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Crystal Lake IL bike routes
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Hi,

I need to get a long bike workout in the Crystal Lake area to the northwest of Chicago next Sunday and am unfamiliar with the area. Prairie Path looked good initially but saw it has a 15 mph limit. Any suggestions from STers is appreciated.

Best,

Moovin
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Re: Crystal Lake IL bike routes [Moovin] [ In reply to ]
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Lots of great roads in that area.

If you start in Crystal Lake you can head east on crystal lake ave to Rawson bridge road to Roberts (still heading east) to river heading south then you can hook a left on Miller and take that all the way over to Old McHenry. You can head north or south on that road if you want more miles or you can flip around and head back.

Another option is to head north west out of crystal lake up to bull valley. Lots of great hills up there but some of the road quality is pretty poor.
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Re: Crystal Lake IL bike routes [Donkey Kong] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks Donkey Kong!
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Re: Crystal Lake IL bike routes [Moovin] [ In reply to ]
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Here's some good info on Starky's favorite routes in that area. Beautiful riding up there. Just be alert. Drivers aren't keeping an eye out for cyclists. http://www.mychicagoathlete.com/...-andrew-starykowicz/
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Re: Crystal Lake IL bike routes [Moovin] [ In reply to ]
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Donkey Kong was spot on. It's hard to go wrong west and north of there. Depending on how 'long' you need to go, heading up towards Lake Geneva/Fontana area has some very scenic riding.

A pretty popular ride that starts near there is the "Udder Century." There's all sorts of distances (Link here) and most can be found on RideWithGPS for turn-by-turn directions.

Udder Century 79 miles - https://ridewithgps.com/trips/15080166

Udder Century 103 miles - https://ridewithgps.com/trips/15068507

I kind of feel like your user name requires you to do an Udder Century route....
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Re: Crystal Lake IL bike routes [Moovin] [ In reply to ]
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Depending on how far you want to ride, some good options heading West out by Union area ( see the Udder Century routes posted for ideas ).

Another option is to head North up to Hebron area, and from there you can loop up to and around Lake Geneva ( start early though, as traffic around the lake on weekends gets busy around 10-11 with boaters ). Alternatively, you can head S/W from Hebron along Rose Farm road and back through Union.

See this activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/375152826 ( Start/Finish is at Wheel Werks in Crystal Lake, right by the train station ). Riding up to Lake Geneva and twice around is ~105 miles. If you go once around the lake, you'll have about ~85 miles. There are several places around Lake Geneva to get fluids/nutrition.

-Chris

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I ride Felt.
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Re: Crystal Lake IL bike routes [coredump] [ In reply to ]
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Have you had much luck doing that route in the Memorial Day-Labor Day season? The traffic around Geneva Lake is a little much for me in-season. The roads around there are in awesome shape, but the amount of SUV's towing boats and not realizing their trailers are wider than their vehicles when they pass is really nerve wracking.
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Re: Crystal Lake IL bike routes [dangle] [ In reply to ]
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dangle wrote:
Have you had much luck doing that route in the Memorial Day-Labor Day season? The traffic around Geneva Lake is a little much for me in-season. The roads around there are in awesome shape, but the amount of SUV's towing boats and not realizing their trailers are wider than their vehicles when they pass is really nerve wracking.

It's okay if you leave early in the AM from CL ( like 5-6 AM ). That gets you around the lake and headed back south by 8-9 AM, before most of the boat traffic. I agree it can get a bit crowded, especially on the east side of the lake around Bigfoot and Lake Geneva after 8-9 AM, so when I ride that route we try to be heading back south by then.

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I ride Felt.
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