I rode a 16 mile stretch of the Des Plaines River Trail (DPRT) in Lake County last Sunday and just wanted to post an update on the trail and on my ride.

DPRT south of the Old School Forest Preserve

I started my ride near Half Day (I parked at the parking lot by the Egg Harbor Restaurant off of Route 22, Half Day Road) and rode north through Vernon Hills and Libertyville, through Independence Grove, under Interstate 94 and to Washington Street in Gurnee (near Six Flags Great America) where I turned around and headed back to Half Day.

My ride was 32 miles both ways. I like doing the 32 mile ride since that is the distance that I used to ride with my family on the Fox River and Prairie Trails from Dundee to Genoa City Wisconsin (1 way). We did this ride both ways a few times but would sometimes just go one way and have someone (usually me) turn around half way to go back for the car and pickup the other weary riders in Wisconsin.

Anyway back to my DPRT ride, the Trail Conditions were just fine. All of the highway underpasses were open (the river is not that high right now) and the trail was dry and in pretty good condition. There were a few rough patches, as usual, and a few loose gravel patches but nothing that was difficult at all. You can see the GPS map of my ride here on the Garmin Connect site.

I rode the trail on a beautiful summer weekend (on a Sunday) so there were more people out on the trail than usual (like on weekdays or in cooler weather). Still this trail does not get nearly as crowded as many of the other trails in here in northern Illinois and this is a very scenic trail and has some nice shady wooded areas for these sunny, hot summer days.

There must have been some equestrian convention going on or something last weekend since I must have passed at least 6 groups of horseback riders on the trail on this ride.

I forgot my good camera and was actually more just into riding on this ride so I don’t have any current photos 🙁 . The photo above was from this same part of the trail (just south of the Old School Trail and forest preserve) from a few years back. Unfortunately I did not have as good of a camera back then (and I think I’ve improved on my bike trail photos over time too) but the trails really looks the same now as it did back then anyway.

The Des Plaines River Trail is incredibly long!  You can ride this trail from the Wisconsin border down to Maywood, Illinois (I believe). I have ridden the trail (at different times) from the Wisconsin border to Park RIdge, Il. You can get the details of these rides and see plenty of DPRT photos on the Des Plaines River Trail pages on this site.

I really like many parts of this trail but the sections from Half Day to Independence Grove, in Libertyville, are some of my favorite parts. There are also some nice side trails off of the main DPRT like the one that winds through Wright Woods just north of Half Day.

I have a lot of work to do at the house this weekend but I might just play hooky and go out and do another long ride instead. 🙂