Ride Across Illinois (Mississippi River to Lake Michigan)

So I am doing RAIN (Ride Across INdiana) in a couple weeks and have been thinking about trying to do the same thing in Illinois later this year. To the best of my knowledge there are no organized rides that go W-E that I could find.

Similar to RAGBRAI, I want to dip my tire in the Mississippi and then Lake Michigan to end the day. While the reverse order is likely safer when it comes to fatigue and heavy traffic in the Chicagoland area, I'd rather not fight the prevailing winds for 150+ miles.

At this point, my plan is to drop off a one-way rental car in Clinton, IA, spend the night and head west to Chicago at sunrise. Unfortunately, it looks like most of the bike paths that might fit the route (e.g. Great Western Trail, Illinois Prairie Path) are mostly crushed stone which won't help me. At this point, I am just (arbitrarily) dragging markers over Google maps which is a surefire way to find myself on shitty roads.

Anyway, has anyone tried something like this? Any advice? Thoughts on the best route? 

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Permalink Reply by mark stetson on July 3, 2012 at 5:15am

Chris, I live a few miles off the Adventure Cycling route.  In my area, there are better roads to get you to the Illinois River crossing at Henry than the ones on their route.  If you ever do the ride I'd be happy to give some route suggestions, or ride along for part of the trip.

Permalink Reply by Chris Hainey on July 3, 2012 at 5:20am

Mark, Thanks for the information. Need time and $$ to make it happen!

Permalink Reply by djm on July 3, 2012 at 7:27am

I did RAIN last year.  It was a nice little adventure despite a slight headwind component for most of the day.  Hopefully they will speed up the lunch service.  Im glad I did it but its not a very interesting ride.  Another possibility is ODRAM (One Day Ride Across Michigan). There is also WIND, a one day ride across Wisconsin, but thats not being held this year.

Phil Fox said:

Doing it in one day is a big part of the appeal. We'll see if my enthusiasm wains after RAIN later this month though.

I did find another similar ride nearby called "One Day Bike Ride Across Michigan." Dip your tire in Lake Michigan at the start and Lake Huron at the end. Total route is about 150 miles.

Has anyone done either of these rides? Thumbs up? Down?

Permalink Reply by Phil Fox on July 3, 2012 at 2:54pm

Yea, I want to see how RAIN goes before I try ODRAM, which seems very short on SAG services.

Sadly, I feel like I am in the wrong part of the country to really experience interesting scenic rides. :-\

Permalink Reply by Bicycle Illinois (Robert Layton) on February 6, 2013 at 1:02pm

Hi everyone I found your post and wanted to let you know that we are putting together the first RAIL (Ride Across ILlinois) routes for this summer. The RAIL North route will be about 170 miles and go from Moline to Chicago on Sat. June 22nd (the longest day of the year). The RAIL South route will be about 160 miles go from St. Louis to Vincennes, IN on sat. June 1st.

We're working furiously on getting the details of the rides together so please check www.bicycleillinois.com/rail/rail.htm for the most current information and also sign up on our mailing list to be kept up to date via e-mail.

Thanks and I hope to see everyone participate this year!

Rob Layton

Bicycle Illinois Ride Director

Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on February 6, 2013 at 2:25pm

Ha, that's true. Galena is very pretty. Some of the ride reports in Bicycle Quarterly make me a sad that we live in the midwest. I imagine their brevets are a heck of a lot more exciting with the terrain and scenery.

Jennifer on the lake said:

There are wrinkles in the northwestern and southern tips of Illinois! You just have to traverse an awful lot of corn to get there.

Phil Fox said:

Sadly, I feel like I am in the wrong part of the country to really experience interesting scenic rides. :-\

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on February 6, 2013 at 3:32pm

Plenty of wrinkles once you get a little north of that too. WI's driftless area gets pretty decent for the midwest.  The Hilly Hundred and Wright Century are pretty challenging rides around Mt. Horrible. 

Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on February 6, 2013 at 3:58pm
Platteville, Trempealeau County, and Lancaster, Wisconsin all possess some prodigious hills. The fastest I've ever gone on a bike was on a loop outside of Lancaster.
Permalink Reply by Phil Fox on February 6, 2013 at 4:25pm

While RAIL has been something I've been lusting after, lots of good stuff already on the calendar that day. Kickapoo Kicker in Western Wisconsin and Day 1 of the Bicycle Tour of Colorado.

Its getting that time of year when I start planing out all my rides for the season... on the calendar includes...

1. Great Allegheny Passage / C&O Canal (Pittsburgh to DC)

2. Arcadia Brute

3. Bicycle Tour of Colorado

4. Chicago to Miller Park

5. Dairyland Dare

6. ODRAM

7. DALMAC (Lansing to Mackinaw)

Gonna be a good year :-)


Bicycle Illinois (Robert Layton) said:

Hi everyone I found your post and wanted to let you know that we are putting together the first RAIL (Ride Across ILlinois) routes for this summer. The RAIL North route will be about 170 miles and go from Moline to Chicago on Sat. June 22nd (the longest day of the year). The RAIL South route will be about 160 miles go from St. Louis to Vincennes, IN on sat. June 1st.

We're working furiously on getting the details of the rides together so please check www.bicycleillinois.com/rail/rail.htm for the most current information and also sign up on our mailing list to be kept up to date via e-mail.

Thanks and I hope to see everyone participate this year!

Rob Layton

Bicycle Illinois Ride Director

Permalink Reply by Phil Fox on February 6, 2013 at 4:30pm

General reply, there's definitely a lot of good stuff around western Wisconsin and Illinois but its just too much effort for a proper day trip. This year I want to check out more SW Michigan. I did the Apple Cider last year and enjoyed that a whole bunch. 

Permalink Reply by Duppie on February 7, 2013 at 3:47am

This sounds enticing. Never done more than 100 miles in 1 day and 200 miles in 2 days. Definitely would be a challenge for me and require some long training rides...



Bicycle Illinois (Robert Layton) said:

Hi everyone I found your post and wanted to let you know that we are putting together the first RAIL (Ride Across ILlinois) routes for this summer. The RAIL North route will be about 170 miles and go from Moline to Chicago on Sat. June 22nd (the longest day of the year). The RAIL South route will be about 160 miles go from St. Louis to Vincennes, IN on sat. June 1st.

We're working furiously on getting the details of the rides together so please check www.bicycleillinois.com/rail/rail.htm for the most current information and also sign up on our mailing list to be kept up to date via e-mail.

Thanks and I hope to see everyone participate this year!

Rob Layton

Bicycle Illinois Ride Director

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