Northern IL / Southern Wisconsin route
 

I'm looking for a decent route between Rockford, IL (Northern IL) and Madison WI (South Central WI); anyone had any experience with back roads between these two cities ?

Thanks.
msm

Have you checked with the Blackhawk Bicycle and Ski Club? They have lots of routes out of Rockford, and I'm sure some of their members would have riidden to Madison.

http://www.aeroinc.net/users/bbsc/home.htm

Strictly a general observation --

I LIve in MAdison, but grew up in Illinois around Chi
When I toured in my younger days, I found Illinois to really suck as far a secondary roads. Out of the cities, the rural roads were either too-busy travelled State Highways or gravel. On the other hand, when I crossed the border to Wisconsin, I found the secondary roads to be superior (historically due to the need for decent asphalt HWY's to transport the dairy product)

That said, in my youth I did manage to bike across N Ill from west to east (actually Shullsburg Wi thru Freeport and then on to the lake).

If you can work the back roads from Rockford to the border, then hook up with some CTY trunks, you should be fine. Also, if you contact the state or each County in Wisconsin, they should supply you with detailed county road maps