to play with hills?

I ride the beach access roads in North Shore 'burbs: Tower Rd. (two options), Glencoe Beach, Highland Park, Lake Forest, and Lake Bluff.

How bout y'all?

alex

to play with hills?

I ride the beach access roads in North Shore 'burbs: Tower Rd. (two options), Glencoe Beach, Highland Park, Lake Forest, and Lake Bluff.

How bout y'all?

alex

My favorite 'hill' is the access road just south of ft sheridan. thats a steep s.o.b.

as for road hills... I don't actually know where I rode two weeks ago, but it was quite nice and had some good hills. I think it was part of the Barrington loop, but I couldn't match it up with the Velo Club maps.

We drove and parked (cuts off 30 miles or so) to a park entrance the was North of Arlington heights on 53(?) just northeast (?) of its intersection with Lake Cook (?). From here, it was a ramling 20+ miles where we ended up hitting Algonquin road for a few hundred feet right before hit hits the Fox river in Algonquin. We followed the river for a while at made our way right into some smaller roads with some nice little hills (little as in I'm from Tennessee). We did about 4 loops 7ish mile loops circling back around and then down to the river, then made out way pack to the parking entrance for a total of 60 something miles.

Really nice stuff, rolling hills, farms, lots of riders, generally courtious drivers. I'm assuming this is a popular route and maybe I'm restating the obvious. I think i'm going to head back out this Sunday.

-Bernie

I am new to the road biking scene but I have been riding the barrington loop this summer during weekdays and doing the prairie path to wisconsin border during the weekends. Me and a co-worker meetup at dairy queen by rt. 72 (higgins rd) and go north from there. Pretty good ride. Maybe one of these days you'll pass me because I am so new to this and trying to stick with the bike rides fo health reasons. I have a yellow OCR frame that I just recently put together myself sometimes if I feel like it use my cannondale mountain bike with spinergy revxrox wheels. You might have passed me before, the clydesdale dude that huffing and puffing during the climbs. LOL I hope I stick with this exercise to stay healthy.

r_u_armstrong,

The Prarie Path goes to Wisconsin now?!? Sweet. Ten years ago I lived in Wheaton and rode the north-west and south-west forks all the time. Back then they ran into the path on the Fox river. I used to love riding through Fermi Lab too. Now I live in Bloomington IN. The hilly country side is an *awesome* place for cycling. But the Prarie Path is special, unlike anything else.

Enjoy,
T-shirt

Alex_in_Evanston,

I used to live in Wheaton about ten years ago. When I was maybe 17, I decided that I was going to practice some hill riding. There is a hill by Tindale Publishing that is about 100 feet long and probaly rises about 15 big feet. Well, that was the only hill I could find in Wheaton. So I decided to ride it over and over to get in some good hard training. (That was back in the days when men were men) So I went up, came back down and went up again. It was going well, I was building skills, endurance and muscles, I'm sure. On the third try, I started to feel a little wierd. My stomach felt not so good. As I came back down, I *knew* that I was going to puke. I ran myself off the road into the grass as fast as I could. I threw myself on the ground and just layed there for a long time. That day, I discovered heat sickness. Thankfully however, I did not throw up. ...So if you are interested in doing some climbing, watch out for that hill by Tindale Publishing.

T-shirt

I love this trail although it is pretty short but the trail is so smooth which is good for the equipment because it puts less stress on the wheels especially the rear. I rode it today and the whole loop is 8 miles (7.98 not counting the trails that branches off just the loop) After riding 50 miles last weekend at the prairie path, I rode the busse woods loop 8 times so I had a total of 64 miles and I felt pretty good after the ride, granted it did not have the steep hills that you encounter riding the prairie path but I love this busse woods trail. The only complain I have is that there are a lot of people on the trail and can't really go fast because you will have to yield at pedestrians and roller bladers but it is all good. Last Monday I rode for 24 miles at the barrington loop (12 miles/loop) I like this trail as well but I hate the fact that I have to cross so many roads and the construction on bartlett rd forces me to get off my bike because it is covered with gravel right now and your tires will get planted in the gravel if you do not walk your bike. I roder the barrington loop MWF and clocked a total of 72 miles and 64 miles today. I started earlier this year weighing in at 240 lbs and now I am down to 220 lbs and feeling great. By the way thanks for the dude that let me borrow is allen wrench, greatly appreciate it mate!!! Next weekend I am thinking of riding the prairie path again but this time I will be riding southbound towards elgin or aurora if I can make it. I will post the report of that ride.

