Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jared on September 10, 2013 at 3:57am

Green Bay Trail and then cut over to Northbrook?

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Permalink Reply by jeremy d herzog on September 10, 2013 at 4:00am

i appreciate the suggestion, but that is a bit far east and would require a fair amount of doubling back.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Allison on September 10, 2013 at 4:03am

maybe elston to milwaukee to harlem to shermer? you'll have to do some curly-q side street stuff to get through the "the glen" on shermer, but if you're adamant about staying off of waukegan (i would be too), then shermer looks like the only other reasonably direct route to get around the old landfills north of willow.

i like the north branch trail, so if it were me, and i were only do the commute one-way anyway, i might explore the option of taking the north branch trail up to winnetka ave and taking that over to sunset ridge and ride that north to northbrook and sidestreet it from there (depending on where your job in northbrook is).

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Permalink Reply by jeremy d herzog on September 10, 2013 at 4:17am

thank you.  this does look a bit less congested, but still direct.  I'll give it a go on my next commute!

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Permalink Reply by Apie (11) on September 10, 2013 at 4:34am

What part of Northbrook?  You can take Sanders to milwaukee

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Permalink Reply by grayn8 on September 10, 2013 at 4:44am

43 is fine depending on the time and probably your best bet if no NBT. I go down and back from Deerfield to Lawndale and really like NBT on the way home. Take tower or Dundee over to 43. If your willing to go east-I move a whole lot faster going Clark (Chicago in Evanston) to Sheridan to Tower to 43/Lake Cook then Skokie valley bike path. Pretty easy to go much faster with less hectic car sitches. But, is definitely more east. Maybe we will criss cross

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Mulcky on September 10, 2013 at 5:40am

Ride up California, hop on the North Channel Trail, take Green Bay Rd up to Dundee or Lake Cook whatever. Green Bay is a great road to ride north and is heavily traveled by cyclists. 

When I commuted to Glencoe I took the above route or the NBT. Green Bay road is faster but after a while I found that I valued the serenity and variety of the NBT over car traffic.

I'd also switch Metra lines from the MD-N to the UP-N regularly to mix up my commute.

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Permalink Reply by Dave Grossman on September 10, 2013 at 6:05am

Stay away from Waukegan.  If you want to take the North Branch hop off at Illinois Rd. near New Trier West. Take Illinois (turns into Happ) up past Willow.  You can take Happ up to Sunset Ridge and Voltz to get further North and hit some local roads to get through Northbrook.  

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Permalink Reply by Anne on September 10, 2013 at 6:09am

Harlem Ave is a nice route, and when it becomes Lehigh Ave north of Glenview Rd it has a bike lane (designated on sidewalk)  then take the left at West Lake Ave (at the Metra station) to go to Pfingsten. Shermer is still closed at the railroad tracks south of Willow from that derailment last year, so to keep going north you need to take Pfingsten. If you need to cut back to the East take Techny back to Shermer.

Dan Allison 14.5 mi said:

maybe elston to milwaukee to harlem to shermer? you'll have to do some curly-q side street stuff to get through the "the glen" on shermer, but if you're adamant about staying off of waukegan (i would be too), then shermer looks like the only other reasonably direct route to get around the old landfills north of willow.

i like the north branch trail, so if it were me, and i were only do the commute one-way anyway, i might explore the option of taking the north branch trail up to winnetka ave and taking that over to sunset ridge and ride that north to northbrook and sidestreet it from there (depending on where your job in northbrook is).

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