Rakow Rd Bike Path?

McHenry County plans to widen Rakow Rd to 5 lanes by 2010. Currently, there is a 4-foot wide shoulder that bicyclists use today on this busy road. Once the road is widened, there will be no shoulder and no bike path! At least they're leaving a 10 foot shelf for future MUP creation, but it is needed now. I see bikes riding on the shoulder in the mornings all the time where cars are going by at 55 mph (in a 45 zone). Aside from the 5-lane US-14 going through Crystal Lake, Rakow Rd is the only other east/west route that many people use to get across town or to the McHenry County Prairie Trail, which connects to the Illinois Prairie Path.



The McHenry County Bicycle Advocates have submitted a petition signed by 227 people urging the county board to include the bike path in the construction plans for 2009/10. The county actually asked Crystal Lake and Lake in the Hills to help with the cost of including the bike path but both declined, presumably due to a lack of available budget.

The article appears in the Nov. 23 edition of the Northwest Herald, here.

Climb Data for Skyline Drive

Using some mapping tools from mapmyride.com, I'm able to generate elevation and climb data for my planned trip on the Skyline Drive in VA next summer.



Keep in mind that I'll be traveling from South to North -- or right to left on the above diagram. If I were heading south, there would be almost 20 miles of 5% grades (or higher) of climbing right out of the gate. Since I'm going South to North, there is only one section where I'll be climbing 5% grades. This is what I had expected based on various reading. Its easier (relative) to bike north towards Front Royal.

Prairie Trail North - Nov 2, 2008

This afternoon I took a short ride north on the McHenry County Prarie Trail towards McHenry. I started at home, rode 3 miles to the trail, and then rode north through Crystal Lake. I continued through Sterne's Woods which has a series of extremely steep climbs and descents through the woods. Even in the granny gear this will get your heart beating and your moving at a snail's pace. Past Sterne's woods, I continued north until reaching the Nunda Township garage north of Prairie Grove. This is the same place the the McHenry County Wireless Association has its monthly meetings... and its about 7.75 miles from home via bicycle. I continued just north to the next road where I turned around and headed back home. A few raindrops fell when I first started back, but it never got to the "sprinkling" stage and subsided without much fuss.

No pictures this time -- but I wish I had my camera handy because just south of Sterne's Woods I saw a guy riding on a unicycle! Not only was it a unicycle but it was a BIG wheeled unicycle. The wheel might have been 3 feet in diameter... and I was staring at the guy thinking "woah" and he just said "hi" and kept going. I wonder if he actually rode that thing through Sterne's Woods... it would have been crazy considering the extreme grades of the trail through that stretch.

I wish I knew the actual grade % of those hills. Then I would know if that is comparable to what I would experience riding on the Skyline Drive in Virginia. If this is comparable, then I have a lot of preparation to do to get into shape. On some of those hills, every pedal with my right foot resulted in the front wheel coming off of the ground slightly.

Max speed today was 31.22 mph!! That was going down one of those crazy hills in Sterne's Woods. This thrill didn't last long as i quickly starting going uphill again and around a corner so I had to slow down.

Total distance: 16.54 miles, Ride time: 01:25:59, Avg speed: 11.41 mph