Hi! :)

[Samshep27]

Hi! I'm Sam, I moved to Carbondale over the summer for my partner to attend school. I like casual trail biking and used to spend a lot of my time biking a converted rail trail near my home in Connecticut. I joined because I am hoping to make some new friends and find the best spots. I know the closest rail trail is a bit of a drive, would love to find other safe spots to bike in and around Carbondale area, or maybe carpool out to Tunnel Hill! I prefer not to bike with a lot of cars around for safety. I have a Raleigh Detour 4.5, bought it new in 2015 for college and it has been my trusty steed ever since I like to do between 10 - 20 mile rides/ ~10mph

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Howdy Sam! Welcome to Bike Southern Illinois

We have a few options for rail trails and rail trail-like paths.

Carbondale has a great bike path that will essentially extend to Marion.

Tunnel Hill is around 45 miles from Harrisburg to Vienna.

There is a short rail trail in Metropolis at Fort Massac State Park

I think Alto Pass Quetil Trail is a bike path now IIRC.

Rend Lake has 20 miles of trail as well.

Glen O Jones/Equality had a 5-mile trail too.

 

[Rom]

Welcome! Carbondale has a decent bike path that leads out to crab orchard. Once the weather warms up, we should be having saturday morning group rides at beginner pace from the Bike Surgeon in Carterville.

 

[Wade]

Note that there are numerous farm roads with almost zero traffic in Southern Illinois. Here in Franklin County, sometimes I’ll only see 8 or 10 cars on a 40 mile ride. Just take a bit of time to figure out some routes.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Note that there are numerous farm roads with almost zero traffic in Southern Illinois. Here in Franklin County, sometimes I’ll only see 8 or 10 cars on a 40 mile ride. Just take a bit of time to figure out some routes.

I definitely agree with that! Plenty of great backroads around these parts!