soreyes

That's pretty cool to see the photos of Deer Grove. Like I said, I did some trailwork there with Turf - which was apparently renamed cambr. The trail we cleared was a perimeter. They had some problem with the inner gully area being totally torn up. bikes were almost banned. They had closed that area off and the perimeter development was a compromise. I am sure cambr has th current official details on access.

I lived in Itasca at the time, so going to Palos was not a whole lot more of a drive than deer grove. Palos is the place I did my first 'real' mt biking. I had been riding a mt bike on tame off path trails in busse woods for years before that. Palos was also the first place I started wearing a helmet. At the time I last rode it, there were some pretty steep gullys and a few good drop offs. Fairly advanced stuff I guess for such a generally flat area.

Try and get a trip in up to Wausau this summer. The singletrack is really worth the drive and the camping at rib mt state park is pretty nice. We also shuttled rib mt, but I am not sure if that is officially allowed.

I did the Chequamegon 40 ride a couple of times in the mid 90s. That is way way up north near cable/hayward, WI. The trails are great and vast up there, but it is a very long drive.

I also did a race in 95 at chestnut mt resort in Galena, IL. I am not sure what the mt biking policy is there, but at the time we were using the lifts with bikes and there was a good deal of trail around.

The rails to trails in the local chicagoland area are great for racking up miles which helps the overall endurance and time in the saddle.

The downtown lakeshore bike path has the best scenery near the beaches :-)