The Cal-Sag Trail: How sweet it is, how much sweeter it could become

On the long list of bike trails in Cook County, the Cal-Sag Trail in southern suburbs is a relative baby.

Trails formed as soon as the 1930s in the county’s first forest preserve, Deer Grove near Palatine. The North Branch Trail, along the Chicago River branch leading into north suburbs, is a child of the ’70s and before. The Thorn Creek Trail system in southeast Cook County shows historic “FPD” trail markers.

The Friends of the Cal-Sag Trail a couple of years ago celebrated the 20th anniversary of the start of planning for their trail; the first segment of any length didn’t open until 2015. A half-mile stretch opened first around Lake Katherine in 2008.

Now it’s touted as a 26-mile trail along the Cal-Sag Channel (full name, Calumet-Saganashkee Channel). But it’s not quite that (yet). It’s really two trail segments, with a rough stretch of road riding in the middle.

It’s still worth the trip. You can feel the love and care that community members have put into the trail from the beginning. And on the western segment at least, it’s almost entirely uninterrupted, making it good for casual bicyclists, serious cyclists and families alike.

How it formed

The Friends say the idea of a trail along the canal was first heard in the 1970s, but it took residents working with community leaders, first in Palos Heights, to make it a reality in the 2000s and 2010s.

Pizza gatherings and workshops were held in all the towns the trail would roll through: Palos Park, Palos Heights, Alsip, Riverdale, Dolton, Calumet City, Burnham. Blue Island would later get involved to make a key connection.

Groundbreaking in Alsip finally happened in 2014. Now the trail is pretty smooth and definitely peaceful on the western stretch along the canal from Lemont to Alsip, even if the canal is not the most scenic. You can ride 14 miles one way through prairie and some forest.

Later, after the western segment ends, you’re stuck with views of factories. But you get back among trees on the eastern segment.

All along the way, however, is fantastic signage, with mile markers. That was a deliberate effort, too: A Signage+Wayfinding & Development Plan was completed in 2012 by landscape architect Charlie Crump and his team as well as Cal-Sag coalition members.

The plan includes a distinct bridge logo — this trail has its own logo! — and arbor gateways at community borders, not to mention guidance to adjacent communities and trails.

The Cal-Sag Trail is not a Forest Preserve District of Cook County trail per se; the district is part of the Friends group along with nine towns and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.

The west segment

I finally took my first ride on the Cal-Sag Trail from the west end, parking at the Sag Quarries off Archer Avenue. It’s a long parking lot, and you ride north to the trail

Quickly, you feel like you’re on a ridge by a river — except, of course, it’s the Cal-Sag Channel. You feel separated from the surrounding sprawl and manufacturing world.

Soon you encounter a fork and the first wayfinding sign. You want to go toward Palos Park.

You’re riding through real forest preserves, like Saganashkee Slough Woods, the Sag Valley Forest Preserve, Swallow Cliff Woods and Dan McMahon Woods.

It takes a full 9 miles to get to Lake Katherine, where the Cal-Sag Trail really started. It’s here where those first meetings happened to discuss, first, a trail link to the town’s new Metra station, then the need for the larger trail, according to the Friends.

Lake Katherine is a little gathering place nestled among homes, so you’ll see plenty of residents milling about.

After you go through the street with small parking area, you carry on east still right along the channel. Ultimately you end up at Cicero Avenue and Freedom Park in Alsip — where the paved trail ends. Or begins, if you want to head west from the park, as a Cal-Sag gateway appears between the park and trail.

Ride the streets

To continue east on the official Cal-Sag Trail route, you’ll exit the park and ride on 131st Street. It starts in a residential area, and while the street has no bicycling infrastructure, it’s plenty wide if a little bumpy.

After you ride under I-294, you must turn onto Inland Drive and then 129th Street. Now the pavement’s getting really bumpy and you’re clearly in an industrial area. Enjoy the scent of pollution.

That leads you to Pulaski Road, and you need to shift south back to 131st Street. It’s not the easiest thing, with four lanes of traffic, no bike lanes and poor sidewalks.

Back on 131st Street, you may not feel certain you’re still on the Cal-Sag route. But you’ll soon see the Mile 16 marker on the same kind of tall Cal-Sag posts you saw earlier. You’ll also see that at least one side of the street was repaved recently; it’s a relief.

Blue Island and the eastern segment

You get through the factories to arrive in downtown Blue Island. The suburb nicely provides a bike lane, even if the road isn’t in perfect condition. You’ll see another Cal-Sag mile marker, too.

It can feel a little busy, to be sure, and you’ll have streets to cross. Then signs steer you right on Chatham Street, and the auto traffic will end.

That’s because 10 years ago, the Chatham Street bridge over the channel was repaired and repurposed for bicyclists and pedestrians only.

You cross over to even newer trail, complete with another Cal-Sag gateway to the left. That’s where the paved Cal-Sag Trail resumes.

You’re back riding along the channel and through trees for a couple of miles until you reach Halsted Street. Here’s where the whole Cal-Sag Trail ends at the east for the moment.

You can cross Halsted to enter Whistler Woods, and you’ll see good signage leading you to the Major Taylor Trail; the 2 miles of that trail within the forest preserve is scheduled for “improvements” in 2026, according to the Cook forest district.

Take the trail to the bridge over the Little Calumet River and check out the remarkable long mural about Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor, the track cyclist who became a world champion around the turn of the 20th century. The Major Taylor Trail continues 6 miles into Chicago.

Links and the future

So the Major Taylor Trail could extend your ride on the east. There are significant trail connections on the west end, too, even if it feels a little unwieldy to get to them.

You’ll see good signage again leading you to the Centennial Trail; that takes you on bridges over railroad tracks and industrial lots around the forest preserves. The actual bike paths on the bridges may or may not be wide and comfortable.

If you persist, however, you’ll not only be able to take a circular path down to the Centennial Trail, but you could also head down to the I&M Canal Trail. The Centennial runs 12.5 miles; the mostly gravel I&M Canal runs a remarkable 61 miles.

So you could avoid the rough middle segment of the Cal-Sag route, stick to its western segment, then get more miles on the Centennial or I&M.

But someday, that middle Cal-Sag segment is supposed to be a nice trail, too. And plans are for the Cal-Sag to indeed extend east all the way to Burnham.

A timeline made by the Friends of the Cal-Sag Trail says “construction is scheduled for the section from Pulaski Rd. in Alsip to Francisco St. in Blue Island, and from Dolton to Burnham” in “2025-26.” The Cook County forest district’s latest 5-year capital improvement plan notes the “Cal-Sag East Connections,” to be done by “various municipalities,” is “proposed 2024-28.”

I eagerly await the connections so the Cal-Sag Trail will become an even sweeter ride.

• Do you find information like this valuable? This free website is made possible almost entirely by readers like you. Consider donating to help defray the costs of gathering and presenting this material.