So far this riding season I have ridden 2 trails, or parts of trails, that I have not ridden in many years ~ Elroy Sparta Trail and Des Plaines River Trail (Far Northern End) ~ and 2 trails that I have never ridden before ~ Prospect Heights Trail and Kankakee River Trail ~ in addition to the trails that I ride all of the time, of course.

I usually try to post the Ride Report and Photo Tour pages to this site prior to posting a blog about them but it could be quite a while before I get to all those pages so I decided to post a summary of all of these trails first ~ with a few photo collages to go along with the summary.

Stay tuned though because I will post the Full Ride Reports and Photo Tours of these trails eventually.

So getting right to the trails.. We rode the Prospect Height Trail first this year ~ in May.

The Prospect Height Trail is in a convenient location (for many of us) but it is a real contract between Nature and Industrial Sprawl.

Most of the time, I just stick to scenic, natural bike trail photos and try to avoid power lines and other distractions unless I am writing about them specifically (which I do on occasion). In this case, the Power Plant along the trail was so obtrusive, I just had to get some close up photos of that. After all, there are trails with all sorts of “scenery”.

This trail connects to the path around Lake Arlington at the northwest end of the trail. Lake Arlington is nice and scenic but in general it is usually really crowded which makes it difficult to ride and not much fun for the short distance involved.

The next section of trail that we rode, and that I have not been to for years was the northern end of the Des Plaines River Trail (DPRT) through Van Patton Woods. I have been on the DPRT many times recently ~ it is one of my favorite trails ~ but I rarely make it all the way to the northern end of the trail ~ near the Wisconsin border.

So for this ride we drove the northern trail head off of Russell Road and went south from there through Van Patton Woods (VPW). VPW is very nice but we were actually there on Memorial Day weekend and it was pretty crowded due the nice day and holiday weekend. We rode south on DPRT to just past Gurnee and back. This is a nice ride.

Moving on to June, the next trail that I rode, and haven’t been on for years, was the Elroy Sparta Trail (EST) in Wisconsin.

I rode this trail with my brother who wanted to try a recumbent bike which we rented at a Speeds Bike Shop near the trail in Sparta. The people at this bike shop were really nice and the rental was a pretty good deal.

We didn’t ride far on the EST but I suggested that, as long as we were on this trail, we had to see one of the tunnels. So se started our ride near Norwalk, Wis. and rode to Tunnel #3 (in the photos to the left).

This is the longest tunnel on the trail ~ 3,810 feet to be exact ~ and we walked through the tunnel. If you have never been through one of the converted rails-to-trails tunnels on a bike trail, I would suggest going to one to check it out. It is pretty cool (literally cool too) and interesting.

And finally the last new trail that we rode in June, that I had never ridden before, was the Kankakee River Trail (KRT).

This is a really nice trail and there are quite a few different places along the trail where you can park and get on the trail. We got on the trail at the southeast end just southeast of Willmington, Il off of Route 102.

The Kankakee River Trail is not that long ~ about 11 miles one way ~ but it is a very scenic ride. The trail is mostly paved except for about 3 miles on the northwest end of the trail.

Before we rode this trail I read a few articles that people posted about the trail and they talked about the steep hills on the trail which made me a little nervous. I don’t like really steep hills that are so difficult that you end up walking up the hills.

Well, now that I have ridden this trail, I would say that the hills are not that bad. There are some hills but really nothing all that difficult.

Well, as I mentioned above, stay tuned… because I will eventually post all the photos and ride reports on these trails… and the other trails that I will surely be riding this year also!

BTW, You can click on either of the Photo Collages above for a much larger view of the photos.

BTW2, I keep a lot of stats and things in spreadsheets and I have kept my bike mile totals at the end of each year in one of my spreadsheets. I have been riding over 1,000 miles a year ~ and over 2,000 miles a couple of times ~ and my total miles, since I’ve had Bike Computers (from 1997) is now 20,469.

It just goes to show, if you ride a lot and consistently you do rack up lots of miles…

We found a really nice south western Chicagoland bike trail this past fall and I am finally getting around to posting the last of the 2015 riding season photos and ride reports.

It is looking like 2016 riding season will be here real soon now (with these 60s in February!) so I’ll be busy riding and collecting new photos and trail information soon.

Anyway, as you can see from this blog post title, we rode the Old Plank Road Trail (OPRT) this past fall (in October). We rode a total of 44 miles on the OPRT and on the trail through the Hickory Creek Preserve but we were just a little early for the new trail extension that they just completed that now connects the OPRT with the Thorn Creek Trail (in case you want to add even more miles to your ride on these trails).

This trail is paved and mostly straight (east and west mostly) and flat although if you want a hilly, curvy ride, the trail that goes through the Hickory Creek Preserve will give you that.

I have ridden many more trails north and west of Chicago and in Wisconsin than I have in the southern Chicagoland area but there are some good trails Down South too! I also like exploring new areas too.

So for a very nice trail south and west of Chicago ~ between Joliet and Chicago Heights ~ check out the Old Plank Road Trail.

For the Maps, including the GPS map of our ride and for the photos and ride report, see our new Old Plank Road Trail pages here.

Stay tuned for the New 2016 Trails and Ride Reports coming soon…

Well I have been putting in some bike miles for this season but have not had a lot of time to update the about-bicycles blog here with all the latest… Until Now!