P.S. The barrington loop I am referring to is the bode loop not the same barrington loop that the vcr bike team is referring to. I call it the barrington loop because it is along side of barrington road.

There's a great set of loops with great climbing along the Fox River. It's off of Rt. 25 over by Al Capone's steakhouse/hideaway. One climb out of the valley is simply referred to as
"the wall"...
There is also more gradual, steady climbing to be had.

There's a great set of loops with great climbing along the Fox River. It's off of Rt. 25 over by Al Capone's steakhouse/hideaway. One climb out of the valley is simply referred to as
"the wall"...
There is also more gradual, steady climbing to be had.


Hey!
I brought my bike while I'm out at St. Charles (down on 25 at the 'Q' Center). I know exactly where the Al Capone's Hideaway Rest. is. What is the route to complete the loop? I've done a bit on 25, Dunham, and Army Trail and did witness (but didn't do as I have a singlespeed trackie) this heinous hill off of 25 just north of Army Trail. Going down it would've been a blast but coming up it looked like I'd pop my cranks off!!

Let me know if you can, I'm here through Friday!

Best regards.

Ah, maybe next time! I'm swamped with work! What's the Q center... is that the old Arthur Andersen training campus?

Jes

Hey!
I brought my bike while I'm out at St. Charles (down on 25 at the 'Q' Center). I know exactly where the Al Capone's Hideaway Rest. is. What is the route to complete the loop? I've done a bit on 25, Dunham, and Army Trail and did witness (but didn't do as I have a singlespeed trackie) this heinous hill off of 25 just north of Army Trail. Going down it would've been a blast but coming up it looked like I'd pop my cranks off!!

Let me know if you can, I'm here through Friday!

Best regards.

Ah, maybe next time! I'm swamped with work! What's the Q center... is that the old Arthur Andersen training campus?

Jes


No problem! Yes, the Q Center is the old AA training campus. Are there any other interesting routes around here?

Thanks again!

First time poster here.....just recently got into the whole road biking thing and i'm looking for some routes that would provide me with a good 75-100 mile ride. I would most likely start out on the lakefront path and head north but i'm not exactly sure where to go once that path ends. the guy at the LBS suggested taking Sheridan Rd north but he wasn't too specific on the actual route. do any of you have suggestions for me? i'm not limiting myself to a northward bound journey too....that path just needs to be easily accessible for me. by that i mean avoiding busy congested roads. thank you in advance. oh yeah, also looking for a good route to take from the city to elgin/algonquin also (randall road and algonquin intersection). thanks again!

First time poster here.....just recently got into the whole road biking thing and i'm looking for some routes that would provide me with a good 75-100 mile ride. I would most likely start out on the lakefront path and head north but i'm not exactly sure where to go once that path ends. the guy at the LBS suggested taking Sheridan Rd north but he wasn't too specific on the actual route. do any of you have suggestions for me? i'm not limiting myself to a northward bound journey too....that path just needs to be easily accessible for me. by that i mean avoiding busy congested roads. thank you in advance. oh yeah, also looking for a good route to take from the city to elgin/algonquin also (randall road and algonquin intersection). thanks again!

The 'Sheridan Road' route is a popular one for the city dwellers. It is typically done up to Ft. Sheridan and then you can do several routes from there.

You need to make your way up to evanston then north on sheridan rd. there are a couple of times you'll leave sheridan rd.... at tower because sheridan is closed to cyclists. i take tower west to old green bay north to scott to get back to sheridan.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Highwood,IL&ll=42.118988,-87.739903&spn=0.007645,0.014910&hl=en

there are other variations like splitting at lambert to st johns north, but it depends on who you ride with. you might want to consider riding up with a group (i think xxxracing.org does a saturday morning 'no drop' ride).

As for your ride to algonquin... I've done it a couple ways (lake cook west and deerfield west). both of those routs sucked. I'll likely do it again this summer (we have friends in lake in the hills) and this is the route I'll take...

maps.google.com is a good place to try to figure this out... assuming you can make it up to ft sheridan. follow the map from here...

