The Chainlink

A great ride, fall camping, ghost stories around a campfire...and the worlds's largest corn maze!!! Its The a'MAZE'ing Ride

Lets take a ride up to Spring Grove, IL, home of Chain O Lakes State Park and Richardson's Farm, who has been offering the World's Largest Maize Maze for sometime with a different theme each year, this year is celebrating Lincoln's 200th birthday. The maze is 28 acres with 11 miles of trails. This year, there is also a Zip Line - 30' high and 700' long over a pupmkin patch.

The camp site it just under 2 miles from the maze.

The campgrounds offer trails through prairie lands and huge old oaktrees, equestrian (horsey) rides, and boat rentals.

Everything is fairly cheap...$12 campsites that can fit two tents (up to 8 ppl), $10 for the maze. Bring your own food, a large bundle of wood is $7 at the campground.

The dates...

I am scheduling this for September 25th through 27th (Friday through Sunday). We depart on Friday morning, get to the grounds and setup camp. People who cant ride up on Friday can meet us on Saturday. Saturday, we go to the maze. (it may be a Maze Til Midnight night, so we'll decide what time we go). Back to camp for hangin round the fire, tellin ghost stories, munchin on some smores. We leave Sunday whenever (check out not till 3pm).

Metra is available for return trip.

I would also like to set the following weekend as a rain date. (Oct 2 - Oct 4).

On GoogleMaps...type in "9407 richardson road, spring grove il", click on satellite view. You will see one of year's past mazes.

http://www.richardsonfarm.com/index.asp -for the maze
http://dnr.state.il.us/LANDS/landmgt/Parks/R2/CHAINO.HTM#camping -for the campgrounds
http://www.thechainlink.org/events/the-amazeing-ride -for the RSVP
http://metrarail.com/metra/en/home/maps_schedules/metra_system_map/... -for Metra

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This is the general turn by turn of the Route I took in July. It felt pretty safe, the worst part was going on Highway 21, though it was only for a mile. This route generally follows recommended routes from the ATA map and is on trails for about half of the ride. I would recommend that you bring your own map as this route is NOT foolproof. Here it is kind of mapped out using gmaps pedometer: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2925834

Starting at N channel trail at Lawrence & California
N. North Channel Trail to church
W on Church
N On Central Park Ave.
W on Wilmette Ave.
N. on Ridge
Cross to Green bay Trail
N. on Green Bay trail (some of it is crushed limestone)
W. on Clavey (Or follow Green Bay trail north to get to Robert McClory trail and that that north towards the North Shore Bike Path)
NW. on Skokie Valley bike path (follow street signs for connection!)
N. on North Shore bike path
N. On St. Mary’s rd.
W. on Oak Spring Road Curves and end up on N. Sand Stone
W. on Winchester
N. on Harris
W. on Belvidere (path by road)
N. On Atkinsin
W. on Trail by Washington, continue on Washington (go through Prairie Crossing community….kind of a stepfordville.)
N. On Cedar Lane Rde
W. on Golf View Rode
N. on Kildeer
W. on Lake Shore Drive (or just go W on Rollins as Lake Shore Drive looks hilly!)
To W. on Chain O Lakes Bike Path (follows Rollins Rd.)
NW on Highway 12 (scariest part!...there is a crappy sidewalk if is really bad)
N. on State Park Rd to back entrance of park. (Go straight instead of following the curve of the road). It is gated, but a bike can go around it. You can then bike through the park to get to the office.
Thanks, Jami!!
yo iggie - you got a departure time in mind? Also, I am hoping we are doing this CAR FREE (yeah!) - is that the case?
im guessing the ride will take 5-6 hours...so...how early does everyone want to get there? i think 11am is a good time. thoughts??

DonRay A.K.A. Zesty said:
yo iggie - you got a departure time in mind? Also, I am hoping we are doing this CAR FREE (yeah!) - is that the case?
I was also thinking 6 hours at most, including lunch. That's unless Joe rides, then we gotta account for 9 flats.
10 am?

iggi said:
im guessing the ride will take 5-6 hours...so...how early does everyone want to get there? i think 11am is a good time. thoughts?? DonRay A.K.A. Zesty said:
yo iggie - you got a departure time in mind? Also, I am hoping we are doing this CAR FREE (yeah!) - is that the case?
there is Metra to help ya out, H3

h3 said:
This sounds great. Wish I was 20-something and free of all my aches and pains and responsibilities--hope the folks that go have a great time.
yeah im not goin. have crap to do....like play world of warcraft...and friends in town too. and i havnt had a flat since i got back from that effin trip.

DonRay A.K.A. Zesty said:
I was also thinking 6 hours at most, including lunch. That's unless Joe rides, then we gotta account for 9 flats.
10 am?
Come on Joe- I'm sure we can find you an Internet connection out there for WOW.

joe said:
yeah im not goin. have crap to do....like play world of warcraft...and friends in town too. and i havnt had a flat since i got back from that effin trip. DonRay A.K.A. Zesty said:
I was also thinking 6 hours at most, including lunch. That's unless Joe rides, then we gotta account for 9 flats.
10 am?
they actually have very clean showers in a few places in the park.

h3 said:
Yeah, cool-- I will check the dates in the next few days.
Got me a nice little Kelty and I've done the loaded touring thing before.
What's the shower situation at that park?
I'll only go if Joe will though.

iggi said:
there is Metra to help ya out, H3

h3 said:
This sounds great. Wish I was 20-something and free of all my aches and pains and responsibilities--hope the folks that go have a great time.
hopefully, we get enough folks to make this our own Crit Mass for the day. OR!!! We start the Spring Grove CM chapter ourselves.

h3 said:
is there going to be a little CM ride wherever you are on Friday night in solidarity with the rest of the world?
LMAO! Thanks for the laugh Josh.

DonRay A.K.A. Zesty said:
I was also thinking 6 hours at most, including lunch. That's unless Joe rides, then we gotta account for 9 flats.
10 am?

iggi said:
im guessing the ride will take 5-6 hours...so...how early does everyone want to get there? i think 11am is a good time. thoughts?? DonRay A.K.A. Zesty said:
yo iggie - you got a departure time in mind? Also, I am hoping we are doing this CAR FREE (yeah!) - is that the case?
For those concerned about distance on this ride...here is the Metra info. http://metrarail.com/metra/en/home/maps_schedules/metra_system_map/.... The rail line is the Milwaukee North line.

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