My wife and I are contemplating purchasing a second home on a river in McHenry, IL north of Chicago. She’ll probably spend a number of weeks there over the summer and I’ll come out when work permits. Does anyone have any knowledge of training spots in and around McHenry? And if you are looking to rent a place for the winter months or for a vacation April through August, we’ll have a place for you to consider if we move forward.
Jeff
Lots of good riding just west of there. A favorite route of mine starts in Algonquin and heads up to Lake Geneva via Bull Valley. Good rolling hills the entire way, especially through Bull Valley.
There’s a good bike path that runs South from McHenry all the way to Elgin. Good for running/cycling.
Fair amount of lakes in the area for OWS.
I like the area a lot, but I’m a bit partial, since I live here. 
-Chris
Wow, that sounds wonderful. My wife has visited a friend out there a few times and last time out they went house hunting (her friend is actually looking), and my wife fell in love with this place in McHenry. It was a very reasonable price, especially for a second home. We had been looking at upgrading to a bigger house in Phoenix, but decided to put a hold on that and look into having a place for her to go over the summers. I’ll go too, but I won’t be there nearly as much.
Jeff
good area for riding, have the hills of Bull Valley, a nice route up to Lake Geneva which has more good hills. good running, good fun in summer. My family has had a house on wonder lake for years, we enjoy it.
Not from the area but for anyone looking for biking in IL I HIGHLY recommend THESE. These maps give several grades of traffic levels as well as type and surface of roads. They have 5 or six levels of traffic based on volume of traffic, speed of traffic and if there is a shoulder to ride. These will also tell you if a road is paved or gravel.
I use these to do most of my long routes and can easily plan a trip in roads that I have never been on and have a fairly good idea what to expect. Couple this with a TOPO software and you have a well planned route with elevation etc etc.
~Matt
There are a number of groups and a good tri community in the NW suburbs with which you can train. You’ll be able to find a group for track workouts, gear heads that will pound you into the ground or swimmers who do open water swims along with master swim teams. The area is great for training and racing. I love the area and am not partial just because I live here.
The decision to drop some major bank on another place is getting easier with this information. Sounds like those that live in the area just love it. I love Phoenix from late October until early April. This will give us an excuse to get away.
Jeff
We live about 30 minutes, if that, from Mchenry and I will tell you that we all head OUT THAT way to ride!! Pretty flat to gently rolling - You know Cam Widoff is from this area…and his brother (someone correct me if I am wrong) lives here still - or did until recently? Anyway, very nice…of course, typical Illinois cold winters, but you know that. The prices in McHenry are totally reasonable still…since it is a drive into Chicago from there. Sounds great! I grew up here, so I am partial, but if you don’t have to be near the downtown for work, then McHenry is great - and you know what? Even that much closer to Rockford (where Chip does his Rockman TRI in June) and Madison…
My folks have a ‘get away’ house in that general area. I echo earlier comments on the nice biking on the roads in the area. There’s also a small state park right there (Moraine Hills) that is nice for running.
Great area! Being from the NW burbs originally, once I got involved with triathlon (and helped start up the tri club out of Mission Bay Multisport in Elgin), I discovered a whole new area to play. If you are on the river, there is obviously the benefits of boating, water skiing, jet skiing, etc. I had a few friends in H.S./college whose parents owned vacation spots up there.
Once I saw the great riding, some of the rolling hills, etc. I almost purchased a vacation spot up there myself before moving to So.Cal. Not only do you have a boat load (pardon the pun) of races to choose from May through September in Southern Wisconsin through Chicago area, but there are a TON of organized group rides i.e. the Udder Century, that are a great way to do some training. I could go out and ride with my roadie pals as they would be doing the group ride, but when I wanted to get in some interval training, would pull those slackers from one rest area to another (food to food!).
I may be interested in that vacation rental too I still try and go back a couple of times/year, but miss the fun on the lakes (if you go in winter you will also be fairly close to what is called skiing in the midwest at places like Wilmot Mountain just over the WI border). While McHenry probably isn’t a place I’d like to live full time, any of those places up on the Fox River and/or Chain of Lakes are definitely up on my list for future vacation homes.
This would truly be a “get away” house so I would have no need to go downtown other than when we want to. The place is on 3/4 of an acre and has 90 feet of frontage on the Fox River about 5 minutes from the lock, which leads into the Chain o Lakes. Given the prices of houses in Central Phoenix where I live, I almost fell over when my wife told me what they were asking. I’ll give more details when I know we’ve got it locked up and none of you can swoop in and nab it. 
how funny…growing up and watching the exodus from the Chicago area to Phoenix, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it work the other way around
Sounds like a great piece of property. Good luck, and have fun with it!
Oh, and if you are going out for the summer, make sure you send an address where we can all chip in and buy you a case of “OFF” mesquito repellant They get nasty out there by the river and the lakes.
I live in Chicago but since my mom lives out in Huntley, I do many of my long rides out there. There are some roads that are congested, but they’re far outnumbered by the many miles of endless country roads. And I always see gruops of people riding early on Saturday mornings - from the McHenry County Cycling Club, I think, or whoever it is that puts on the Udder Century (good maps on their website for those routes). You can also just meander along for a long time, with not too much traffic around other than cement trucks, which generally give you a wide berth. It’s definitely spoiled me for riding in the city - I hate the congestion/traffic/etc. here!
Overall, very pretty out there. And if you get a summer place in WI, too, you can start up there as I did this last weekend, and find yourself biking into IL, also on smooth country roads all the way. Can’t beat it.
Great riding out there and the chain of lakes is a great spot to rent a house/buy a house. They are 17 connected lakes. Check out www.ionresistance.com it is a local tri. web site. Great group of folks.
The link you gave was freakin’ awesome. I’m trying to plan a ride from where I live back to the other side of the state where my parents live for a one way century ride when I can catch the wind going the right direction. The maps will give me a lot better chance of picking decent roads than just “keep riding west till something looks familiar”.