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Bicycles Online > Bicycle Touring and Trails > Busse Woods Bike Trail
The Busse Woods Bike Trail,
Illinois
The Elk Herd at the start of this Busse Woods Bike Trail photo trip |
One of the Bridges over Salt Creek. |
Lake view in the distance off the Busse Woods bike trail. |
The Busse Woods Trail (11.2 miles) is located in the Ned Brown
Forest Preserve in northwestern Cook county, Illinois. You can actually ride around 20
miles on the Busse Woods bike trails if you take all of the branches and take the leg that
crosses route 290 via the Elk Grove community bridge.
The Busse Woods bicycle trail is a really
nice, paved, trail system in the heart of the busy Northwest suburbs (of Chicago). You can
get to the trails at numerous forest preserve entrances and locations, many off of Route
72, Higgins Road, or at the Elk Herd off of Arlington Heights road, as I did, in this case
(on the beautiful fall day that I took the photos...).
Here's a wide view of one of the bridges, west of Busse Lake, on the southern end of the
path.
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There are some very nice features to the Busse
Woods trails and a few disadvantages. Some of the nicer features include the elk herd, the
beautiful meadows, woods and lakes and the convenient location (for those who live in the
northwest suburbs...). The major disadvantage (to me anyway) is, since it is so beautiful,
is paved and located in the heart of the suburbs, is that it gets VERY crowded at times
(especially on nice weekends). The trail traffic can get pretty heavy with all sorts of
people... walkers, runners, familys, roller bladers and of course bikers (of all kinds,
from serious to kids to casual)... Another slight disadvantage (but getting better now, it
seems) is that these trails do not connect to a lot of other bike trails...
If you can, take the trail at an off time
(during the work week, very early in the morning, or on a day that is a little too cold
for the woosy riders, etc.) you will be able to enjoy this beautiful trail much more...
(unless of course, you like crowds or like to watch the girls on roller blades or
something like that...).
There are also some other side attractions
such as lots of boaters, fishers, some major kite flyers and I think there is a RC
airplane field in one of the groves too... I know there is one in nearby Deer Grove (to
the north) and it is fun to watch the flyers do their aerobatics... I'll have to verify if
there is a RC airplane field in Busse Woods (if any of you out there can confirm this,
please drop me a line...)
MAPS
There are some great maps (Adobe and html) and some great
information at the Busse Woods Trail System page of the Cook County Forest Preserve site.
Just in case they move these pages and maps
around, on the internet (it happens sometimes before I get my pages updated) Here is a Photo of the Busse Woods Trail MAP
that I took along the of the Elk Grove community bridge leg.
I hope you enjoy the photo tour below. I took
a huge number of photos on a beautiful fall day and then went through and trimmed it down
to a reasonable number of pictures... I still ended up with quite a few for this
particular trail (with links to the enlarged photos too!). I even burned out my camera
battery just before I completed the ride... Fortunately I got it all..
Busse Woods Trail Photos
Here's a photo tour of the Busse Woods Bike Trail in Busse Woods Forest
Preserve, Cook County Illinois, from October, 2005. I started this ride at the Elk Herd
(just off of Arlington Heights Road, north of the Higgins road intersection) and took the
main (red) loop, the northern (black) leg, the leg that goes along Beisner road (purple)
and the Elk Grove community bridge leg that crosses
Route 290.
The Busse Woods Bike Trail Photo Tour - Busse Woods Forest Preserve, Cook County Illinois.
From October, 2005.
Busse Woods Bike Trail Photos 1
Busse Woods Bike Trail Photos 2
Busse Woods Bike Trail Photos 3
Busse Woods Bike Trail Photos 4
Busse Woods Bike Trail Photos 5
Busse Woods Bike Trail Photos 6
Busse Woods Bike Trail Photos 7
Busse Woods Bike Trail Photos 8
Busse Woods Bike Trail Photos 9
Busse Woods Bike Trail Photos 10
Busse Woods Bike Trail Photos 11
**** NEW Busse Woods Bike Trail Video ****
I have just completed the Busse Woods Bike Trail video (July, 2009).
Here's the video tour of the Busse Woods Bike Trail starting and ending at the Elk Pasture at Arlington Heights Road and Higgins (route 72). The entire ride was about 16 miles.
The Busse Woods Bike Trail Video 
Busse Woods Bike Trail Gift Items
See the Busse Woods Bike Trail Gift Items at Bike Trail Gift Items
These items are sure to start up a conversation with fellow cyclists.
The Ride is the Destination
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