I’m thinking about moving to an apartment just East of Ohare airport. However, I am looking for a semi safe cycling route/s near Ohare, DesPlaines, Park Ridge and/or Northwest Chicago area. The DesPlaines river trail is not paved and will not work for me on a road/tri bike. Any ideas?
Are you familiar with the Chicago area and suburbs? Are you looking for a training route, commuting route, or just wanna ride? I live just NW of Ohare, and I commute thru Desplaines and Park Ridge to get to my job on the NW side of Chicago, about a mile East of the Chicago/Park Ridge border. Algonquin Road, which is north of Touhy Ave. (northern border of Ohare) seems to be the safest, fastest route, fewer cars than the other east-west roads, and a bit quieter. There are a few traffic lights and 2 RR crossings, a 1 mile stretch of forrest preserve, which is scary dark at night, and some decent roads, at least for Chicago. Algonquin turns to Riverside Drive, then to Talcott Ave, which brings you about a mile or two from the North branch trail (off Devon and Milwaukee Aves.) which is a great bike path that goes up to the Chicago Botanic Gardens. In the summer, it’s like riding through a tunnel of trees. Going the opposite direction will take you to Devon Ave. which, when taken all the way east, brings you to the Chicago Lakefront path, which is simply breathtaking. Can be a little crowded on hot summer days.
Going west from Ohare’s east side via Higgins Ave., Touhy Ave. becomes Higgins again in Elk Grove Village. Busse Woods has a 7.5 mile loop, lots of trees and fishermen, a few bridges, and a shady area where you can stop and take a nap with some big ol’ elk.
busse woods has a nice system of paved trails, great for mountain bikes, passable for road bikes. the pavement is fine, but the path is narrow and winding so it is hard to go fast on a road bike. that said, if you could at all swing it, i would really, really avoid living just east of o’hare, you’re never going to get any good sleep. lots of big and small very noisy aircraft come on landing approaches at low altitudes over that area nearly 24/7.
Oh yeah, what GregX mentioned about the noise. Ohare’s got that new runway where planes fly right over the Touhy/Higgins “S” curve. Spectacular sights from I90, but I can’t imagine what the noise would be like. There’s a Target store north of the Allstate Arena, in-line with a different runway, that, when you’re inside, sounds like a constant thunderstorm outside, but it’s the planes flying right over. As a matter of fact, Target has a giant red target painted on the roof that can be seen by passengers aboard the landing planes. You can see it on GoogleEarth/GoogleMaps. Advertising genius!
In regards to the noise, yes, planes do fly very low nearly all the time. However, as a resident of Park Ridge essentially my entire life, I can tell you that you will sleep just fine. It may take a week or two to get used to it, but you will just get used to it. It won’t be a problem.
As for the riding. Ed-force mentions Algonquin Rd. This is probably the most passable road to ride on, but as soon as you get maybe 5-8 miles west on Algonquin it turns into major urban sprawl, so long riding on it is not all that feasible. In all honesty, there really aren’t that many places to go without driving there, unless you have an immense amount of patience with busy roads and aggressive drivers. It takes a while to get out of it too, which is the problem. I have grown quite fond of my trainer whenever I go back to Park Ridge. It just isn’t efficient trying to fight the stop lights and traffic out on the road.
The running is great though. The forest preserves are phenomenal places to run, as they are sparsely interrupted and shaded. I couldn’t even tell you the number of miles I have put down in there. You will most certainly enjoy that aspect of the area.