ST Charles, IL to Fort Atkinson, WI
 

Has anyone ever ridden a route close to this? Which roads would you suggest?

Once you get north of the border, you could ride any of the roads on the map. Even Hwy 12 (the busiest) is ridable. But in Illinois? http://emoticons4u.com/happy/019.gif I'd have a hard time picking a route to drive.

Yeah. I want to avoid Rt 47 as much as possible.

what John said. but if you are doing it anytime soon, you had better bring a canoe!

My brother-in-law rode from Whitewater, WI to Wolcott, IN a few years ago. I don't know the exact route he took but I know he slept in Morris, IL so I don't know if he rode hwy 47 down or if he paralleled 47 on the country roads. I will try to remember to call him tonight and ask him.

This page http://www.dot.state.wi.us/travel/bi...countymaps.htm should help with the WI routes. You probably only need Jefferson and Walworth counties, but you could hit the corner of Rock county.


HTH
David

St. Charles is along the Fox River, not as far west as IL-47 (which I wouldn't ride on, anyway).

From St. Charles, one could hop on the Fox River Trail and head north through Kane and then McHenry Counties. I've ridden the trail as far north as the town of McHenry and this site says it goes as far as Genoa City, Wisconsin.

There you go. You're in Wisconsin. :)

DavzGN, thanks for looking into it for me

CyLowe97, The Fox River Trail is a good idea. However, I've never ridden it north of Elgin. According to the website, it's loose dirt and gravel towards the border and I don't know if it can be done via road bike. (My riding group would have at least 2 road bikes and two mountain bikes)

It's pavement at least up until McHenry, for sure. It's kind of tricky navigating through Crystal Lake, as it jumps on the roads for a few turns before it goes through the roller-coaster path in Sternes Woods, but it is paved.

That gets you a considerable way north (almost to Wisconsin, really) without dealing with too much traffic outside of crossroads.

It's paved into WI. The sections of the trail that are "unpaved" are usually hardpack and definitely traverable via road bike - at least every section I have ridden.

Keep in mind these things we ride can handle the cobblestone covered roads of Northern France and Belgium. I think they can handle WI.

Under water for now...

You _could_ ride 31 couldn't you? I know it's not wide, and traffic is brisk, but it's a pretty straight shot, has few stops, and doesn't it parallel the bike trail? I just drove that the other weekend, coming back to WI from Winfield, and although it was my first time on that road, it seemed pretty friendly.

31 is not safe for riding with traffic. It's a main north-south artery and traffic would not be expecting cyclists. Same would go for IL-25 that runs up the east side of the Fox River.

In all reality, the bike path is a fantastic and pretty direct way to get from St. Charles up to the Wisconsin border.

The question then is, what are the best roads to take from that point north/northwest to Fort Atkinson?

I wouldn't recommend 31 at all. It can get dicey fast. Parks department won't even go on the record recommending 31 or 25 as alternates for the trail for the sections under construction because they consider those routes too dangerous and don't want the liability.

Here's an old thread for Barrington to Lake Geneva: *CLICK*

Gah! For some reason I was thinking Fort Atkinson was toward Milwaukee, but it's not, is it? :o All this talk of Fox River Path might have been a bit premature.

Here's another idea. If you can get up to Union, IL, from St. Charles, you can follow the eastern part of the Udder Century route all the way up to Darien, WI. Map here.

The trick for that section would be getting up to Union from St. Charles.

That seems to make more sense than the Fox Trail. I can try to map some side roads that parallel major roads.

Dig through my old routeslip routes in the area and MapMyRide. At one point I logged a ton fo the big organized rides up and down the 47 corridor that should provide enough decent roads to pick from.


It should not be hard to get from St Charles to Union.

Psimet2001,

What's your username on mapmyride?