Great Lakes - Anyone have a preferred route around New Lenox

Tomorrow, Saturday June 26, 2009, I will be down in New Lenox for about 6 hours with nothing to do. I have to help my old man setup a craft show in the morning, and then I am free for 4+ hours. I am hooking up my bike to the back and taking it for sure. If anyone is down there and wants to ride, speak up. I will take off from around the United Methodist Church off of Haven near a cemetary and the church campgrounds.

If you know of a good route, link me to a map please. I am looking for about a 50 miler, but anything 25 or more will be fine. I have tried mapping my own route, but that whole Joliet Armory keeps getting in my way. Can you cruise through that at all?

Oh, this will be a slow pace ride too, I may hammer it at times, but want to chill around 15mph avg with a constant cadence, ie. try to limit any coasting. This is a "clear out the lungs" ride for me.

The Old Plank Road Trail is roughly about 1/2 miles south of the church. Take Haven Ave. east to Cedar, turn right. South of 4th Ave., the trail crosses Cedar. The trail goes as far east as Western Ave. in Park Forest and goes as far west into Joliet (ends at Washington St. between Briggs St. and Henderson Ave. From the west end of the trail, you can take Washington St. west 1 mile into downtown Joliet.) You can get a nice 30 miler on the trail if you go east from New Lenox, thru Frankfort and Matteson, to the east end of the trail (Western Ave.) and back. Or you could turn it into a 40+ miler by going west on the trail to where it ends at Washington St. (west of Briggs), then turn around and go east 20 miles on the trail to Western Ave. in Park Forest, then turn back around and head back west to New Lenox.

Hrmm, that might not be a bad idea either. I mapped a route down to Peotone and back up to that church, just under 50.

The trail i just mentioned is paved. There are a few busy crossings on the trail but most aren't too problematic (Cedar Rd., Wolf Rd., etc.) You'll go over Rt. 45 1/2 mile before getting into downtown Frankfort. At Rt. 50 (Cicero Ave.) in Matteson, you'll cross it by a traffic signal. Hope the trail works out good for you.

Hrmm, that might not be a bad idea either. I mapped a route down to Peotone and back up to that church, just under 50.

Well, hope your ride was a good one. I found this thread too late to suggest the Wauponsee Glacial Trail (http://www.fpdwc.org/sugarcreek.cfm) as an off-road alternative. In spite of what the FPDWC map implies, it appears to be open all the way to the Kankakee River. Maybe next time you're in the area.... :o I've ridden the 2.7 paved miles from the north trailhead at I-80 to Laraway Road. The remainder appears to be a sunburn special - mostly open fields on both sides - but the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie (formerly Joliet Arsenal property) is adjacent to the trail and some pictures on a blog here (http://jmd1125.blogspot.com/2008/09/midewin-3-homeward-bound.html) imply that there may be connections from the trail into the Prairie.

Enjoy!

I don't own a MTB yet, maybe one of these days. Well, my ride was horrible. It was spent standing up the entire time trying to locate a bike shop that had 2 things: (because I totally forgot both)

1) Bibs, or shorts with a decent chamois
2) Chamois cream

I found #2, #1 I didn't. I took the Old Plank trail down to a bike shop that is a Giant dealer. They had Butt'r but crap shorts. 2 other bike shops that are on google maps didn't exist. Still, I somehow rode over 20 miles in cotton undies, miserable, standing 99% of the time.