Trail Closed at Central and Roselle Roads

There are a couple of things to be aware of if you are planning a ride on the Paul Douglas Trail this year (2019).

First, let me mention that I am referring to the trail in north Hoffman Estates that goes around the Paul Douglas Forest Preserve and also connects to the Crabtree Trail. I have this trail listed as the Algonquin Road Trail on this site  because some of the trail goes along Algonquin Road and that is wat it was referred to before they completed the part that goes all the way around PD Forest Preserve.

The things that you need to be aware of on this trail is that there is a part of the trail, that runs next to Huntington Freeman Road (just north of Lakewood Blvd) that floods quite a bit. and that the trail is closed (June 29, 2019 update) near the intersection of Central Road and Roselle Road.

Paul Douglas Flood section, June 29, 2019

The good news is that the flood area (along Freeman Road on the west side of the park) is not flooded at this time. This area was flooded up until a week or 2 ago (early June) but was not flooded on my last ride on June 29, 2019. The photo here shows where the flood area is a little wet and muddy but not flooded.

I don’t know if this just dried up on its own or if they pumped it out like I saw them doing last year around this time (it was much worse last year though). Anyway, it is easily passable now. Even if it is flooded it is just a short (my 1/4 mile) detour on Huntington Freeman Road that does not have a lot of traffic anyway.

The other obstacle is that the trail is closed down near Central and Roselle roads. The reason for this is that they are actually building a bike path bridge over Central Road here. If you look at the first photo that I included here (with the trail closed sign) you can see the bike path bridge in the background.

I think that the bike trail bridge over Central Road may be nice when it is done but then you still have to cross over Interstate 90 (there is a pedestrian path over the bridge) and cross a bunch of lanes of traffic (where traffic is getting off of I90) after that. Once you get past all of that there are some trails but I’m not sure if it is the best riding area right there.

Anyway, the trail around Paul Douglas Forest Preserve is still a pretty nice trail and much less crowded than other longer trails in the area (like Busse Woods). The PD trail is all paved but it is a little hilly in places.

If you want to extend your ride on this trail you can follow the bikepath northwest (right next to Algonquin Road) to the Crabtree Trail through the Crabtree Nature area or preserve. I don’t care for that route that much (since so much of it is along Algonquin Road). Instead I like to take a little side trip down Lakewood Blvd. and back which is a really nice, on a barely used 4 lane road and is a nice 2 mile extension which you can see on my Garmin GPS Map of one of recent my rides.

Here is one of my latest rides on the Paul Douglas Trail with the Lakewood Blvd. extension to the ride. Map of my Paul Douglas Ride on the Garmin website.

If you are looking for more details on these trails or many other trails in the area, you can search this blog or  just go to the Bike Trails Page on this website for a lot of details and photos of the trails.