A classic child of the ’70s: The North Branch Trail

The Forest Preserve District of Cook County celebrated Caldwell Woods anew on Feb. 19 because it reopened its updated Wellness Center there. It also touted a recent big change to the adjacent landmark bike trail.

The North Branch Trail, which runs along that branch of the Chicago River, is a classic for those of us who grew up on the Northwest Side of Chicago or in near northwest and north suburbs — like me in Harwood Heights.

The North Branch is etched in my memories of the 1970s and early ’80s. My father took me and my sister there so we all could ride our Schwinns on it, eventually traveling its full length and back.

Back then, that was about 15 miles each way, with the start at Caldwell Woods off Devon and Milwaukee avenues; it ended as it does now at the Chicago Botanic Gardens in Glencoe. My sister’s and my first complete round trip was on 1-speed, banana-seat Schwinns, I on a Sting-Ray and she on a Fair Lady.

So spent we were after that more than 30-mile trip that when Dad asked what we wanted to eat, I said only, “I don’t care as long as it’s dead.” It became a family story for years afterward. My tall dad, by the way, rode a large, brown Schwinn Continental.

We were launched into each ride by rolling down the steep path from the parking lot onto the trail. But that ramp is now gone, as the forest district reminds us.

In its Facebook post, it decided to present a picture not of the new Wellness Center but of the ramp’s replacement — a bigger, widely curving, less steep path.

This even though the new path was completed a couple of years ago now. The forest district was still touting it in the news release about the whole Wellness Center project: “The new ADA trailhead connecting into the North Branch Trail was realigned with a more gradual grade and curves around a new raingarden.”

Another apparent child of the ’70s like me, in a 2023 Chicago Sun-Times column, mourned the demise of the original steep drop: “I’ll grudgingly admit the Forest Preserve District is doing the right thing here. But I will miss the thrill,” Abdon M. Pallasch wrote.

Other changes since the ’70s

Cook County’s forest district started building the paved North Branch Trail in earnest in the 1970s, according to some unofficial historians, and got it more or less done over the next decade. It quickly drew scores of bicyclists as well as pedestrians and runners, making it busy especially on nice weekend days.

The North Branch seemed to draw families like my father, sister and me (and my mother, too, once or twice). It’s also been good for casual bicyclists, but serious cyclists who relished the 15-mile length usually have had to get out at the crack of dawn to avoid the crowds — or ride in winter.

The trail got pretty beat up within a few decades. It wasn’t all the families’ and amateur athletes’ fault, though.

The district had learned that some parts of the trail were built too thin, with only 1.5 inches of asphalt instead of the necessary road-quality 3 inches, the Chicago Tribune reported. Roots penetrating sections of the trail built awfully close to trees didn’t help, either.

So the North Branch was completely rebuilt in 2007, one mile at a time.

The next change to the trail came when it was lengthened in 2016 and 2017. It was extended southeast further into the city, first to Forest Glen Avenue, then to LaBagh Woods and the Irene C. Hernandez Family Picnic Grove at Kostner Avenue. About 3 miles were added.

That makes the North Branch Trail now 18 miles one way, though a loop at the north end adds a couple miles of pavement to enjoy.

Riding the North Branch

That north loop runs around the Skokie Lagoons, exemplifying the more natural and open space along the trail. That’s in contrast to the south end.

The North Branch already was a ride through the cityscape, complete with many busy street crossings, near its start or end at Caldwell Woods. Now with that southeast extension over the last decade, there’s even more city to ride through — though frankly, it could be a lot worse.

The Cook County forest district made use of preserves that continued southeast anyway: Edgebrook Woods (with its golf course), the Thaddeus S. “Ted” Lechowicz Woods (where there’s been some work recently), the Forest Glen Woods and finally LaBagh Woods.

The first couple of miles southeast out of Caldwell are actually quite lovely.

Unfortunately it leads to the busy intersection of Caldwell, Central and Devon avenues. You have to cross it to continue along Central Avenue for a bit, then cross that, too.

An underpass at the Edens Expressway (I-94) takes you into LaBagh Woods. There’s been work at the underpass since last fall that’s supposed to be done by spring, the web page on the trail says.

Meanwhile, north out of Caldwell, you’ll quickly have to cross major thoroughfares like Harts Road, Touhy Avenue and Howard Street.

But there’s a thin, a little aged yet still cool bridge over Oakton Street. That’s the center of my video highlight of the North Branch, where you’ll notice a lot of quick, fun curves, too.

You’re in Miami Woods around Niles at this point. As you get into Morton Grove, it’s Dempster Street you have to cross.

Faster cyclists or anyone who wants to leave the crowd can just turn onto Lehigh Avenue and its bike lane for a long, open straightaway. It leads to Beckwith Road, which you can take east back through a leafy neighborhood to the trail.

Soon you’re at the nicer if still big intersection of Golf and Harms roads.

The open north

More street crossings do come as you proceed north, but they get easier to deal with. And the space is more open generally.

You’ll still ride through forest as well as alongside prairie here and there. The local scenery gets more spacious and luxurious, too, as you enter North Shore suburbs. Plus there’s a good bridge over Lake Avenue.

Soon you come upon the Skokie Lagoons. It was originally a marsh, then drained by settlers, the forest district says. A Nike missile site sat within it for a few decades, too. The Civilian Conservation Corps created the current lagoons to address flooding and provide recreation.

You get your choice of riding clockwise or counterclockwise on the 4.4-mile loop. The east side of the loop feels like a true recreation area, with water views and meadows as well as the trees. The west side seems a little more secret through forest while also rolling near the Edens.

But before you ride the whole loop, you could escape the north end at Dundee Road and proceed to the path or bike lanes within the Botanic Garden.

Come back out to finish the loop and head back south for the round trip. And soon you’ll have relived my childhood memory of the ’70s.

YouTubes about the North Branch Trail abound, but here are my two favorites: One a sort of guided tour, another an unnarrated but very complete, soothing ride in the whole system.

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