Good Chicago to Madison Route
 

I posted a moment ago about a route to Milwaukee. It didn't show up, I don't think. Good thing, it turns out. I'm going to Madison. :)


CHICAGO TO MADISON: THe Route?

Looking for: stretches of path, safe, fast....

Anyone know of a good way to go? I got my tires all pumped up...

THank you.

No. Sorry. I commuted between Chicago and Madison every weekend for 2 years. The only way to get there without riding 160+mi is to take the Van Galder bus and pay the $10 to store your bike on the underside.

*Edit* 2 weeks to 2 years.

asdf
 

No disrespect intended, but wouldnt "every weekend for 2 weeks" be exactly one or two times, depending?

I was hoping for a kind of small highway, bike trail combo style of getting there...

How about Barrington to Madison?

First, take the Metra (the only way to fly) NW line from Chicago to Barrington.
http://metrarail.com/Sched/cnw_nw/cnw_nw.shtml

Then, take this route from Barrington to Lake Geneva,
http://www.chicagotriclub.com/info/directions.asp


Then, use these maps to get from Lake Geneva to Madison, they are very accurate in terms of biking conditions,
http://www.dot.state.wi.us/travel/bi...countymaps.htm

You will go through Walworth, Rock and Dane counties, you may go through Jefferson county as an option insted of Rock county

You can probably get a few people to put together a route, but it's not going to be short. If you can get out of the city to Lake County, I can get you to Lake Geneva or thereabouts. Need someone to get you the next step. - TF

If you go Metra, go to Fox Lake - a lot closer. - TF

Metra to Harvard would be good also. Fox Lake it is difficult to find a good route from there without riding a mile on Rt 12 then taking Wilmot Rd into Wisconsin. From Harvard I'd head west to the Long Praire Path and stony bridge trail to Rockton. I posted a route on Bikely for this. Then from Rockton make your way up on country roads Northwest to Madison.

here is the link to the route I posted. It is one of my favorite rides. From the metra station I go a bit out of the way on Country roads to get to the Long Prairie trail. RT 173 is more direct but busier.

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...g-Prarie-Trail

I live in Evanston and commute to Highland Park when I am not traveling somewhere. I grew up in Madison, Wisconsin.

I have posted several pieces of these routes at www.gpsies.com, a German site that has an excellent interface for laying out bike routes. Here are some scenarios:

1. Most of the way out to the Elgin area you can ride on city bike lanes or the Illinois Prairie Path. At Elgin, take the Fox River Trail north to McHenry. There, you catch the Grand Illinois Trail (mostly on small roads) west to Freeport. At Freeport, take the Jane Addams trail north to where it becomes the Badger State Trail. The Badger State Trail is almost finished, but has a section that is only single track still. You can shortcut north of Rockford over to the Badger State Trail using minor roads, and shorten this route by about 20 miles.

2. Same as above, only take either the Lake Shore path and the Green Bay Trail or use the Skokie River or Des Plaines River trails to get north to the Lake Bluff or Libertyville areas. From Lake Bluff, there is a marked route west to McHenry. I have this route posted at gpsies.com.

3. An alternative to the Grand Illinois/Jane Addams/Badger State Route (which takes you well to the west of Madison) is what I call the "Hypotenuse Trail." A network of county roads from the Lake Geneva area up to Dane County. I have it charted at www.gpsies.com.

4. You could always ride to Lake Bluff and continue on minor roads north to Milwaukee, then take the Glacial Drumlin Trail from Waukesha west to Madison. Several minor trails are under construction or already running between Milwaukee and Waukesha, including the Oak Leaf Trail, but I don't know how well marked they are or how direct they are. The Glacial Drumlin Trail costs $4.00 to ride, and has a minor gap near Cottage Grove east of Madison. It's worth it, considering that you don't even need a map, because the Glacial Drumlin Trail is so easy to use.

A good resource would be the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation map, which is for sale at most Chiago bikeshops, and costs about $6.00.

Howard

Didn't we just do this?

ST Charles, IL to Fort Atkinson, WI

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=427915

madison to kenosha: route?

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=428685

I think once you cross the Cheddar Curtain, you can ride just about anything between say Beloit and Madison. There is no -direct- route though.

Commuted every weekend for 2 years. Sorry for the typo.

I don't think anyone has done it...for a reason.

Many thanks to all of you for giving advice and thoughts. I will make use of all of them. metzenberg, i look forward to trying any of those routes in general. they sound like fun.

In the end, we ended up driving to a town called Elroy. Parked the car there and then rode to Sparta, a 32mi one-way, full of interesting old rail tunnels (bring a flashlight) and long graduate ups/downs. I don't know if the trail is well-known on BikeForums, but we had a nice time. We stayed in sparta for the night and rode back the next day.

If you have any questions about the trail/trip, feel free.

