fishtoes2000

I believe you're referring to the Musketawa trail.

If you're seeking bike trails, I'd suggest you check out the MTGA Trails Finder, but I'm biased since I work for MTGA.

devildogmech

Dude,

Don't let people freak you out about Gary. I used to ride Ridge Rd. back and forth to school (Ivy Tech - ICK!). The worst thing that ever happened was actually pretty funny! I had some chica yell "nice ass white boy!" as she passed me! Made my day!

ecurrrran

Hello there! I believe I have found myself in a similar situation as you were in 10 years ago. For years I've thought of taking Michigan Ave/US-12 from Detroit to Chicago. First it was going to be by car. Then I thought about taking the bus. Then I began riding and thought I could do bus and bike. Then I started going for long bike rides and solo adventures. For the past year the idea of riding from Campus Martius to Chicago via US-12 has plagued my mind. Much like from what I read, there is no particular reason I want to do this, other than to do it. So, I'm reaching out to you in the hopes that you did this trip and if you can, offer any advice on the best route to take and any other notable mentions along the way.


-Eddie

matchstick

If you look at my post for Le tour de shore in think forum you can find a route from Chicago to New Buffalo MI which in mostly paved bike path. From New Buffalo you can find many routes that people take for the bike across Michigan. Hope this helps.

DTownDave22

Welcome to Bike Forums!

I've probably posted about this before for a shorter trip when someone made an inquiry (and the trip was more so in my territory). It can become work looking for a route, especially a route that gets longer than 5, 10, 20 miles, with balance of time efficiency, safety, physical road condition, and other amenities for a ride like this such as an accessible restroom, source of food, lodging. This is not from personal experience of a long tour, but just general knowledge of riding a bicycle on the road and things you do when traveling longer distances.


The original poster does not appear to be active anymore. You may want to try private messaging him if you haven't already done so--he may have an active e-mail that notifies him of a PM.

I tend to just prefer sharing most of my thoughts up front instead bit-by-bit as I have a hard time remembering what I have and have not said that I would have liked to say about a question or topic (though it can get a bit long sometimes).

Local Bike Shop Employee: There's someone at a local bike shop that may have ridden a vaguely similar route as part of a longer tour (or maybe not, I'd have to look into it) and I'm sure plenty of others have done it, but it's not the type of thing that is widely written about like various other topics of leisure (I'm sure people do blogs about the general topic of tours and such). Also speaking of this, you may want to look at the LMB (League of Michigan Bicyclists, though not sure in which way or who to contact first), local bike shops (call around and maybe see if you can meet in person or at the shop when they have free-time if they have done it).

Why You Want to ride and Where You Ride in General: So are you doing a lot of your riding in the city of Detroit or do you ride in more rural cities fairly often on your longer rides? I can only say personally, I'm not crazy about riding on-road (road or shoulder) in rural/ semi-rural areas fairly close to me Downriver and do so less often than suburban/urban roads/settings for a few reasons.

I'd only suggest to make sure you've enough experience riding on similar settings (rural to semi-rural) for both the reasons noted but also from an enjoyment/stimulation standpoint. I only say this because your indications are vague and that it's just sort of a thought you've had and want to do it, and not really shared some general places you do a lot of your riding. By no means am I saying you shouldn't ride it--just curious what more specifically may have prompted you to try it as it's not a small undertaking.

If rural areas had fairly clear, smooth and wide shoulders, I'd be doing a lot more riding on them, but that's not really the uniform case at least around me and it can vary, with left-turn lanes not always being present to serve as a semi-passing lane. I do enjoy the fairly calm settings and oftentimes lower traffic volume though. It's especially nice to see less developed areas with "bigger skies" and a clear view of the sun near sunset or sunrise.

oddjob2

Why worry about Gary Indiana's reputation when the OP is in Chicago and is heading to Detroit?

Not the most direct route, but some alternatives to explore.
https://www.palmbiketour.org/about-palm/

If you do take Michigan Avenue, once you get to Clinton, Michigan, it probably would be more interesting to turn left onto M52, ride into Chelsea, check out the town and then east ond Dexter Ann Arbor Road. Lots of craft beer in Ann Arbor. From Ann Arbor, Plymouth Road to Plymouth, then the Hines Park Bikeway to Dearborn. You can reconnect with Michigan Avenue there.

https://www.eyeonmichigan.com/guides/hinespark/maps.php

Road Fan

I like this suggestion! I live in Ann Arbor close to downtown and the bike paths - stop by for a beer break!

Twang -O- Doom

Just to add a bit more for anyone thinking about doing this in the future.

For the IL-IN part you can take U.S. Bicycle Route 36 ( OpenCycleMap.org - the OpenStreetMap Cycle Map ) then a short hop to U.S. Bicycle Route 35 to get you up the coast a bit. Then follow one of the routes from the palm

USBR 36 is planned to go all the way to Detroit, but who knows how many decades that will take to happen.