Yesterday, a friend and I went out and explored some new bike trails (which also connected to some bike trails that we had already ridden before) and had a really nice 35 mile ride.

I originally wanted to check out the Randall Road Bike Trail but it is actually a pretty short trail (4 miles) but what we discovered is that this is an excellent way to ride from the Fox River Trail to the Great Western Trail!

The other trail involved in getting from the FRT to the GWT is the River Bend Trail which is also known as the Silver Glen Trail. It is a little confusing since I have seen this trail referred to with 2 different names so I just referred to both names so people can find the info on it using either name.

The bridge over Randall Road on the River Bend (Silver Glen) Bike Trail

If you start on the Fox River Trail just before the long bridges in South Elgin, you’ll see a sign for the “Randall & Silver Glen Trails“. This is the River Bend Trail (as it is called on the map in the forest preserve that you go through).   Some of this bike trail goes along Silver Glen Road so I believe that is how the SGT name came about.

Anyway, if you get on the River Bend Trail from the Fox River Trail, you can follow the trail all the way to Randall Road. At Randall Road you can get on the north end of the Randall Road Trail which you can then take south the the Great Western Trail.

We connected to the GWT, as described above, and then took the GWT to Virgil, Illinois where we turned around and went back. I actually put together some bike trail pages, with photos for the River Bend Trail HERE.

The River Bend Trail is nice as you go through the John J Duerr Forest Preserve and if you take it through the wetland area west of Randall Road but the part that goes along Silver Glen Road is not that exciting.

A view of the northern end of the Randall Road Trail from the corn field

The Randall Road Trail is not very exciting either when you first get on at the northern end of the trail (at Silver Glen & Randall) but once you go over the long bridge (that runs parallel to Randall Road), it goes into a nice forest preserve area, followed by a real nice prairie and then you connect to the Great Western Trail (which I have always enjoyed).

There was no construction or detours on any of the trails that I have mentioned above and overall it was a really nice ride.