Millennium Trail Biking

Sunny, windy, 68 degrees -- perfect for a bike ride -- so I did 26 miles out my door onto the Millennium Trail to its terminus at Mundelein High School. For those who live in an area without the benefit of hundreds of miles of dedicated recreation trails through forest preserves, see if you can identify the 2 buttons in this photo:



Trail planners endeavor to have trails cross major roadways at traffic signals, and here in Lake County, since our trails tend to be multi-purpose, they install walk/don't walk signals and provide bikers and pedestrians with a button to push to activate the walk signal. They also provide equestrians with an upper button for the same purpose -- so take another look at the pole in the photo.

After leaving Lakewood Forest Preserve, the trail becomes paved and travels alongside and 10 feet from Hawley Street. The ambiance of the lush forest disappears, but you still have views of lovely 1 acre homesites and 2 golf courses to the south. The trail also passes the new Del Webb/Pulte community of Grand Dominion, their second foray into the northwest suburbs of Chicago, so I biked through the developing development. Like its Arizona counterparts, it has lush landscaping in the common areas and a completed and huge recreation center abutting a large lake and wetlands, which is circled by a bike/walking path...



They must be selling pretty well because plenty of homes are occupied and many more under construction. Unlike its Arizona counterparts, it is built on hilly terrain which allows numerous ranch homes to have full walk-out basements. I also spotted many with 3-car garages. Of course, I did not see any of the desert landscaping used out west.