Issue #02: Top Hikes Less than an Hour Outside Chicago
Plus tips & tricks for finding your own dog-friendly Chicagoland Adventure
Before we dive in, I just want to say, WELCOME FOR REAL and thank you all for subscribing! When I wrote my last post, this little newsletter was just a concept, but now that I have a cute little circle🍩 (IYK) of subscribers, this feels a whole lot less like yelling out into the void, and a lot more like catching up with a friend over coffee. Which is way more fun, and so much less serious. So, welcome! I’m so happy you’re here 😊
🎥 Secret Life of Walter Mitty: My boyfriend has been trying to get me to watch this film for years. Bribing me with takeout sushi, I finally caved. Walter is an employee at Life Magazine and spends most of his time day dreaming of wild adventures as a means to escape from the monotony of his own life. When he’s presented with an opportunity to go on a real adventure to find the perfect photo for the final print issue, he takes it. Learning how to face his fears and become an active participant in his life (sound familiar?)
📖 Why I stopped drinking, Lane Scott Jones: While I haven’t stopped drinking completely, I have spent quite a lot of time re-evaluating my relationship with alcohol over the past few years. This gorgeous essay by Lane Scott Jones shares takes us down her own path to sobriety, experiencing it as a path towards greater attunement with herself and the world around her.
🍝 Segnatore: One of the hardest parts about leaving Chicago (outside of leaving friends and family, of course) is leaving behind some of my favorite restaurants - Segnatore holding court at the top of this list. While you can’t go wrong with anything on the menu, the Bolognese Fries, Whole Fried Chicken with Calabrian honey and pickled hot peppers and Leek Gramigna (IMO the best pasta in all of Chicago) is my favorite.
✨ A million baby icicles, cheeky dog grins & deep belly laughs with friends…click here to read my glimmers from the past week!
After spending the first half of my life in Pennsylvania, skiing after school, hiking on weekends, playing capture the flag in the woods and wading barefoot through streams, the commercial engine of Chicago was a stark contrast to my small town upbringing where access to the outdoors was just a stones throw away. Every time I’d google places to Ski, hike, etc. in the Chicagoland area, I was always met with results that were an hours away time commitment that I just was not ready to make, and so, I remained Chicagoland’s biggest nature naysayer up until around 4 years ago when I got my first dog, a quirky German Shepherd named Violet, and my world turned upside down.
I had known that caring for a high energy dog breed would require some lifestyle changes, and I took my new title of “Dog Mom” very seriously. With an intensity that bordered on unhealthy obsession, I poured all of my time, energy and resources into giving Violet the best life that I possibly could. Weekly obedience classes in the suburbs, private training lessons in the city, Agility classes, doggy puzzles & DIY enrichment activities, you name it, I’ve tried it. Naturally the next step in this progression was finding her outdoor activities outside of our neighborhood walks. Just because she was a city dog, that did not mean that her world was going to be confined to my 900 sqft apartment.
The journey to find accessible yet beautiful trails that were reactive dog friendly (Violet cannot resist chasing a runner or a biker), took a lot of trial and error, but over the past 4 years we’ve accumulated quite the list. It turns out, there’s a lot more to this state than Starved Rock, and together, Violet and I have walked hundreds of miles of gorgeous trails in and around the city. So as my time in Chicago is coming to a close for the foreseeable future, it’s time I’ve shared some of my favorite Chicagoland trails for your next low maintenance adventure and tips for forging your own path.
Below are my top 6 hikes in the Chicagoland area. All of the trails listed will give you opportunities to hike anywhere from 3-6+ miles, are reactive dog friendly, and under/around an hour from the city. Trails are listed in order of proximity to the Lakeview East Neighborhood in Chicago, but if you live in a neighborhood with closer proximity to I-90 (i.e. Logan Square, Old Town), these distances could vary.
LaBagh Woods (20 Minutes) | Cook County Forest Preserve
At first glance, LaBagh woods appears to be another bike trail due to its close proximity to the southern end of the popular North Branch Trail, but located just off the beaten path, you’ll find miles of tranquil wooded paths running alongside the Chicago River.
It’s a little tricky to find the first time you visit, but if you look to the side of the bike path, you’ll notice lots of winding foot paths for you to veer off on and explore.
Cherry Hill Woods (35 Minutes) | Cook County Forest Preserve
Without a doubt, Palos Park is home to some of the most expansive and diverse trails in the Cook County Forest Preserve. Although the Cherry Hill Woods entrance is my favorite, with 119 miles of trails in the area, there are there are so many amazing spaces to explore without having to drive too far out of the city.
I’ve found the trails at Cherry Hill to be on the quieter side. The footpaths do not allow bikers or horses, and I rarely come across other hikers while winding through the rolling hills and deep ravines of these woods.
