Originally Posted by
floyd0117
I have 3-4 weeks starting in June in which I plan to tour. Anyone know any worthwhile routes out of Chicago that could last me this long? I think I would prefer to ride both ways, rather than taking transportation, and also I think I would prefer a northward ride, but I'm open to any suggestions.
If I do ride both ways, I thought a ride through the Twin Cities, up to touch the border would be pretty awesome. If I only ride one way, then it would also be cool to push it to Winnipeg.
If I look southward, I was thinking I may get a ride and start in Bloomington, IN, and head to the Smoky's and back to IL.
I dunno. Anyone have any ideas/experience?
I can't give you advice on how to get from Chicago to the twin cities, I have no clue as to the best roads.
I do know these things...MN has a state bicycle map. It is nice. Also, Minneapolis has a nice bicycle map of the city. I looked up both the state of MN and the city of Minneapolis on the internet and had them mailed to me. MN is full of nice bicycle trails. You might want to research some of them such as the Paul Bunyan, Mesabi, Willard Munger, Gitchi Gami trails. I've ridden the Paul Bunyan and it was nice.
You could incorporate some of these trails into your tour. The area along Lake Superior (HWY61) that runs up to Canada would be really busy that time of the year. Lots of stupid people doing stupid things on the road trying to get ahead of the pack. That's my take on that area the day I drove up there to just check it out some for future trips. That was in July.
Boundary Waters canoe area is nice also. Ely is a nice town. Take note that I think you need a permit to be in the Boundary Waters area and they are probably picky about where you can set up a tent. It's been a long time since I've been up to that area, but it is really nice.
I would probably want some tires that could do some gravel roads depending upon where you are going.
You can research this website for trails in MN. It's free to join and the website is more functional after you do. I am a paying member, for 30 bucks I can download any of the trails into Google Maps, my GPS, etc. Once you download the trails they are yours forever. They have an App that works with the subscription also.
Minnesota Trails & Trail Maps | TrailLink.com
Sort the trails by length, you'll mainly be intersted in the longer ones.