Beauties and beasts: Cal-Sag and Tinley Creek, plus DPRT latest


Enter the Cal-Sag Trail

The Cal-Sag Trail is kind of the baby of Cook County trails, with the first real segment opening just in 2015. Planned and designed by a coalition that included residents, town leaders and even a landscape architect who added beautiful signage and archways, the love and care behind the Cal-Sag make it stand out. But there's still that beast of a middle section. Take a look.

Tinley Creek and beyond

The beauties of the Tinley Creek Trail system are the Cook County forests and all the repaving done there. The beasts are so many major streets to cross and the lack of trail signage. Plus the 3-mile loop in Midlothian Meadows is hard to get to (especially if there's a dead deer in the way as I encountered). At least this year that bumpy Midlothian loop will be repaved, too. Read more.

What's that on the Des Plaines River Trail?

Work on the Des Plaines River Trail south of Lawrence Avenue in Cook County is still going on. I didn't realize that two more boardwalks were in the plans. The clues were on the project map all along. See the update to Cook forest trail construction plans.


PIT STOPS ON THE WEBSITE

I can tell you that the Cook County forest district staff is excited about restroom upgrades, such as in Busse Woods. Plus many more trails will be restriped. That's on the 2026 infrastructure list now. My bike trail round-up is getting discovered again as I've added or expanded entries. Bicyclists keep consulting my 2026 list of organized rides, too.

Is it warm? Is it cold? Is it windy? Is it more windy? Enjoy spring biking! — Neil


THANK YOU TO THESE DONORS: Alan White, John Heer, Terry Witt, Mitchell C. Jones, T L Szensy, the Arlington Heights Bicycle Club, Douglas H. Hoffman, James Krause, Melynda Findlay Shamie, Eric Slagter, Jeffery Norman, Kathleen Hays, Andrew L. Campbell, Mark Rathe, Robert M. Yedinak, John S. Perry, David Waycie, David Michels, Cynthia DeVoss, Cheryl Zalenski, Richard H. Jordan, Mark Joseph Dugo, Richard Wadleigh, Colleen Stevenson, Randy Barich, Michael D. Staples, Michael Vander Weele, Hilliard B. Grossman and Kevin V. Barba.
I create the Suburban Chicago Bicycling website and newsletter with the help of readers like you.
Buy me a cup of coffee, as they say?

At top: The Cal-Sag Trail has its own logo! At its largest, the bridge icon is a gateway. Cool!

For even more, read old newsletters. And please forward this to anyone interested.

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Suburban Chicago Bicycling

Your one-stop source for the great trails and roads to ride a bicycle in Chicago's suburbs, and to learn about efforts to make bicycling and bicycling infrastructure better there.

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