Biking Illinois :: Updates

Updates (Construction, Corrections, Etc.)

Biking Illinois: 60 Great Road Trips and Trail Rides

Order here:

State Overview Map -- I know there are a lot of mistakes in the northeastern Illinois portion of the map. I submitted an entire page of corrections, but they were not implemented in the first printing. I hope to fix future printings. The maps and descriptions of locations for the individual rides are correct -- only the state overview map is wrong. Here are a few of the most misleading mistakes on the overview map:

RIDE 16 should be east of the Fox River, just above the circle for RIDE 25, which should be about where RIDE 26 is shown. RIDE 26 should be east of I-294.
The positions of RIDES 17 and 18 should be swapped, then those circles should slide east-southeast along I-90 about 35 miles.
RIDE 27 should be just north of the dot for Chicago (pushing RIDES 21 and 22 north-northwest), and RIDE 28 should be just south of the dot.
The circle for RIDE 32 should move east-northeast about 35 miles along I-80. It starts in Matteson, not Morris.

RIDE 7: Where The River Runs West -- I should have noted (and probably would have, had I ridden this earlier in the year) that parts of the Ben Butterworth Memorial Parkway are prone to flooding. The sections of the trail atop the levee are obviously more likely to be dry. Also, the "MARK of the Quad Cities" in Moline has been rechristened with a corporate name, i wireless Center (my editor should note that they are still being overly creative with their capitalization).

RIDE 13: Hills and Valleys -- According to a Chicago Tribune article, the Chester Gould-Dick Tracy Museum in downtown Woodstock closed its doors in June 2008.

RIDE 20: Going to the Garden -- The Cook County Forest Preserve District finally repaved this busy trail in 2007. Also, this is trivial, but I left out a "the" in the sentence referencing the trail's start at Devon and Caldwell.

RIDE 22: Pedaling The Channel -- Lincolnwood repaved their section of the trail in summer 2008. They also straightened out a few curves, so the mileage in Biking Illinois might be off by a tenth or two.

RIDE 27: Cooler by the Lake -- In February 2006, the Chicago Historical Society changed its name to the Chicago History Museum.

RIDE 32: Ride the Plank -- The Target store where this ride begins has relocated to the east side of Cicero Avenue (IL 50). The directions in the book are still correct (go past Target to Gateway Drive), but the Target store is no longer at the trailhead. Cyclists can still park in the northeast corner of the former Target parking lot. Also, the sign labeling the "Trail Depot" gazebo is damaged. Since it's the only gazebo around, there shouldn't be any confusion.

RIDE 35: Spoon Lake -- According to a reader/rider, this route has more steep hills than I mentioned in the book.

RIDE 46: Bluffing on the Mississippi -- The rivers on the western edge of the map are not labeled correctly. The river next to Pere Marquette State Park is the Illinois River. The one to the south is the Mississippi River. This mistake also relocated the state line, pushing Calhoun County into Missouri.

RIDE 55: Climb to the Cross -- On December 27, 2006, the Shawnee Hills region was designated as an American Viticultural Area. This means that wines made from southern Illinois grapes are considered to have distinctive characteristics. It's a major step in improving the image of the state's wine industry. For details, click here.

Back Cover -- Yes, I know Lewis of Lewis and Clark is misspelled. Sorry, they didn't let me proofread the back cover!

Do you have any construction updates or corrections for the rides in Biking Illinois? E-mail the author.