lookin for trail ridin in IL

[Venom01]

i live right outside the city and was wonderin if theres any good stuff farther out there. im not great at jumpin and whoops yet but love the trails.

lemme know, experience speaks louder than paper does

 

[dante]

morris strip mine secret spot

Dude i used to live in Chi town also... I also lived in a town called Morris Illinois 30 miles past Joliet on the i 80... In Morris there is an old strip mine that was huge I mean giant... It has hills and trails and everything, even natural jumps and stuff when you more up to it or whatever... It's the most amazing riding place I've ever riddin... It's just like riding in the So-Cal desert and I'm not even kidding at all... Because is was a strip mine no trees or plants really can grow in the soil... There are lakes with Kawasaki green water totally polluted, but what ever it's a great place to ride... I can't really remember exactly how to get their but It's on the other side of the train tracks the town is small... And it you were to load up your bike and go you could ask were the strip mine is everyone would know... Also the mine is abandoned no worries their... I grew up riding allong the Mazon river in unincorporated Morris Sick riding areas their also... Bro check this place out, believe it... it's pretty far from chitown but it's the spot...

 

[Venom01]

sounds great, but what about tresspassing? do the local cops care? i dont wanna adrive an hour and get tickets and no ridin. thanks for the tip thpugh. ill look into it before winter comes

 

[lbk]

There is a lot in that general area that he is talking about. I live in the far northwest suburbs and usually go to that area to ride. There is buffalo range down there, that is kind of nice because they have a variety of things, from a grassy oval, to mx tracks, to trails, to clay, to sand they don't have a website that I've found, but their number is 815.433.2471. Then there is a place called "The Cliffs" their website is here http://www.thecliffsinsaneterrain.com/ pretty good for trails, just be careful because they allow quads and even jeeps too. Then there is Bong Rec Area in WI that is just trails too, but they close them a lot for a variety of reasons. But you can call and they update their machine daily as to whether or not they are open. Their number is 262-878-5600. Then there is one more down there, not sure what their trails are like since I've never been there, but it's a place called Fox Valley Off Road, their website is here http://www.foxvalleyoffroad.com/foxinfo.html

Hope that helps those are all of the places that I know of to ride, besides Byron but the trails there are closed now. If anyone else has other places, please post them up, I'm dying to find something closer than these.

 

[dante]

The strip mine is closed... abandoned... has been for years... I never had any problems with the cops in morris... It's a very laid back kind of place... It's (the mine) is not regulated at all, also it's very big... I wish I could remember all the streets to tell you exactly were to go... As a kid I used to ride my dirt bike right down the street all day every day it did'nt seem to matter... I never had any contact with the police at all... Kids drive under age and do donuts while drinking 40's in the corn fields and the cops don't get called... we did pretty much whatever the hell we wanted... I supose it could be different now a days but I doubt it... in a place like morris everyone rides dirt bikes and their are no real problems with the man... Unless your doing somehting out of the ordinary and riding a dirt bike is ordinary there...

 

[jsned]

Venom, me and a buddy are going to Buffalo Range (Ottawa) this Sunday. (10th). we ride the woods only, and usually ride for a couple hours take a break and then ride another 2 hours. If you want look for us in the parking lot in the back. (there is parking by the motoX track but it is too dusty and busy up there0. Keep following the gravel road straight back past track till it does a sharp S turn thru a fence we park to the right side. White Jeep Cherokee KTM400, Black Ford diesel black CRF450.

Place is great if you get someone to show you around, you could end up hating that place if you get in the wrong place. It is a legal place ($20) and is very challenging if you know where to go.

 

[Bob Brooks]

I’d like to respond to the posts about the riding in the strip mines in Morris, IL. I grew up in Morris. I live in Joliet now, but my folks still live in Morris and I get down there regularly, a couple of times a month.

I learned how to ride in the old Morris strip mines, and my dad rode there all the time with his buddies in the late 60s and 70s. The riding in the Morris strip mines WAS great, back in the day, but there’s no riding there now. In the 60s and 70s, the riding there was fantastic, and even in the early 80s it was pretty good. By the late 80s, the cops started to crack down on trespassing out there. An old construction tycoon by the name of McElvene owns the Morris strip mine land, and a couple of guys got hurt bad and killed out there and their families tried to sue the landowner and that’s when the fun ended.

Another thing that killed the riding in the Morris strip mines was the federal land reclamation project. Sometime in the late 80s or early 90s, the government dumped a bunch of money into the “reclamation” of old strip-mining areas, and the land in Morris was targeted for that. They came in with bulldozers and earth-moving equipment and flattened a lot of the hills and tried to clean up the area. A lot of it is still there, but portions of it has been subdivided and built up with homes. The land that remains is basically a private hunting and fishing sanctuary for the landowner, McElvene, and his buddies. The government spent money to reclaim the land and fix it up, but the public doesn’t get to enjoy it, which never made any sense to me.

Bottom-line, there is no more dirt biking riding in the old Morris strip mines. The last time I tried to ride out there was about 1993, maybe ’92, and I got thrown in jail for it. Times have changed a lot since you lived in Morris, Dante.

When I grew up, it was much like Dante described. There was a lot of riding in Morris and it was all free and unrestricted. Occasionally, the local cops would crack down on trespassing and kick people out of the strip mine areas, but not very often. But those days ended about 20 years ago. Morris has grown a lot in the last 20 years, and it’s turning into a yuppie town like any other Chicago suburb. Believe me, if a kid tried to do a donut in a cornfield outside of Morris now, he’d be herded off to jail just like anywhere else. Those maverick days are long gone, and sadly, so are all the free riding areas around Morris.