I am writing this article to let you know about some Southern Wisconsin Bike Trails that I have just discovered or trails that I have ridden in the past and for which I have just now posting the photos and ride reports.

White River Trail and the bridge over the White River

The first trail that I would like to mention is the White River Trail (WRT)  that heads east and west out of Burlington, Wisconsin. Both sections of this trail go into Burlington but they do not actually connect to each other although you could probably find a way to get from one to the other through the town of Burlington.

You can, however connect to the Seven Waters Trail (SWT) which heads northeast out of Burlington from the East Leg of the WRT. I did not get a chance to ride the SWT but we did ride both sides of the WRT just last month (June 2015).

This was a 38 mile ride and you can find all the details here on the new White River Trail pages. You will find the first-hand ride report, maps and photos of scenes along the trail on these new trail pages.

Kenosha Bike Trail on Lake Michigan

Next, I would like to let you know about the new trail pages that I just posted for our ride on the Kenosha Bike Trail (KBT) and Pike Bike Trail (PBT) in Kenosha, Wis.These are some nice bike trails along Lake Michigan just over the Wisconsin border.

We actually rode these trail in July of 2010 and I took a batch of photos but kind of forgot to upload the photos and ride report for this one :-(. So sorry, this ride is from a few years back but it was a very nice ride back then and I’m sure it still is. I would like to ride this one again and continue on to some of the connecting trails.

You can find our ride report and photos for The Kenosha Bike Trails here.

So if you are looking for some nice Wisconsin Bike trails within easy driving distrance from the Chicagoland area, these are a couple of good options.

Like the old cowboy used to say… Happy Trails to You ♫ …

I actually rode two Chain O’Lakes trails with a friend back in June but just completed the ride report and trail photo pages this weekend (hey what can I say, I’ve been out riding a lot 🙂 ). 

We rode the Chain O’Lakes trail that runs through Grant Woods forest preserve near Fox Lake first then drove up to Chain O’Lakes State Park (a little further northwest of Grant Woods) and rode the trails through the park.

I would liked to have ridden from the first trail to the state park trail but could not find a decent route between the two trails so we did an extra bike packing and drove to the state park trail.

Both of these trails are crushed stone and have some fairly steep hills. The trails were in pretty good shape except for a few ruts and washed out places on the state park trail.

These trails are not very long so you can easily ride one or even both of them, as we did, in a day and still have time left over for side trips or whatever else you would like to do.

We took a little side trip to the northern shore of Long Lake and rode around the residential area there during our first ride in Grant Woods. We also took a side trip through some Neighborhoods near Fox Lake where I used to hang out a lot when I was younger.

I have included the bike trail information, ride report and photos in the ever growing list of bike trail pages on this website now. See the Chain O’Lakes Trails pages for the full story and photos.

I finally had the opportunity to ride the Great River Trail (GRT) in Wisconsin last week and it did turn out to be a pretty “great” ride ~ although it would have been nicer if I had left a little earlier so I did not have to rush so much to try to get back before it got dark.

Lake Onalaska as seen from the Great River Trail

OK, the “great” in the trail name actually refers to the Great River ~ the Mississippi, of course ~ that flows near or next to the trail in some places. The most scenic part of this trail, in my opinion, is where it runs next to Lake Onalaska which forms the widest part of the Mississippi River.

This trail is 24 miles, one way, and runs from the town of Onalaska (on the southeast end) to the town of Trempealeau and through the Trempealeau Wildlife Refuge (at the northwest end).

I actually started my ride on the Lacrosse River Trail (LRT) in West Salem, Wi. which is about 7 miles east of the GRT. I have wanted to ride all 4 of the bike trails that run from Reedsburg, Wi. to the Trempealeau Wildlife Refuge for a long time now and, with this ride, I have ridden all 4 trails. I have ridden the entire distance of all of these trails now ~ approx. 100 miles at different times ~ with the exception of the Lacrosse River Trail where I only rode the 7 miles on this ride to get to the GRT.

You can get the details, maps and first hand ride photos of all 4 of these west central Wisconsin Trails from our Wisconsin bike trail articles on any one of these trails.

For example, see The Great River Trail home page (here) for the latest updates and photos on this trail and/or maps and descriptions of the other 3 connecting trails that make up this 100 mile route through west central Wisconsin.

A cyclist and friend of mine had ridden, photographed and written about the Great River Trail back in the Fall of 2006. You can find his ride story and photos along with the latest photos and updates from my recent ride via the Great River Trail link above.

Lake Onalaska near sunset

I enjoyed my ride on the Great River Trail last week although, as I mentioned above, I did not leave quite enough time to ride the distance that I had planned (64 miles both ways) and I had to rush more than I would have liked and ended up riding the last 5 miles or so in the dark (with no bike light, of course)

Fortunately, the trail itself was in great shape (very flat and well groomed) and was straight and flat so it was not as bad as riding a poorly maintained or more difficult trail in the dark.

I have included photos in this blog post of Lake Onalaska from early afternoon and at sunset from the pictures that I took on this ride. It can be a little difficult getting early evening photos of Lake Onalaska from the trail since you are looking west and right into the sun.

For a more detailed update and/or for the full Photo Tour of this ride see the Great River Trail link above or see The Great River Trail Photo Page 3 (here) to go directly to the photos from this May, 2014 ride.