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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on November 9, 2009 at 1:56am

It's been a few years since I've used it, but I know that some folks from the Evanston Bike Club have a route. I don't remember the western part of it, but from downtown Des Plaines east, I remember using Dempster/NW Hwy to cross the river - not terribly bike friendly, but survivable for a short distance. I remember being on Busse Hwy for a short time, perhaps a mile or two. I don't recall the E-W street that came next, but it was a residential street.

I remember passing by Golf Mill shopping center. Looking at a satellite view of the area, Maryland St. is it - EB Church St. to NE Maryland St. crossing Milwaukee Ave. to EB Lyons St. to NB Washington Ave. After about 1/4 mile, you pass a wide green belt with big power transmission lines, then you hit EB Beckwith Rd. That will take you to Church St., which will take you all the way into Evanston.

Can anyone connect the dots from AH to Golf Mill?

FYI - If you don't want to ride the full distance on the return, Pace bus 250 goes from downtown Evanston along Dempster to downtown Des Plaines.

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Permalink Reply by Anne on November 9, 2009 at 5:42am

Well, I've sorta done this from Evanston TO Mt. Prospect, never gone all the way into Arlington Heights per se. HAve driven Kensington and Euclid, which were 'ok' but parts of them were not good to me.
Let me sketch this out:
Central Ave. is fine all the way east to Harlem Ave. I've only done Central as far west as to River Rd. at Beck Lake.
Take Harlem south to Beckwith (easy to miss, it's a side street). Turn left on Beckwith (east) continue across Waukegan and Lehigh. Bike lane begins at Lehigh.
Beckwith Ave becomes Church St. at Austin Ave. (just at end of Forest Preserve, and you cross North Branch Trail)
Stay on Church St. into Evanston! Have coffee at the Italian Coffee Bar on Grove and Sherman :)

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Permalink Reply by Anne on November 9, 2009 at 5:44am

oh, i forgot, the best way up out of the city to Arlington Heights area is Talcott Ave., but I haven't found a good route further on once I get to Miner St. and Arlington Heights road

Anne said:

Well, I've sorta done this from Evanston TO Mt. Prospect, never gone all the way into Arlington Heights per se. HAve driven Kensington and Euclid, which were 'ok' but parts of them were not good to me.
Let me sketch this out:
Central Ave. is fine all the way east to Harlem Ave. I've only done Central as far west as to River Rd. at Beck Lake.
Take Harlem south to Beckwith (easy to miss, it's a side street). Turn left on Beckwith (east) continue across Waukegan and Lehigh. Bike lane begins at Lehigh.
Beckwith Ave becomes Church St. at Austin Ave. (just at end of Forest Preserve, and you cross North Branch Trail)
Stay on Church St. into Evanston! Have coffee at the Italian Coffee Bar on Grove and Sherman :)

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Permalink Reply by mike w. on November 9, 2009 at 7:53am

i generally go east on Thomas/Willow, cut over to Camp McDonald just before Rt 83, go along to Burning Bush and cut over to Euclid and take it through the FPD and over the DesPlaines to Milwaukee ave. The traffic's fast (nobody does the posted 40mph) but it's wide enough and fairly well paved.

At Milwaukee you have several options : stay on Euclid/Lake eastbound to Greenwood (a bit scarey e. of the high school, but wide and smooth) then Greenwood to Glenview rd and you're on your way to friendlier streets through to Evanston.

OR:
Sidewalk it along Lake -wide and lightly travelled- to Greenwood.

OR:
Shoot inbound on Milwaukee to Glenview rd. Milwaukee is fast and a bit rough, but wide enough.

OR:
Sidewalk it along Milwaukee to Glenview rd.

There are a few side streets S. of Euclid/Lake that will get you to Milwaukee and avoid the light at Lake/Milwaukee.

This is a fairly regular commute route for me from Palatine to Rogers Park, and i see other riders along Lake fairly regularly.

HTH.

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