I skimmed thru the whole thing. It is a good read, if only to help one understand how we managed to get into such a fiscal mess in this country. This plan is a mishmash of every pipe dream imaginable. It even attempts to claim that bike paths are a viable transportation system, and not just recreational in nature. Given that a lot of the paths are not even plowed in the winter, and very few people ride bikes after it gets cold, the idea of bike paths as anything other than primarily recreational in nature is laughable to all but a few bureaucrats.
I extracted the map and sent it to Traillink so they can add the trails to their database. Most of the comments I make here are comments I made in the accompanying emails to them. Some of these trails I knew about, and others I never heard of before. I had to use Google earth and satellite view to verify that some actually existed. Sadly, a lot of money was spent on bike paths that don't see any significant use as they either go nowhere, or go somewhere no one is going to walk or ride a bike to.
If nothing else, the map provides some ideas for walking opportunities for us.
The following paths appear to exist about as indicated and are paths and trails I knew about already.
Hononegah Recreation Path
Stone Bridge Trail We hiked it 12-12-11
Long Prairie Trail We hiked a section 12-24-11
Willow Creek Path 9-7-10
Perryville Path (We have been on a short segment a couple times)
Rock River Recreation Path 9-17-11
Rock Valley College Paths
Midway Village Loops off the Perryville Path
Pecatonica Prairie Path
What the map refers to as the Victory Lane Path is part of the Bauer Path that starts at the river and ends down the street from me on Roosevelt Road. It is basically a feeder trail to the Rock River Recreation Path to/from Machesney Park. This map does not show the recent additions to the path coming east along Roosevelt Road to the Harlem Community Center. Wilma and I walked it on Christmas Day.
The Perryville/Bell School connection does not seem to exist, despite the map claiming it is existing. It might just be a series of signs along a regular street.
The Spencer Park trails exist, and connect into the Belvidere City Park system trails along the Kishwaukee River. I think they are collectively called the Kishwaukee Riverfront Path. I have not been able to find a comprehensive map for it, but Google maps show some of it, and the satellite view shows more. It seems to start at BELVIDERE NORTH HIGH SCHOOL. 9393 Beloit Road, Belvidere, IL, and proceeds SE along Beloit Road to N. Appleton Road where it turns south, going through Spencer Park and then thru the city park(s) going east along the river. The Belvidere Park District web site says it is 5.6 miles of asphalt trails. Some place I saw a mention of a connection to the trail at Prairie Fields but Google shows no evidence of it. Maybe another bike path that is just some signs along a regular road.
The square trail that is shown to the NE of Spencer on the map is in a Belvidere City park called Prairie Fields. Google shows it extending for a short distance out of the SE corner of the park back toward the city.
No idea what the Roscoe Riverside Path is. Can't find it in Google Earth or satellite view.
What they call the Cherry Valley path is mostly in Baumann Park.
What they refer to as the Blackhawk Springs trail is really the Kishwaukee Recreational Path. It runs thru the Kishwaukee River and Blackhawk Springs forest preserves.
The Mel Anderson Path looks about right. I had not heard of it before. I could not find a map of it so made my own from Google.
I had not known of the Charles St. Path before either, but it appears to exist as well. It does not seem to go anywhere either, but from the map looks like it might be extended to connect with the Perryville Path eventually.
As many times as I have been on Harrison Avenue, I never noticed the bike paths there. I guess if there were no bikes on them when I went by, they were not real noticeable. Google shows them to be about where they are depicted. They don't appear to actually go anywhere anyone would bike or walk to, so I am not surprised I never noticed any bike traffic on them. It also appears there might be some long term intention to connect it with the Perryville Path.
The route along Spring Brook seems to exist as unmarked and unsigned lanes on both sides of the road. Another apparent waste as it goes from Rock Valley College to a busy intersection with no way to get anywhere else.
I don't believe the Davis-Pec path was ever actually built that is shown connecting downtown Rockford to the Pecatonica Prairie Path, although I think they started on it. It seems to be hung up over getting funding to clean up some polluted ground in the way based on some newspaper articles I Googled.
I don't know much about the short segments of trails that are shown on the map. I have seen some of them, but have no idea if they go anywhere. There are also a bunch of short paths that I have run across not on this map or any other map I have seen, but viewable in Google Earth or Satellite view, although I don't know just how short they are as I never actually checked them out.