Sorry you didn't get this sooner ---

This is the way to go, with plenty of places to stop on the way:

http://www.thechainlink.org/profile/MattM

Okay, now for us that don't have Google Earth installed in our computer - how about a recap in text? :rolleyes:

Chicago to Madison route
 

Google Earth is free to download - otherwise you're stuck looking at about 10 different maps. Also if you get a GPS unit you'll be making the trip far easier on yourself. Beware of automatic routing on your GPS unit, however, that is something you'll have to turn off before touring.

I just posted the 2009 tour to

http://www.bikely.com/listpaths/by/marchman321

as well in 3 legs. Campsite options are also Delafield (Nagawaukee), Sandhill Station, and Kettle Moraine.

Otherwise the tour trails go like this....
Capital City
Glacial Drumlin
New Berlin
Oak Leaf
MRK trail or Racine/Kenosha trail - strongly recommend the Kenosha lakefront and the Racine Root River trail -
Robert McClory Trail
Green Bay trail
Use your preferred route to downtown Chicago with this map :
http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en...bike_maps.html
Connect to the Chicago Lakefront Path if you wish - it's spectacular if you've never been on it.

Please don't sweat the connection between Main Street in Evanston and Chicago at Howard Street. It's only a 10 minute ride.

I guess I'm not tech geeky enough for touring anymore then. I don't want to load more software and buy GPS units. I'm not checking a computer to see where to turn. Just tell me where to go! (okay, maybe not that) :o

Just tell us - Hwy 36 to the Racine County trail until 45, then north to St. Martin, west on that trail to Mooreland, ... blah blah.

Never mind. :D

(that's it, I've had it with these pop-up video ads here on BF!)

Links to trail maps
 

John - this is a page from the custom mapset I made for the tour from Chicago. The bike forums uploader won't let me upload the Powerpoint because it's too big....

The maps for all trails on the route are available for free over the internet from state and local
governments.
Illinois statewide bicycle maps
http://www.dot.state.il.us/bikemap/STATE.HTML
Wisconsin statewide bicycle maps
http://www.dot.state.wi.us/travel/bi...t/bikemaps.htm
Chicago's bicycle map, lakefront trail to Evanston lakefront
http://www.cityofchicago.org/Transpo...ap/keymap.html
Wilmette bike map
http://www.wilmette.com/bicycle/BicycleMap.pdf
Lake County bike map, Robert McClory trail
http://lakecountyil.gov/Transportati...eway%20Map.pdf
Kenosha bike map, Kenosha streets and lakefront, Kenosha County trail
http://www.kenosha.org/departments/p...keBrochure.pdf
Racine bike map, Racine streets and lakefront, Racine County trail
http://www.racine.org/racine_maps.html
City of Racine bike map, Racine streets and lakefront detail
http://www.cityofracine.org/Depts/pu...way_System.pdf
Milwaukee Bicycle Maps, Oak Leaf Trail (Milwaukee County)
http://www.milwaukee.gov/maps4460.htm
New Berlin Bicycle Trail map (Waukesha County site)
http://www.waukeshacounty.gov/page.a...10888&id=10934
Glacial Drumlin Trail map (Wisconsin State Parks and Recreation)
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/parks/spe...drumlinmap.pdf
City of Madison official bike map
http://www.cityofmadison.com/traffic...Master2006.pdf

Updated online map links
 

Sorry folks - ignore the last post. These will take you to all the maps you need for Chicago - Milwaukee - Madison.

Sorry you can't at least figure out Bikely, John. You don't need any software to get to their site. For a fee I can give you the Powerpoint and written instructions, but that's not at all necessary. Here's the link again: http://www.bikely.com/listpaths/by/marchman321


----- Again here are the UPDATED and functioning links as of 9/19/2010 -----

The maps for all trails on the route are available for free over the internet from state and local
governments.
Illinois statewide bicycle maps
http://www.dot.state.il.us/bikemap/STATE.HTML
Wisconsin statewide bicycle maps
http://www.dot.state.wi.us/travel/bi...t/bikemaps.htm
Chicago's bicycle map, lakefront trail to Evanston lakefront
http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en...bike_maps.html
Wilmette bike map
http://www.wilmette.com/departments/...nwilmette.aspx
Lake County bike map, Robert McClory trail
http://lakecountyil.gov/Transportati...eway%20Map.pdf
Kenosha bike map, Kenosha streets and lakefront, Kenosha County trail
http://www.kenosha.org/departments/p...keBrochure.pdf
Racine bike map, Racine streets and lakefront, Racine County trail
https://www.realracine.com/maps.html
City of Racine bike map, Racine streets and lakefront detail
http://www.cityofracine.org/City/Dep...ic.aspx?id=651
Milwaukee Bicycle Maps, Oak Leaf Trail (Milwaukee County)
http://www.milwaukee.gov/maps4460.htm
New Berlin Bicycle Trail map (Waukesha County site)
http://www.waukeshacounty.gov/page.a...10888&id=10934
Glacial Drumlin Trail map (Wisconsin State Parks and Recreation)
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/...drumlinmap.pdf
City of Madison official bike map
http://www.cityofmadison.com/traffic...ering/maps.cfm