Oriole Grove Trail: Jensen Woods (40 Minutes) | Lake County Forest Preserve
Don’t let the unsightly trailhead fool you, once you get about 1 mile into your walk, you will understand why this one made the list. This 86-acre forest preserve has been my most recent and most pleasantly surprising find in the area. Not only is it a part of the Lake Forest Forest Preserve, but it also connects with the Lake Bluff and Lake Forest Open Lands Association which I have found to be home to some really well maintained trails in the northern suburbs.
These unpaved footpaths wind through the woods, along small streams, through prairies and is a nice change of pace from the busy, biker dominated trails of the Northern Suburbs.
Elawa Farm & Middlefork Nature Preserve (40 Minutes) | Lake County Forest Preserve
Although definitely one of the smallest Nature Preserves on the list, it’s still worth a visit if only for a stop at Elawa Farm. This historic farm with gorgeous architecture and a tasty cafe is home to a seasonal weekend market (Saturday’s 9AM-1PM), cooking classes and lots of community events.
I love to start my walks with a coffee at the cafe, before setting off on a walk through the winding prairie paths. This Nature Preserve has a mix of paved bike trails (maintained by Lake Forest Forest Preserve), and bike free grass trails (maintained by Open Lands Association), so you’ll easily be able to find something that works for you. Because of the proximity to the farm, this is on the busier side, but I’ve found the Open Lands portion of the trail to be generally very peaceful.
Leroy Oakes Forest Preserve (55 Minutes) | Kane County Forest Preserve
Leroy Oakes offers a little bit of everything in terms of scenery and trail type. A mix of paved paths for bikers and runners and unpaved footpaths, lead you through prairies, grassy fields, woodlands and creeks for you and your dog to discover.
Depending on the day, this trail can veer on the busier side, but because there are so many options, you can easily find space away off the beaten path. If you’re interested in extending your walk, you can cross over Dean Street for easy access to the Great Western Trail, a 17 mile bike path along an abandoned railway from St. Charles to DeKalb County.
Coral Woods Conservation Area (60 Minutes) | McHenry County Conservation District
Coral Woods is made up of 3 small trail systems and is one of the 8 remaining groves in McHenry county that contains 100 acres of more of continuous Oak Woodland and is home to an abundance of wildlife (bluebirds love it here). There are little ponds, grassy sloping fields and of course, plenty of wooded trails to explore. Although the longest distance from the city, Violet and I still visit often as it is one of my favorites in the area.
Want to scout out your own walks in the woods? Here are some tried and true tips/tricks to find the trails that work best for you.
And by off the grid, I mean get off of AllTrails. Don’t get me wrong, AllTrails is an amazing addition to your outdoor toolkit, but unless you’re a biker or live in an area with a buzzing outdoor scene, it’s not going to do much for you when it comes to finding anything off the beaten path. The routes on the app are user submitted, and since the Chicagoland area isn’t exactly a hiking hub, these submissions are few and far between.
Although it seems a bit counterintuitive, many of my favorite hikes outside of the city have been found by searching around on Google Maps (literally just open the app, zoom out from your current location and start checking out the green spaces). You’ll be surprised by what you find!
After identifying a potential hike, I always like to scope out the trail details to get a feel for whether or not it’s worth the drive or if there’s anything that I should be aware of (Is it paved? Bike friendly? Are dogs allowed?). One of the easiest ways to do this is by searching for the trail on the County Forest Preserve’s website (Cook, Lake and Kane Counties all have great trail systems) and then pivoting over to AllTrails to view any photos. While AllTrails may not be helpful for finding new trails, vetting potential routes is where it really shines. I always look at the photos to see if a potential new trail is worth the drive, and read reviews to see if there are any unexpected closures.
More specifically, know your dog’s strengths. While most of my friends are lucky enough to have very chill dogs, that can go just about anywhere, my girl Violet is extremely movement reactive which makes doing my research before heading to a new trail all the more important. If your dog doesn’t mind bikers or runners, then you might enjoy exploring a more paved, bike trail-esque path. If your dog is reactive towards other dogs, then narrow footpaths may not be a good fit. Is your dog nervous around strangers? Use Google’s crowd meter to find the “off” times when the trails will be less crowded. There is an abundance of forest preserves in the Chicagoland area and with a little research, I’m certain that there is a fit for everyone.
Sure, we don’t have the deserts of Arizona, beaches of California (or their mountains, forests, deserts, etc. we get it, you guys have it all), but what we do have is an enormous parks/forest preserve system that is begging to be explored.
Thanks for reading Sincerely, Soph. If you’d like to follow along on our adventure, subscribe below. Anything you want covered? Questions? Reply to this email or leave a comment to let me know :)