For trail riding in northern Illinois, as most of the other posts described, Buffalo Range in Ottawa is probably the best around, in terms of acreage and terrain. Fox Valley Off-Road Park in Wedron is also fun and available, but is smaller. Those two places are about it in this area for woods riding. There’s a chance we’ll make it out to Buffalo Range this weekend and if we do, look us up. I drive a green Ford cargo van and ride a YZ250 and my wife rides a Gas Gas 200. We usually have two dogs with us, a gigantic Malamute and a collie, and so we’re always easy to spot.

 

[lbk]

Looks like I'll have to keep an eye out this weekend. My wife and I are going on Sunday, we'll probably park by the MX tracks I have an RM125 with the Sobe sticker kit on it, my wife has a CR80 and we'll be in a E350 Cargo van with a raised roof on it. So say hi, if any of you end up down there on Sunday.

Actually we're going riding Saturday too, but that will be at "The Cliffs" so if anyone winds up there, same thing stop by and say hi.

 

[jsned]

Bob, IBK, hope to see you guys. We are going on Sunday.

Bob, sounds like the same thing where I grew up. Houses everywhere, even if you could ride on some property chances are you are going to start irritating neighbors. My opinion I would rather pay and not worry, plus I dont think you will find too much better riding than Buffalo Range.

Three kids killed in the last few months here in Kankakee County, one girl riding a XR80 no headlight 12 midnight right on a county highway someone ran right over her, the other was two girls riding a fourwheeler ran a stop sign car coming the other way didnt have to stop ran over them. Big article in the local paper from the cheif of police on new zero tolerance for illegal use of ATVs, and dirtbikes.

 

[Bob Brooks]

Jeff, sounds good. We hope to make it out this weekend, but everything has been last minute with us this year and I won't know until later this week what we're doing. We hope to see you this weekend, but if we don't, then we certainly want to hook up in a couple of weeks at the Crawfordsville GNCC. Not sure if we're camping again or not...depends on the weather, but either way, we're planning to be there. I'll e-mail you when it gets closer, but let's definitely plan on meeting over there.

 

[dante]

Has it been 20 years!

Jeese I guess it has... The days of drinking beer and making pyramids of cans in the corn fields are over hugh? Those were the days I tell ya... I'm 33 now and I lived there in the 6th and 7th grade... It was great back then!!! Down along old pine bluff road, not pine bluff but old pine bluff used to be one of my fav's also... along the mazon river, mud, sand, & hard packed dirt all kinds of variety the best most fun I've ever had ever period... I went back and rode a couple times over the years but that was at least 10 years ago if not more... I didn't think that place would ever change to be honest... It's funny to hear Yuppie and Morris in the same sentence Bob it's to bad too... I've been back by McElvene's cabin back their... That guys got it made... Play poker in the cabin have a few drinks and take a couple steps to the duck blind... It's a dream set up except the water I bet is very polluted... I don't think I'd be eating the duck from there... You guys would have been so stoked if you could have experienced it though... It truely was quite awsome and it was so big also... I wouldn't want a house build over that place I don't think... Good luck with the rides guys... Too bad the squids ruined the Morris mines for everybody that just sucks... The mines remind me of So-Cal desert riding it was truely a great great spot...

 

[Bob Brooks]

Dante, I’m a little older than you…I’m 37 and will turn 38 in another month, but I was definitely a Morris Strip-Mine regular when you lived here. The early and mid 80s were near the end of it. By the late 80s, the cops were kicking people out of there and hauling them off to jail. It really was an awesome place to ride, but at the time, we took it for granted and didn’t appreciate it. I could cry when I think about the riding we had then in comparison to what we have now. If we could take the motorcycles of today and have the riding opportunities of yesterday, it would truly be a beautiful thing.

I also rode a few times down by the Mazon River off of Old Pine Bluff Road that you’re talking about. That area is still there, but there are a lot of houses around and to my knowledge, no one rides there anymore.

 

[dante]

Dante, I’m a little older than you…I’m 37 and will turn 38 in another month, but I was definitely a Morris Strip-Mine regular when you lived here. The early and mid 80s were near the end of it. By the late 80s, the cops were kicking people out of there and hauling them off to jail. It really was an awesome place to ride, but at the time, we took it for granted and didn’t appreciate it. I could cry when I think about the riding we had then in comparison to what we have now. If we could take the motorcycles of today and have the riding opportunities of yesterday, it would truly be a beautiful thing.

I also rode a few times down by the Mazon River off of Old Pine Bluff Road that you’re talking about. That area is still there, but there are a lot of houses around and to my knowledge, no one rides there anymore.

I've enjoyed this Thread just thinking about those times.. No kidding an MX bike with the suspenion we have now, and the brakes!!! I rode an 1978 XR 75 back then... I took a KZ 400 street bike out there for some putting around in High School... Some of the hills were quite large I remember being scared of those and some of the drops... I'd have to sit at the top and build the nerve to go down... I loved the trails allong the top ridges of the hills, little single track and then the huge drop, that lead into an up hill with a big turn at the top... Then the big roller coaster hills seemed to go on and on... I did allot of playing out their on a BMX bike also... I loved the place... I'd love to ride there now... I guess all good things eventually come to an end...

 

[Venom01]

damn, i just returned from notre damn today at noon, i woulda have loved to meet you guys out there today. ill go any other sunday, i just got my bike a few months ago and need to ride with others, lemme know in this thread anyone who plans on makin a trip somewhere so i know ill be goin to a place that has stuff goin on,

thanks for all the replys