cycling route 66 from Chicago to St. Louis?

[eddief]

is the route particularly scenic, historical, or both. how much of one and how much of the other? i may have a chance to do this tour in Sept. would be hotels with van for luggage.

[OtayBW]

Now THAT sounds like fun!....

[oliver1850]

The route changed many times even before it was replaced by I-55, so you have some choices as to where to ride. Much of the last route from Braidwood to Springfield can be ridden but it won't have much for scenery and is directly adjacent to I-55 so pretty unpleasant riding in my opinion. South of Springfield there is the original 1926 route which is now IL Rt. 4 and the later route that parallels I-55. Some rough maps here:

https://www.illinoisroute66.org/Port...nois66maps.pdf

There are lots of curiosities in small towns such as the ketchup bottle water tower in Collinsville, the Smiley Face water tower in Atlanta, and the worlds largest covered wagon in Lincoln. "Real" historic sites are mostly Lincoln related in the Springfield area, and Cahokia Mounds west of Collinsville. There are historic buildings scattered along the route, such as the train station and a bank designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Dwight.

[Ken Robb]

Originally Posted by oliver1850

The route changed many times even before it was replaced by I-55, so you have some choices as to where to ride. Much of the last route from Braidwood to Springfield can be ridden but it won't have much for scenery and is directly adjacent to I-55 so pretty unpleasant riding in my opinion. South of Springfield there is the original 1926 route which is now IL Rt. 4 and the later route that parallels I-55. Some rough maps here:

https://www.illinoisroute66.org/Port...nois66maps.pdf

There are lots of curiosities in small towns such as the ketchup bottle water tower in Collinsville, the Smiley Face water tower in Atlanta, and the worlds largest covered wagon in Lincoln. "Real" historic sites are mostly Lincoln related in the Springfield area, and Cahokia Mounds west of Collinsville. There are historic buildings scattered along the route, such as the train station and a bank designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Dwight.

When I drove from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1969 I drove Rte. 66. There wasn't anything I considered excellent scenery until I got to Flagstaff. I suppose traffic on 66 now must be less than then but I think it would be a flat, boring ride with a few quaint dying/dead towns that the new interstate bypassed. Gee, I am surprised that I don't have more positive things to remember about the area.

[Louis]

I would say that if they slavishly attempt to follow "the" or "some version of" Rte 66 you'd have a fair amount of not-so-good riding. But if they pick just the best parts avoid the busy or very poor quality road sections (and there will be some of that) it would be better. Keep in mind, though that this is going to be pretty flat stuff.

If it's a professional tour operator who's done it a bunch of times and refined the route, then you have a decent chance of it being pretty nice. Otherwise, you never know.

[oliver1850]

Originally Posted by Louis

I would say that if they slavishly attempt to follow "the" or "some version of" Rte 66 you'd have a fair amount of not-so-good riding. But if they pick just the best parts avoid the busy or very poor quality road sections (and there will be some of that) it would be better. Keep in mind, though that this is going to be pretty flat stuff.

If it's a professional tour operator who's done it a bunch of times and refined the route, then you have a decent chance of it being pretty nice. Otherwise, you never know.

Much of the sections that were part of 2 lane 66 are now maintained by the counties they pass through, so surfaces will vary widely depending on how the county's budget is doing. Where they parallel I-55 they may still get a fair amount of local traffic and be decently maintained by IL standards. The big issue for me with riding them would be the noise from I-55. See this map of Livingston county to see how close old 66 runs to the interstate - it's actually closer to the northbound lanes than the the north and southbound interstate lanes are to each other.

http://www.idot.illinois.gov/Assets/...livingston.pdf

[oliver1850]

Originally Posted by Ken Robb

When I drove from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1969 I drove Rte. 66. There wasn't anything I considered excellent scenery until I got to Flagstaff. I suppose traffic on 66 now must be less than then but I think it would be a flat, boring ride with a few quaint dying/dead towns that the new interstate bypassed. Gee, I am surprised that I don't have more positive things to remember about the area.

It's flat farmland most of the way through IL, so not much besides row crops and farm/industrial towns. I always enjoyed the trip once into Missourah. OK hills are green and pretty in the spring, and I like the miles of nothing in the TX panhandle and eastern NM.

[Louis]

Yeah, right by 55 for miles on end would be a drag. And if they detour you onto local roads then the whole thing becomes at least sqrt(2) times longer, because those will all run N-S or E-W, and you will want to be going SW.