I have seen the one that crosses Perryville Road Road south of Harrison a number of times. Google maps calls it Swanson Lane, but that appears to be because it starts at Swanson Parkway. I have no idea what the park is they show abutting it to the south is. It does not appear on any park map I have seen, although Google maps also shows it as an unnamed park. The satellite view shows it as a field of the same size and shape. I sent an email to a guy at the Forest Preserve District who might know asking about both it and the path that is shown. My GPS map shows a park of a somewhat different shape there as well, but it also does not name it.
There is a paved trail inside Rock Cut State Park that is on the park map, but not shown on this map. They refer to it as the Puri Path. It starts near the rt 173 entrance on the north side of the park and heads toward the east edge of the park and then due south toward the Puri Crest picnic area. Wilma and I have walked on it a number of times. It actually extends outside the park under I39 and just stops on the east side of I39. Supposedly next summer a paved path will be constructed along route 173 that will connect the Puri path to IL251 to the west.
There is also a trail not shown on the map up in Schoonmaker park in NW Machesney Park along the east side of the river. It consists of a couple of loops in the park, and it heads north out of the park according to Google. Google maps refers to it as the Harlem Township bike path. I have never been on the part outside the park. I know the two loops inside the park exist as the dog park is there so I have seen both of the loops. Never walked on them.
I had a noon dentist appointment today. The street the dentist is located on (Morsay Drive) has bike lanes on both sides and sidewalks. I don't know if the sidewalks extent the full length of the street. The lanes appear to extend from Alpine Road to Fairview Blvd, just under 3/4 of a mile. At Fairview there is a "bike route" sign going north, and there are bike route signs along Fairview Blvd, but no actual bike lanes or anything. Just signs.
I also recall there is a trail that crosses S. Mulford Road that goes along a RR track. It goes more or less east-west between a set of RR tracks just north of Sandy Hollow Road. Google shows it goes over toward I39 to the east and past Alpine Road to the west. No idea what it is. I asked the guy at the FP district about that one as well. The mystery trail looks to be more than 2 and a half miles long and it appears to continue west past Alpine Road as what may be snow mobile trails. Hard to tell from the overhead images.
(Google Earth image added 1-1-12)
ETA 12-27-11:
It occurred to me that all parcels in the county are in the WINGIS database so I looked it up. The mystery park is a property tax exempt park owned by the Village of Cherry Valley, so I emailed the village about the two paths (there is nothing on their web site about either the path or the park). I also emailed a friend who owns a business in the area. The friend replied:
Yes I do know of and what you are talking about. The land was all owned by Dr. Armour Swanson. He donated the land for the park and the bike path to Cherry Valley for theirs and the publics use. It's a very nice walking area well kept. It's used by the residents a lot but the park is rarely used itself, mainly walkers. they are named Swanson Park, and Swanson Walking path.
ETA 12-30-11:
I got a reply back from the FP district guy about the mystery path. He said "That one is a head scratcher. I don't know". He also suggested I address the question to the Rockford Metropolitan Agency for Planning and gave me an actual person's email address to send the question to there. So I sent that guy the question. I don't expect an answer until at least January 3, 2012, due to the holidays.
ETA 12-31-11:
It has been suggested to me by the president of a local bike club that it may be an unofficial ATV trail. My first thought was that it seemed a bit elaborate for an unofficial trail, but after thinking about it some, I guess a few loads of gravel is not all that elaborate for someone with a dump truck.
ETA 1-13-12:
No response as of yet from Rockford Metropolitan Agency for Planning to the email I sent them. Not a big surprise. I did get a response a few days ago from the Village of Cherry Valley.
Good morning. Sorry for the delay time in my response. The path labled Swanson Lane is The Village of Cherry Valley's path. It is probably labled that way by Google because of its origin starting at the intersection of Swanson Pkwy and Swanson Lane. We refer to it as Swanson Park Bike Path. This path, starting at Swanson Pkwy, can be utilized all the way to Baumann Park in Cherry Valley. As for the other path you have labled mystery path, I believe it is just a "four-wheeler" trail that has been used over the years by ATV's and snowmolbiles. I would assume that being between the two railroads that this is probably railroad ROW. Hopefully I have helped you in answering your questions. Have a good day.6-4-12 This paragraph and image moved here from another page that was being dismantled:
Google maps now has bike trails and paths, at least some of them. You can check that layer in the selection and see them. Trails are solid green. Laid out routes along roads are dotted in. The solid trails generally seem suitable for walking, so this is a good resource for finding walking/hiking paths.
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