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Permalink Reply by Glenn on January 7, 2010 at 8:36am

I dont know much about the Arlington Hts. area, but if you can make it to the DPR Trail you can:
- take that north to Gurnee, get off at Washington and head West. Its a busy road and when you get off a really busy intersection.
- Left on to Almond Rd.
- Right on to Gauges Lake Rd. (personally I get to Wild Wood and cut through to 45 and Sears but its complicated so...)
- Left on to 45 (narrow with only gravel shoulder, sorry. Its usually stop and go traffic though)
- Right on to Brealoch Rd. (nice road with pathway on right side if preferred)
- Left on to Atkins rd. (sidewalk available to center)
- Right on to Center St. (pathway along right side of road that leads to downtown)

I know its not the safest route at times but its what I do when I go to Chicago. If you choose this route good luck. and if you choose another route and it works out really well, let me know. Id love a new route going south.

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Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on January 7, 2010 at 9:49am

Mark, have you played around with MapMyRide and Google maps? And prehaps Mapquest just to get a general route idea then tweak it with Google and/or MapMyRide.

M.A.R.K. said:

I had thought about the des plaines river trail, but I live like 5-6 miles west of the trail and no decent access to it. Plus I can't imagine trail conditions are that great on the cook county side, especially if some of this snow starts to melt. Rt. 83(and even Grayslake) is pretty much a straight shot north from my house, and am hoping to find a more direct route. It wouldn't be so hard if perhaps Wauconda and the airport up there didn't exist, they take up a lot of space with no roads.
Your route is noted though if I gotta do what I gotta do, I appreciate it.

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Permalink Reply by K Stephens on January 7, 2010 at 7:35pm

have you tried going up to long grove, then take old mchenry to fairfield? fairfield intersects route 120 just a few miles west from where you want to go.

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Permalink Reply by K Stephens on January 8, 2010 at 4:06am

i ride on old mchenry/fairfield quite often during the season. i use that route for my tt work. it has a nice shoulder, only a few stoplights and not heavy traffic. i don't know about riding it this time of year though, especially after the snow.

M.A.R.K. said:

Do you ride Fairfield often? McHenry/Fairfield totally slipped my mind cause I hardly ever go that far up north, and have only taken it once over the summer to pre-ride a map to the McHenry Drive-in. It was pretty intimidating from what I remember..

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