I thought that I might add in a new review, seeing how nobody has reviewed this trail in two years.

I picked up this trail in efforts to do a solo century. I easily connected from the Green Bay Trail to the south. Everything was going smoothly until I took that little dip under the road that dumps you (unceremoniously, at that) into Waukegan. The entirety of the north leg is pretty much a dump, aside from the small bit of Zion as you head into Kenosha.

There are very, very shady characters milling about on the Waukegan/North Chicago portions of the trail. And like the other user said, there is TONS OF GLASS. Actually, there is so much glass, you wonder how the heck it all got there. The issue I have with this is that it's of the clear variety (probably from handles of liquor) and it's EXTREMELY hard to scan for when the crushed limestone is of a white color. Thankfully, it's a little bit easier to avoid the broken beer bottles due to their color.

My return leg (from downtown Kenosha back home to Chicago) was equally as terrifying on this leg of the trail. I was extremely upset because as hard as I tried to avoid all the glass everywhere, I still managed to get a good sized shard lodged in my tire/tube, which required me to stop once I got to a better section of the trail (Highland Park.)

In all honesty, now that I've done this trail, I'm never going to do it again. I don't care to make detours around the shady parts, because honestly; I shouldn't have to. Like the once user said, the las portion is straight as an arrow with a crazy amount of street crossings.

I'm on a road bike with 23mm tires, so my experience wasn't that great. If it had been raining prior to me using it, it would be unusable, unless you had Cyclo-Cross or balloon tires.

It's a shame that Waukegan and North Chicago are such dumps, because they are a blight on an otherwise nice trail.

Proceed with caution, folks.

As a single, female rider along the entirety of this path just yesterday (6/7/10), I ran into more safety issues than I care to admit while riding through the North Chicago/Waukegan/Zion section. As suggested by the other rider, on the way north I turned off the trail at MLK Drive in the North Chicago/Waukegan southern section and rode west to Lewis Ave. All seemed okay at first, as Lewis Ave is a two-lane in each direction so cars could move into the inner lane and I had plenty of space. The trouble with Lewis Ave is that it is littered with large cracks and potholes that make it less than pleasant to ride on, even with the additional lane. Closer to the middle of town Lewis Ave reduces lanes to one each way, making the pothole situation a little trickier and locals don't seem to be used to sharing with cyclists, as evidenced by the, "Hey, get on the sidewalk!" comment and a few honks. Eventually, Lewis Ave increases speed to 45 mph and drivers don't seem to hesitate to pass at full speed with a biker in the same lane. That spooked me enough to try to head back to the proper trail, despite other recommendations to bypass all of Waukegan. Unfortunately I chose a road that did not intersect the trail (Wadsworth Rd, I think) and instead I could painfully see the trail as it passed overhead as a bike bridge. I was forced to head back to Lewis Ave and continue north to 29th St. in Zion. The path from Zion up to Kenosha was fine, even good, but Lewis Ave was troubling enough that I knew I would stay on the trail when I returned south, no matter how poor the trail conditions.

To my chagrin, on my way south I was warned by a fellow biker that the north Waukegan section of the trail was full of policemen who were out to catch a robber. I felt I had no choice but to continue, as the Metra trains weren't running for another two hours, so I did. I was stopped by a cop who asked me if I'd seen the guy they were looking for. I was warned not to ride through that section by myself, as the robber was confronting females riding alone. Apparently he approaches nicely and when the ladies would stop, he would take their money. Thankfully, there had not been any reports of violence, only theft. I was also told that if I just continued riding, even if someone approached, the guy would not pursue. There were lots of cops around, so I made it the rest of the way without incident, but the experience was unnerving. I didn't find the trail itself to be that terrible, since sometimes urban areas have to have a lot of intersections. It seems that with a little planning, this path could be rerouted over to Lewis Ave as a full additional bike lane and much of the trouble with both traffic and crime would be avoided.

I just moved to the neighborhood, desperately seeking a trail to ride as I come from the subdivision within riding distance to DesPlaines River Trail. I find this path within minutes from my house and when I got about 5 blocks before the path in waukegan I started noticing boarded up, run down houses, and the such. I never made it to the path, I turned around. Maybe I'll take the far North end some day.