One other thing, doing it in that direction means that your odds of a headwind, if there is any wind, are much higher. I haven't checked the actual statistics, but I bet prevailing winds will be from either the W or the SW, unless a front is coming in, in which case they're likely to be from the NW.

Eddie, I'm sure it can be a nice ride, but TBH, if I were thinking of doing a tour in the general Chicago area, I'd be looking at Wisconsin, near the Wisconsin River, between the Mississipi (say, Prairie du Chien) and the areas east of that. There are some wonderful roads there, and if you want to do architecture-related stuff and your schedule matches when they're giving tours, you can stop off at Spring Green and check out Taliesin.

Edit: https://www.taliesinpreservation.org/

[Velocipede]

You can have some great and not so great roads for Route 66. This is a picture of a section in Illinois.

[Louis]

Originally Posted by Velocipede

You can have some great and not so great roads for Route 66. This is a picture of a section in Illinois.

Which is exactly what I was thinking of, when I said that it depends on the route they choose for the ride - they'd be nuts to use sections like that for more than a mile or two.

[oliver1850]

Originally Posted by Velocipede

You can have some great and not so great roads for Route 66. This is a picture of a section in Illinois.

That looks exactly like a stretch I remember from doing the Route 66 road race near Springfield years ago, and is typical of what the landscape looks like for much of the stretch between Chicago and STL. Luckily the race course was not actually on 66.

[Louis]

In general IL roads in this general vicinity aren't quite that barren, most of the time with corn on at least one side of the road (depending on the time of year). I've done a bit of riding on the Illinois side NE of St Louis (one of the rides was billed as a Rte 66 ride, so a fair amount was on some version of the old Rte 66) and none of it was good as the areas south of Columbia IL, down in the flood plain of the Mississippi, but hands down, the best riding in IL around here is in Calhoun Cty, a hilly and quiet bit of land between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. Very nice there. Pere Marquette State Park is a good place to stay in that area.

https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/Parks/P...Marquette.aspx

The lodge and it's history is very cool.

From Wikipedia:

Pere Marquette State Park was founded in 1931 as the Piasa Bluffs State Park, but was soon renamed. The park's heart is a Civilian Conservation Corps-built lodge, first built in the 1930s and later expanded in 1985 to contain 72 rooms. A visitor center, with exhibits on local ecology and history, opened in 1997. The lodge and surrounding cabins were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.[3] In celebration of the 2018 Illinois Bicentennial, Pere Marquette Lodge was selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places [4] by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component (AIA Illinois).

[oliver1850]

Originally Posted by Louis

In general IL roads in this general vicinity aren't quite that barren, most of the time with corn on at least one side of the road (depending on the time of year). I've done a bit of riding on the Illinois side NE of St Louis (one of the rides was billed as a Rte 66 ride, so a fair amount was on some version of the old Rte 66) and none of it was good as the areas south of Columbia IL, down in the flood plain of the Mississippi, but hands down, the best riding in IL around here is in Calhoun Cty, a hilly and quiet bit of land between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. Very nice there. Pere Marquette State Park is a good place to stay in that area.

https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/Parks/P...Marquette.aspx

The lodge and it's history is very cool.

I agree about the area between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers being a great place to ride. Calhoun county is at the southern tip of the "peninsula" and the riding is similar along the IL river up through Pike, Brown, Schuyler, and Fulton counties. It gets less wooded and hilly as you go north. Mark and I have ridden 3 times in the area: once in Brown and Schuyler, once in Pike and Calhoun, and the last time a ride that started in Peoria county and was intended to get into Fulton before the Zipp hub on my Kirk unzipped. Was waiting to hear some comment from Eddie about his options for the ride before suggesting that a route along the IL river would be a much nicer ride than following Rt. 66. Lots of state parks and wildlife areas along/near the river, including Starved Rock state park.

[CDollarsign]

There are some insane hills in Calhoun County and Pete Marquette Park. I’ve ridden a section of 66 around Normal IL and it wasn’t bad. Some had an adjacent bike path. I honestly couldn’t think of a less scenic ride, at least for 95% of it...

[Ralph]

I drove on some of it a few years ago. Liked Flagstaff area best. But I bet any tour done by professionals would be very enjoyable. They know the parts to skip. After all....they want your future business. Sounds fun. Go for it. Lots of history in those bypassed towns. And interesting old businesses (to me anyway).