Rides to Do in North / Central IN or IL

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I’m going to be traveling from MI to central IL (Decatur) a few times a year. I’m interested in looking for suggestions for routes / places to ride road, gravel or MTB along the way.

The only place on my list so far is Brown County State Park. But I’m looking for additional places to ride, especially since the trails will sometimes be too wet to ride.

Any suggestions?

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Creekside MTB trails;

Imagination Glen:

Palos MTB trails;

https://www.trailforks.com/region/palos-forest-preserve-1478796860/

Soldiers MTB trails:

Rum Village;

https://www.trailforks.com/region/rum-village-17515/

Potato Creek MTB trails;

https://www.trailforks.com/region/potato-creek-state-park/

Bendix Woods;

https://www.trailforks.com/region/bendix-woods-county-park/

If I can think of others I will post - these are all very fun trail systems.

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Thanks for all the suggestions. If you had to pick your top 3 from those, which would they be?

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They are all pretty good trails, but if someone told me I could only ride (3) of those trails for the rest of my life I’d choose.

  1. Creekside
  2. Soldiers
  3. Palos

That is my opinion and 3 very fun different trails. Brown County is one of my favorite trail systems. And I would choose that over those three, but that wasn’t in the list you asked about.

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Thanks a lot. This list should keep me busy for quite a while.

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Any road/gravel rides / routes anyone can suggest in Bloomington, Champaign or Decatur, IL areas?

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Karst Crusher Route in Brown County

Good gravel / road ride from Bloominton out to Yellowwood State Forest. Some chunky gravel on the descents!

You can also use Gravelmap.com to find gravel roads and routes anywhere…
https://gravelmap.com/

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There’s not a lot of strict gravel rides in Champaign — there are sections of gravel once you get out of town and into farmland.

You might like this route if you’re staying in town: 79KickGravRet · Ride with GPS

Here’s a route within 30 minutes or so of Champaign put together by some of the folks I used to ride with: 101 Project IKUltra 2024 · Ride with GPS

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The Cardinal Greenway up around Muncie is nice for a longish road bike ride. It’s the longest rail to trail in Indiana.

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