies.com.

4. You could always ride to Lake Bluff and continue on minor roads north to Milwaukee, then take the Glacial Drumlin Trail from Waukesha west to Madison. Several minor trails are under construction or already running between Milwaukee and Waukesha, including the Oak Leaf Trail, but I don't know how well marked they are or how direct they are. The Glacial Drumlin Trail costs $4.00 to ride, and has a minor gap near Cottage Grove east of Madison. It's worth it, considering that you don't even need a map, because the Glacial Drumlin Trail is so easy to use.

A good resource would be the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation map, which is for sale at most Chiago bikeshops, and costs about $6.00.

Howard

Didn't we just do this?

ST Charles, IL to Fort Atkinson, WI

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=427915

madison to kenosha: route?

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=428685

I think once you cross the Cheddar Curtain, you can ride just about anything between say Beloit and Madison. There is no -direct- route though.

Commuted every weekend for 2 years. Sorry for the typo.

I don't think anyone has done it...for a reason.

Many thanks to all of you for giving advice and thoughts. I will make use of all of them. metzenberg, i look forward to trying any of those routes in general. they sound like fun.

In the end, we ended up driving to a town called Elroy. Parked the car there and then rode to Sparta, a 32mi one-way, full of interesting old rail tunnels (bring a flashlight) and long graduate ups/downs. I don't know if the trail is well-known on BikeForums, but we had a nice time. We stayed in sparta for the night and rode back the next day.

If you have any questions about the trail/trip, feel free.