My friend Brittany and I are going to be continuing our (near) cross country tour, departing Chicago headed towards the Cleveland area. Has anyone travelled between these two cities before? Can you tell us the roads worth choosing? I've heard that Gary, IN is to be avoided. Has anyone ridden the Erie Lackawanna/Oak Savanna/ Prairie Duneland trail? Also,if there are neat sights/vistas worth checking out, let me know. We could really use thoughts from riders experienced with the Northern Indiana area. Thanks guys!
Chicago to Cleveland/Akron. Tips, local knowledge, ride along? Your advice needed :-D
Fri, 2011-08-05 13:14
#1
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Chicago to Cleveland/Akron. Tips, local knowledge, ride along? Your advice needed :-D
My opinion is avoid all the hassles along lake going south and east and go north to Manatawoc, WI (sp?) and catch ferry to Ludington, MI and ride Adventure Cycling Assoc route across Michigan to Ontario at Marine city then north side of Lake Erie to Buffalo, NY and then double back (so to speak)west toward Cleveland via ACA Northern Tier route.
Ferry to Michigan from Wisconsin is fun (yes a bit expensive) and upper shore of Lake Erie is very nice with ACA route on fantastic routing.
Just have to have Passport to get back into USA at Peace Bridge in Buffalo.
Check Adventure Cycling Association website for maps. Great Lakes Connector and Northern Tier.
Enjoy.
Also there is a ferry from western Ontario that crosses Lake Erie to just west of Cleveland if you wanted a shorter route than via Buffalo. Still need passport though.
Again check out Adventure Cycling Association website for maps and overview. Maps are great!
No way! I just road Chicago to Cleveland last month! I'm back in Chicago now and I'd love to lend you guys my cycling maps if you promise to mail them back to me. I used maps 8 and 9 of the adventure cycling northern tier route. It begins south of Chicago and takes you through really quiet country roads the whole way through indiana. Really peaceful. I was riding alone and felt totally safe the whole time. If you use that route I have a bunch of recommendations for places to stop along the way. Let me know if you guys want to get together over a coffee or a beer to talk about it.
= )
Nikki
Hey Nikki, Thanks so much for the offers for help. We actually already made it back to Cleveland. However, I do appreciate your advice and all.
Hi Nikki,
I'm a first year at the University of Chicago, looking to bike from NYC to Chicago. I've mapped out my route to Toledo. Do you have suggestions from there to Chicago? I've looked at the Adventure Cycling maps that go South of Chicago. How far South did it bring you/was it very out of the way?