Anyone have any suggestions riding out of Chicago for a 3-4 week tour?
 

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?

This past summer, @jppe cycled from Oregon to Boston, and found an [post=19048797]enjoyable route[/post] through Chicago to Gary Indiana and beyond. With that eastward direction in mind, may I suggest then turning North and riding in Michigan along the eastern Coast of Lake Michigan. This area is regarded as great for cycling,with some annual organized tours. This past fall, I drove from Grand Rapids to Traverse City, and the area is not too urbanized and traffic was light. It is however a popular tourist destination in the summer.

You could ride North and then double back to Chicago, or take a ferry from Ludington, MI across the Lake to MIlwaukee, and then ride back to Chicago through Wisconsin. BF subscriber @Irwin 7638 is an active cyclist in western Michigan, out of Kalamazoo.

BTW I’ve had this problem with posting links from my computer since the programming change back in June. jppe's post about Chicago is on the Fifty-Plus Foum, last reply on September 13: Chicago.....AND Gary in the Rear View Mirror!!.

Look up the Grand Illinois Trail. Its basically a route that uses a bunch of individual trails and sone rural roads to form a 575mile route encircling northern Illinois.

You could incorporate that into the ride to Minneapolis.

It takes younwest to Rock Island via the I&M canal trail which vonnects to the Hennepin canal trail. Then you go north along the Mississippi. Up near Galena, insread of heading east, you could route yourself up to Minneapolis. Then when heading home, you could get near Galena and go east which would put you back on the Grand Illinois Trail. That leads you to the NW burbs and trsils tske you to Chicago, or you could ride on to the North Shore and take a bunch of those trails down into the city.

2 birds 1 stone. You would have ridden to minneapolis and ridden the Grand Illinois Trail.

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.

If you wanted to go up to Minneapolis, there is a pretty good trail section that you could incorporate into your route, start with the Jane Adams trail (google it for more info) which connects with the Badger State trail in WI and takes you up to Madison. From there you could revert back to roads (Dane and Sauk counties, see county maps) until you connect to the four trails route (one of the links below) to get to the Mississippi. Then take the Great River Road up north a ways.

I am unaware of a good route map that would string all of this together but I think a lot of it could be done with very little research.

Some useful links:
Bicycle trails - Wisconsin DNR
Wisconsin Department of Transportation Great River Road (Mississippi River Trail) Bicycle Map
Wisconsin Department of Transportation Travel by bike
http://www.bike4trails.com/Bike4Trailsmap.pdf
Wisconsin Department of Transportation County bicycle maps

May or may not help.
State Trails Map: Minnesota DNR

If you wanted to add a train ride from St Paul MN to Chicago at the end, the Empire Builder train could take you home. The timetable for a ride however might not be the most convenient.

Wisconsin bike trails require a trail pass, annual price is up to $25 now.

Minnesota DOT also publishes a state highway map oriented towards bicycling, I have a paper copy but do not know how to ask them for a copy. Maybe google would help.

MN State Bicycle Map...

Minnesota Bicycle Maps - Bicycling

They also have another great map called, "Guide to Minnesota State Parks and Trails", the one I have is 2016-2017. It looks like is is produced by MN DNR. 888-646-6367. Or...

Minnesota State Parks and Trails Guide: Minnesota DNR

You'll have lots of time to get these maps. Yes I am older and prefer paper maps!

Here is a link to the Minneapolis City Map which would come in handy:

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/bicycles/ga/WCMS1P-135602

I can't find a link to get the map mailed; I think I shot them an E-Mail.

Wow, these look very comprehensive. Thanks very much for the links!

Look at Adventure Cycling's route network.

ACA's Northern Tier route passes just south of the Great Lakes and is some pretty fine rural touring through the Midwest. I was able to get to Maine in three weeks from Chicago. Rail back to Chicago from Portland is fairly easy. You need to change stations in Boston, though.

Has anyone mentioned a loop around Lake Michigan, at least as part of the trip?

If you have 3-4 weeks for this, at 50 miles per day that would be 1,050 to 1400 miles. It's hard to figure out a route not knowing just a little of what your capable of. Also, if your looking at transportation, that will make a big difference.

Another thing you may want to figure out is, do you want to see something different. If you go up to MN, well, most of the state looks like Iowa, Illinois or any other farming area. I don't mind riding in areas like that. The northern border of MN does not look like the southern border. The trees up north are a lot like the ones you see out in Colorado, spruce, aspen, etc.

If you have never been to Minneapolis and enjoy being in the city, I would spend some time riding around the vast trail system they have. Maybe visit downtown. Maybe get a hotel for a couple days to do this.

