Great Lakes - Looking for off road trails in Crystal Lake

Hello all,

I just moved into the area from Florida and I'm trying to find some off road trails in and around Crystal Lake, IL. I'd prefer them to be within biking distance but if not, I could settle for driving to them.

I already know about the trails in Rock Cut out in Rockford but really can't find much else.

I am from the Elk Grove Village area and i don't know the Crystal Lake area, BUT i know of this trail (i have a road bike, so this is for you) The Praire Path.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Prairie_Path

It goes for a while, hehe.

Aham23, psimet2001 and others may know more about other paths as well, but they also have road bikes, alas, someone knows some paths.

Welcome to chi-town.

Hello all,

I just moved into the area from Florida and I'm trying to find some off road trails in and around Crystal Lake, IL. I'd prefer them to be within biking distance but if not, I could settle for driving to them.

I already know about the trails in Rock Cut out in Rockford but really can't find much else.

What exactly do you mean by "off road"? You can catch the McHenry County Prairie trail right in CL. Take it north (say, from veteran's acres) and the pavement will eventually give way to crushed gravel. You can take it up to Genoa City, Wisconsin.

Or, you can take it south, where it turns into the Fox River trail in Kane County. That path (almost all is paved) is great for leisurely rides and can be ridden as far south as Aurora. If you're crafty, you can even get from the Aurora end of the trail to the I & M canal which goes a fairly good distance west.

The Fox River trail also insects with the (different) Prairire path at 3 spots... all of which run east and join up in Wheaton (before finally ending in Maywood). You can do a lot of interesting loops between the Fox River Trail and the Prairie path

I think that there also may be some sort of path they're trying to put together out of Hebron (NW of you a bit). Not so sure about that, though.

single-track, wide paths of dirt and crushed gravel, or paved?

My usual route is up to Deer Grove, but I haven't done the single-track or crushed gravel yet.
http://www.fpdcc.com/tier3.php?content_id=68&file=map_68c

Also check out Beverly Lake, they just opened that up to bikers recently, although I haven't been yet.
here's some discussion with it: http://cambr.org/SMF/index.php?board=4.0

That forum should also help you find other mtn bike trails if thats what you want.

Well, I was looking for single track, dirt and gravel. Wow. I didn't realize that the Prairie Path eventually went to gravel. The only parts I've seen are those here in Crystal Lake which are all paved.

I'll have to look into Deer Grove. That's definitely close. Not quite biking distance (Not sure I want to ride that far on roads on a mtb) but still looks fun.

I've heard that there are some trails here in Crystal Lake (in some of the plentiful parks) but that most of them are not open to bikes.