New Thoughts from Bob - 2025

 Bruce

My plan would be to augment a simple 300-mile 'round the lake' ride (per Tom) with two and a half days' sightseeing in Chicago, followed by six days/260 miles on the Great Illinois Trail.  Possible itinerary tabled below,

Tom has already selected accommodation at his six nominated overnight stops.  It would be easy for me to do something similar for the six overnights on the Great Illinois Trail.

Then over to you for a sanity check!

Bob

The GREAT CHITOWN Bike Tour

The Chicago area has a large number of rails-to-trails and greenway bike trails.  This tour is initially intended to include guests in addition to bicyclists and to be four to seven days in length, thereby allowing people to participate as their schedules might permit.  The date for this tour has not been finalized but most likely will be the third week in October 2019.

Chicago Lake Front Trail

Part of the tour includes touring some of Chicago's attractions.  We have three OPTIONS for this visit: 

- Loop Option: Loop the southern tip of Lake Michigan, This would be an 10-day trip (2 days travel, 6 days SAG- supported biking, and 2 days touring). No guests are anticipated

- Option 1: Stay in a motel in down town Chicago and use it as a base for daily bike rides and city tours. This would be an 8-day trip (2 days travel, 3 days unsupported biking, and 3 days touring). Guests are anticipated. 

- Option 2: Stay south of Chicago for cost considerations and include less urban biking.This would be an 8-day excursion (2 days travel, 3 days unsupported biking, and 3 days touring). Guests are anticipated. 

Without a doubt, downtown Chicago has more tourist attractions than the downtown of any city in the world.  One can spend several weeks just visiting them.  This tour only has three days.  Check out this list of 47 quality things to do and put your list together and we'll put together a SCHEDULE.

The Chicago area also offers lots of Rails to Trails and greenway trails (see the MAPS PAGE). Option #1 and Option #2 rely extensively of those trails, thereby minimizing urban biking as much as possible. The Loop Option relies on US Bike Routes.

ON-GOING CHANGES (Last update 8/22/19)

Expect continual changes on this website as potential participants offer ideas and suggestions (see added DISCUSSION Page).  The last change was made at 8/19/19, 10:30A