I'm not trying to steer your trip into MN, I've been there a few times with my bike; I trucked it up from MO just to ride some trails. I've never been to Michigan or Wisconsin. I bet they are nice.

You know this song?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wr...und_Fitzgerald

I've always wanted to go here in Detroit:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariners%27_Church

This is a loop my wife and I did around Michigan few years ago. It, or variant, would make a nice ride.
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/y...trip/route.jpg

We have also ridden the same route out of Chicago through Indiana that was mentioned above. I gave the rider mentioned in Joe from Boston's post the information on our route. He essentially used the same route. If you are interested PM me.

If you do end up in Winnipeg, you will need to figure out how to get back to Chicago. This summer on a portion of our ride across Canada, we had to ride from Winnipeg to Fargo, ND; the nearest train station that accepted checked baggage.

Just another option, if you like hot weather a whole bunch. If you can figure out how to get to Staunton, IL., you can take trails all the way to Kansas City, MO. for 95% of the way.

Three trails will do this: Quercus Grove, Katy Trail, Rock Island Trail. Sure, a couple gaps and some road riding, But trail for the most part.

Here is a thread I started about Rock Island and the Katy Trail:

http://www.bikeforums.net/touring/10...rail-news.html

Madison County Transit in Illinois (link to map)

MCT Trails Map

I'll let ya research the Katy trail and the Rock Island, lots of info on the web.

One more tidbit...mostly unpaved, fine ground limestone smooth on a dry day. Wet...could be an issue especially with certain tires.

+1,
and this looped route we made below can connect you to Minnie-St. Paul from the Grand IL trail (Map is in 2 parts). There is quite a bit of rail to trail riding in the first 250 miles.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/11562367

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/11438913

There are all kinds of options from Chicago. You might look at a trip around the lakes and back across Michigan. In the past few years I have had some really good trips using Amtrak to a point and riding back or vice versa. They have made it progressively easier to travel with a bike on their trains. You could ride up to the twin cities and down the Great River Road as far as time allows. There are lots of interesting ideas in the midwest. Look through the trips on my blog and see if you get some ideas.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U7c3fLdrqX...617_090637.jpg

Marc

Watch any MN highways they love rumble strips and the rumble cover the entire shoulder. The maps may show a shoulder on the road but don't trust it. If you're not use to riding in the marked lane than you might want to watch out. Pray for no wind.

You may want to take a ferry across Lake Michigan from Manitowoc to Ludington (or Milwaukee to Muskegon = $95) and head north along the lake from there. Traverse City, Harbor Springs, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Empire, Charlevoix, Mackinac City and Island, then loop back west in the UP. I rode the ferry with my motorcycle and I think it cost $72 for you and your bike. Save you from going around the south end of Lake Michigan. I did that on the motorcycle a couple of months ago and I do not consider that fun (and going through Chicago was no fun - I love the city, but not motorcycle friendly so I would probably say the same for bicycles - on the south side especially).

https://jet.com/product/product/47e8...959fc18a9e2f97

Actually there is a network of trails and routes from the loop to Indiana Dunes which avoids most of the problems you might expect in South Chicago. It also takes you around the industrial cesspool in Gary. I've done it a couple of times.

Marc

I didn't have a lot of options on the MC and needed to get to the north - yuck! Glad you have good bicycle options.

I'm a Chicagoan and I love bike touring in Michigan where I have family. The summer of 2015 we made a loop ride leaving from our Wicker Park home and riding north to Manitowoc, Wi., where we took the ferry to Ludington. From Ludington we headed basically east mostly following USBR #20 before turning south at Bay City to the Ann Arbor/Grass Lake area. We then went mostly west around the south end of Lake Michigan and back to Chicago. The ride is flat-to-rolling with a couple challenging but not overwhelming, i.e. needing to walk, hills. This route took us about 4 weeks riding 30-35 miles per day. It also included a couple of rest days

I used ridewithgps.com to plan the route and like that they show designated bike trails/paths. Riding out of and back into Chicago was absolutely no problem using the designated roads/trails. The main issue was a lack of campgrounds between Chicago and Milwaukee forcing us to motel-it the first three days.

In 2014 we did the aforementioned ride up the Lake Michigan shoreline from Michigan City, In to Mackinaw City. The route has received the USBR #35 designation. The hills were more challenging than last year's loop ride, but still doable.

Michigan's state campgrounds are outstanding for the most part. Their Dept of Trans, as well as the Adventure Cycling Assoc., can supply routing directions for USBR 20 and 35. I used Allstays | Campgrounds | RV Parks to locate campgrounds.

Have fun.