We just did a 64 mile bike ride on the northern end of the Fox River Trail(FRT), from Dundee to Algonquin and including of the McHenry County Prairie Trail (PT) from Algonquin to Genoa City Wisconsin, yesterday.
This post is for the conditions on the Fox River Trail. There is no construction, flooding, detours or washouts in the northern part of the FRT (from Dundee north) at this time.
7/30/09 – Update
I rode the remaining southern part of the Fox River Trail (from Oswego to Dundee) yesterday. There is no flooding at this time but there are a number of detours and pending construction plans that you should be aware of.
The main construction and detours that you should be aware of as you go from south to north are:
Bridge Construction in Aurora – There is some major highway work being done on a bridge that the trail passes under near Aurora. The trail is open and the construction is fenced off but it looks like they could close it temporarily if necessary.
Trail Closed and Bridge Out, South Elgin – The stone bridge that goes over the river and under
Stone Bridge Closed
the train tracks around South Elgin has a big section missing and the trail before and after the bridge is closed. I went through the closed section to explore and was able to get by (very carefully) but this could change at any time and I can’t recommend going through this because it could be dangerous. There may be an easy detour around this but I didn’t take the detour so I can’t say.
Detours in St. Charles – There are some detours as you go through St. Charles but they are marked and not that much more difficult than going through St. Charles without the detours.
Detours in Elgin – There are some detours as you go through Elgin but this is pretty typical and the detours are marked.
Trail Closures for Stearns Road Bridge Project – There are large signs just north of the long bridges in south Elgin that say that they are building a new highway bridge over the Fox River and that parts of the trail will be closed from the end of July 2009 through December 2010 (all of next summer!). There may be a temporary detour but nothing specific was mentioned.
Stearns Road Bridge Construction
The signs refer the www.stearnsroad.com website which I visited and it gives a lot of information on the roads but nothing specific about the bike trail. There was also an email address posted and I have sent an email to this address requesting more information about the “temporary detour”. I will post an update here if/when I receive anything on this. The website said “The Fox River bike trail is set to be closed from South Elgin to the John J. Duerr Forest Preserve beginning 8/3/2009.”
I don’t get out to this trail all that often so if anyone has updates please feel free to add comments to this post.
Beware of the trail closure for the Stearns Road bridge work. A friend and I biked the trail on Monday, September 7 (Labor Day). We got tickets from the Kane County Forest Police for bypassing the closure barricades. Our ride started in South Elgin. We went south, around the barricades, to Duerr Forest Preserve, and went west to connect up with the trail in St Charles. We were stopped by the police on the return leg of our ride.
The officer was very professional about the situation. He even said that the closure wasn’t planned very well, since the trail is heavily traveled and no alternate route were put in place. They and the Kane County sheriff’s department were handing out tickets, since the train museum, which is right near the closure, had registered complaints about people “portaging”; using the rail right of way to bypass the closed trail. Understandably this makes for a very dangerous situation. People walking on or near the tracks and a train coming by.
I recommend you plan your rides, bypassing this closure, or until your learn that an alternate route has been put in place. The trail is scheduled to be closed for 1 year.
I came up with this Google Map of the path from Aurora to Elgin. The Stearns bridge work is continuing, and it is not fun to bypass it.
Fox River Bike Trail from Aurora to Elgin
Some of the signage throughout the system leaves much to be desired. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the updates everyone.
I just received the Stearns Road Newsletter (for 9/25/09) and I thought that I would just post the most relavent information related to the FRT (and the Prairie Path also) here. You can get the most up to date information at http://www.stearnsroad.com.
From the 9/25/09 Stearns Road Newsletter:
“The Illinois Prairie Path is closed between IL 25 and Lamplight Trail. This closure will be in effect until mid-October 2009.”
“The Fox River trail remains closed from South Elgin to the Jon Duerr Forest Preserve. This closure will be in effect until late fall of 2010. Please respect the closure signs and barricades by staying out of the work zone and off the adjacent railroad tracks.”