Another multimodal adventure: Madison to Chicago by bike and train

 

Madison doesn't have passenger rail. Over the past year, there have been a lot of news that indicate that that may be changing, sooner than anticipated. But I'm not going to get my hopes up. And "sooner than anticipated" still means 2029 at the earliest. And so to get to Chicago without a car, you have to take a bus. Or bike to the nearest train station, which is in Harvard, IL.*

 

In 2024 I did that trip for the first time, on my fixie: Bike to Harvard, take the Metra commuter train into downtown Chicago. And for the way back, Amtrak train to Milwaukee and bike back from there. I documented that trip in two videos. 

 

This year there was another opportunity. A grad school friend was going to be in Chicago. My significant other had a hotel room booked already and so I might as well join! The plan: Leave early on Saturday, catch a mid-day train and arrive in Chicago in the afternoon. Have some fun, eat a lot, sleep. Do the reverse the next day.

 

This being March in Wisconsin, the weather is an important variable. March can have days warm enough for shorts and t-shirt. Or a blizzard. Or everything in between. On that spectrum, the weather forecast looked okay-ish: Cold but sunny on Saturday morning, with a predicted low of -7 C/20 F and a high of +7 C/45 F; and much warmer and mostly sunny on Sunday. Good enough for me.

 

One adaptation in response to cold morning was to not aim for the 11:35 am train (which would have necessitated a departure around 5 am) but the 1:35 pm train instead. This was to reduce the amount of time I'd be riding while the sun wasn't up yet or very low. I departed Madison at 6:19 am, half an hour before sunrise. And yes, it was cold! A few degrees warmer than the forecast, but still well below freezing. I wore thick wool socks, neoprene shoe covers, and wool tights on my lower body. A wool baselayer, long sleeve wool jersey, and a softshell jacket on top. A buff to keep the wind out, plus a hat. I knew that my hands would be the weakest link and added a pair of chemical warmers to my gloves. Juust warm enough. 

 

Aside from the cold, it was a beautiful morning. A clear sky, birds singing, not much wind, the sun just about to rise over the Madison lakes. I managed my effort to balance staying warm enough while not riding too hard. After all, it was 135 kilometers (80 miles) to Harvard, which this early into the season is a considerable distance. Some of the ill effects of the cold were that my contents of my water bottles turned into slush (but not wholly freezing at least!). And the wax on my chain was so hard that it caused my drive train to be noisy and imprecise. 

 

The route I had created prioritized short distance and low traffic roads. Scenery, on the other hand, was not a priority. The parts of Wisconsin and Illinois I was riding through are flat and agricultural. In March that means endless shades of brown fields, with the occasional farm house or town in between. 

 

The riding was going well enough that for a while I thought I may be able to catch the earlier train. It would be tight, but maybe I could increase my effort and cut a few kilometers off the planned route. However, as the sun rose not only did the temperatures go up but so did the wind. And it was not in my favor. So I had to resign to the fact that I would arrive much too early for the 1:35 pm train but had no realistic chance of catching the 11:35 am. Ah well. I dialed my effort back down and arrived in Harvard at 12:08, after 5h 48 minutes. My moving time was only 13 minutes less than that—when it's this cold, you really need to minimize the time stopped! Harvard has a very nice coffee shop, The Mug, one block from the train station, and I slowly warmed myself up with a "golden oat latte."

The Metra train is great for bringing on your bike: Most cars have a bike rack and no extra ticket is required for the bike. And if you do a Saturday/Sunday trip like I did, you can buy a weekend pass for $10. 

 

The way back

 

Our hotel's breakfast room had a large window. With some trepidation I watched a flag across the street: Clearly it was quite windy, and the wind appeared to come from the west. My route back was going northwest overall. I was mentally prepared for this and resisted the temptation to take a closer look at the wind forecast. It's not like I could do anything about the wind. I biked to the train station, and after less than 19 hours in Chicago I was on the train again. I got back on the bike in Harvard at 12:16 pm. 

 

As I had anticipated, it was windy! The wind seemed to be from the south rather than the west, though. Better than expected. My route for the return trip was different. Head west to Beloit, northwest to Orfordville, and then straight north back into Madison. The first segment felt hard. Boring landscape, tired legs, strong crosswinds. I was resigned to the day being a long slog. But hey, the fact that it was much warmer and I had no pressure to catch a train counterbalanced this. And while the crosswind made me feel very slow, I noticed that my actual average speed was pretty decent. And whenever there was a segment of road heading north, the tailwind felt amazing. My mind increasingly focused on the fact that for the last 30 km of my ride the wind would be in my back the whole way! Spoiler: indeed it was. 

 

It is hard to convey how good a strong tailwind feels. You forget your tired legs and butt. It is suddenly quiet, except for the hum of your tires spinning at 22 miles an hour. The distance remaining on your bike computer ticks down rapidly. You no longer care about the featurelessness of the landscape because you just focus on your effortless speed.

 

I arrived back home after 5h 20 min, in an elated state of mind. These types of ride make me fall in love with biking over and over again. They're ridiculous, hard, easy, fun, memorable. 

The stats

Madison to Harvard:  

• Strava link 
• Distance: 134.06 km (83.3 mi)
• Moving time: 5:35:00
• Elapsed time: 5:48:06
• Average speed: 24.0 km/h (14.9 mph)

Harvard to Madison:  

• Strava link
• Distance  130.31 km (81.0 mi)
• Moving time 4:56:51
• Elapsed time: 5:20:28
• Average speed: 26.3 km/h (16.3 mph)

 

* Technically, the nearest train station is Columbus, WI, from where you could take the Empire Builder long-distance train to Chicago. But that train runs once a day, is expensive, and (because it comes all the way from the West Coast) is often delayed by many hours. Milwaukee is another option, but you need a reservation and extra bike ticket for the Hiawatha service.