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Highwood,IL&ll=42.215820,-87.821375&spn=0.061157,0.119282&hl=en

ft sheridan rd to old elm rd west in highwood. old elm turn in to everett.
south on riverwoods
right/south on portwine
west on deerfield
deerfield turns into checker at 83
checker across arlignton heights road
checer continues west and then ends go north on old hicks
left on 53
west on long grove
north on ela
west on cuba
south on ridge rd
west on spring creek which turns into highland ave and t's into algonquin road in algonquin

http://www.vcrbiketeam.com/maps/barrington.pdf will give you some ideas, but some of the street names are hard to make out. again, google maps is pretty cool.

last year algonquin road was under construction and made for horrible biking with one lane and no shoulders. it looks like you could find your way in the burb streets on this map...
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Highwood,IL&ll=42.169006,-88.312346&spn=0.030579,0.059641&hl=en

someone may chime in with other suggestions... good luck,

-bernie

First time poster here.....just recently got into the whole road biking thing and i'm looking for some routes that would provide me with a good 75-100 mile ride. I would most likely start out on the lakefront path and head north but i'm not exactly sure where to go once that path ends. the guy at the LBS suggested taking Sheridan Rd north but he wasn't too specific on the actual route. do any of you have suggestions for me? i'm not limiting myself to a northward bound journey too....that path just needs to be easily accessible for me. by that i mean avoiding busy congested roads. thank you in advance. oh yeah, also looking for a good route to take from the city to elgin/algonquin also (randall road and algonquin intersection). thanks again!
Once you get up into Lake Co., check the maps on http://www.vcrbiketeam.org/ for routes. We have riders from the city ride up to the Sat and Sun rides. - TF

I bumped into the VCR B ride last Saturday on Quentin road. Did you see a couple of friendly guys in Turin jerseys?

It's a bit difficult getting to Long Grove from Evanston, but the rides do open up nicely out there. I've noticed that the VCR maps show Deerfield as your east-west route for the first couple of miles. I could really use a safe, sane east-west road at about that latitude, but I have never felt good about riding on Deerfield Rd. Any suggestions for unknown sidestreets to take me from, say, Highland Park to that light industrial area framed by Milwaukee, Deerfield and Aptakisic?

Presently, I'm winding my way up through Northbrook (Walters & Saunders) to wind up heading north on Portwine. I duck into the woods on a road called Orange Brace, just south of Deerfield Rd., and get spat out just east of the DP River on Deerfield. West on Deerfield into that previously mentioned light industrial park, and then up to Aptakisic for a few unlovely but safe miles to Long Grove. West of there is gravy.

Anyway, pardon the rambling, and back to the question: an east-west route from Highland Park to Buffalo Grove, and I am forever in your debt.

Alex

I bumped into the VCR B ride last Saturday on Quentin road. Did you see a couple of friendly guys in Turin jerseys?

It's a bit difficult getting to Long Grove from Evanston, but the rides do open up nicely out there. I've noticed that the VCR maps show Deerfield as your east-west route for the first couple of miles. I could really use a safe, sane east-west road at about that latitude, but I have never felt good about riding on Deerfield Rd. Any suggestions for unknown sidestreets to take me from, say, Highland Park to that light industrial area framed by Milwaukee, Deerfield and Aptakisic?

Presently, I'm winding my way up through Northbrook (Walters & Saunders) to wind up heading north on Portwine. I duck into the woods on a road called Orange Brace, just south of Deerfield Rd., and get spat out just east of the DP River on Deerfield. West on Deerfield into that previously mentioned light industrial park, and then up to Aptakisic for a few unlovely but safe miles to Long Grove. West of there is gravy.

Anyway, pardon the rambling, and back to the question: an east-west route from Highland Park to Buffalo Grove, and I am forever in your debt.

Alex
Sorry, The only roads that go across the river are Lake-Cook, Deerfield, Half Day, Townline... Deerfield is about the best until you get all the way up to Oak Spring. Old Rockland is OK for going across the river, but it doesn't go anywhere.

I haven't made a VCR ride yet this year. Racing on weekends and simply not connecting on weekdays. Really enjoyed the GDVC crit in Madison this past weekend. First time I've raced a Masters Cat4/5. Not as fast as a 50+, not as squirrelly as a 4/5.

I actually live out in Mundelein, so when I do to Deerfield/Lake Forest to ride with VCR it's for the group, not the roads. This morning I road solo from my house up to Twin Lakes, WI for breakfast. 65 miles round trip.

TF

Alex, what's your route to get from Evanston to the Northbrook area? I'm looking for new routes and I stumbled upon the VCR maps, I just can't figure out the most effecient/safest way to get to their starting points, or any other point to pick up their map trail. Presently I'm mostly a North/South rider because I'm not sure what roads are good to head West, and the Sheridan/Green Bay routes are beginning to become a bit stale.

I'm racking my brain for street names but they're not coming. Have you ever ridden the North Shore Century? It starts out the same way as that ride. You can find all kinds of cue sheets for rides starting in Evanston here:

http://evanstonbikeclub.org/RideCueSheets.html

See you around,

Alex