Ideas on 7 day-ride?
 

The Bike Club I ride with is looking for ideas on a 7 day- ride in early Sept. 07. We would like to do 50-75 miles a day, staying in hotels and a starting point with in one days drive of Crystal Lake Il.. We would consider a touring company or doing it ourselves with cue sheets and maps. Any input from people with experience or ideas is appreciated. Thanks. John Waterloo

Fort Wayne, Indiana to Evansville, Indiana? It runs along the Wabash River and Wabash Erie Canal route and is a pretty ride! It's well mapped out as well. This is a route by Charlie Meyer, an Indiana cyclist/cartographer. http://www.wrcc-in.org/routes/fortwayne-evansville.pdf is the map lonk. It's a 399k .pdf file. The terrain is fairly easy and the ride is really pretty.

Check this one,

http://www.bikelib.org/route66/

Karl

The Heartland AIDS Ride was from Minneapolis to Chicago (it could be done in reverse) and I was told a great ride. Around 500 miles of hills, flats and great scenary. They don't run it anymore but I know a few people who rode in it and could check if they saved their maps/cue sheets. If you Google it, you can find more info.

Would you consider the Grand Illinois Trail?

Its a 550 mi loop around Northern Illinois. You get to dip one tire in Lake Michigan and the other one in the Mississippi River. The southern section runs along the I&M and Hennepin Canal tow paths. The North Western section runs through the Driftless Area from the Mississippi Palisades to Galena to Apple River Canyon.

You can begin and end in your own driveway ... one routing runs right thru Crystal Lake.

Two sites with route info are http://www.openlands.org/git/index.asp and http://www.bikegit.org/git/index.htm

THANKS to everyone who replied to our question on a 7-day ride. After reading just a few I have “ride my bike fever”. John --- McHenry County Bike Club

Check out Green County, Wisconsin. You can contact the Earth Rider Bike Store in Brodhead, http://www.earthridercycling.com/. You'll find information on cycling in that area of Wisconsin. The owner is really promoting cycling in Green County. I'd call and have a chat with her about that area.

Also take a look at http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/travel/...countymaps.htm where you can download maps for each county in Wisconsin which will help plan routes. I use them all the time and by choosing the smaller county roads, you can have some great rides with very little traffic.

I live in northern Illinois and I am hoping when they complete the badger trail next spring you can go from Freeport IL to Madison WI, then acrosss to Dodgeville all of trails. Come on back and I am thinking you would have about a 250 mile trip.

WI has some great trails, and I'm planning to ride some of them myself next year.

I'm curious about what Illinois would have to do to make some of their trails as big of a tourist draw as the WI trails?

I think all the trails in Wisconsin go through wooded areas. Most of N Ill woods have been clear for farm land. People get tired of seeing corn and bean fields. Also a lot of our trails are not well kept. I road down on the canal trail out of LaSalle last week and you get 10 miles out and there are big ruts in the trail. Railroad tracks are 3 inches higher than the trail and very pool kept.

To ride state trails in Wisconsin you have to pay a fee, a daily pass is available or an annual pass. The annual pass is $15. Don't know what the daily pass goes for.

$4 a day

I am a huge fan of the Mississippi River Valley "Great River Road" tour. It's all on paved highway (not interstate) and there are bike lanes on most of it. It's so pretty you won't believe you're in Illinois. And while the road itself is at river level and mostly flat, the river valley itself is all 4-7 hundred foot limestone bluffs and ridges, if you want to design some challenge into it, the roads are all there.

I live along the great river road. They happen to have an organized ride in sept. you might be interested in. Check with the Quincy convention and visitors org. they would be happy to help.