The Chain O' Lakes Bike Path is a paved trail that runs between E. Grand Avenue in Fox Lake and Grant Woods Forest Preserve to the east. The trail parallels the railroad track and Rollins Road/CR 31, passing by the Ingleside Metra station before heading notheast toward Grant Woods. Here it meets with the Grant Woods Bike Path, a 6-mile unpaved route through prairie, woodlands, and marshes.
Parking is available at the north end of the trail along Rollins Road and at Grant Woods Forest Preserve off County 55 and Grand Avenue/Rt. 132, both east of Fox Lake Road. For information on parking at the Metra stations (Ingleside and Fox Lake), visit http://metrarail.com/metra/en/home.html.
This is a good connector if you're trying to reach some of the forest preserves, but you're right on the road the whole way and traffic is heavy.
The trail doesn’t really get you to the lake, or go around the lake, like the name implies. And instead of a trail, it’s basically a glorified sidewalk, so you don’t need to worry about biking in the road. We use it to get to the bakery, which is in downtown Fox Lake. You can take your pastry 2 minutes down Nippersink and eat it by the lake, but the bike path fizzles out pretty much at the Metra station.
I use this path mostly for runs (5 - 6 miles round trip) and for a leisure ride on the bike. A fair amount of the path is alongside a major road so may not be appropriate with children or pets. In the winter, during snow, only part of the path is cleared and salted (between Fox Lake and Ingleside stations).
It is a paved trail with trash cans and benches along the way.
Trail is right alongside heavy traffic, very loud, too many intersections to cross with kids, will not be going back to this trail.
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