Southwest Suburban Weekday Woods Walkers

This hike is always a crowd-pleaser. Ticks are rumored to be abundant this year, so you might consider bringing bug spray.

Arrowhead Lake to Rubio Woods and return is an even 5 miles.
This is a wide paved trail, so if you wish to do less mileage, you may turn around at any time, and it is nearly impossible to get lost.

Please ignore the map pin and drive to the very end of the parking lot across from beautiful Arrowhead Lake.

Another more challenging hike, many ups and downs and twists and turns, but very fun. We'll start south with a steep downhill on the orange trail, then head east on all or most of the 4.3-mile black trail which winds up and down several ravines. We'll complete the loop back on the crushed stone, easy yellow trail. Wooded except for the final section. Expect around 5.5 - 6 miles, but there are a couple places to cut off the black trail and head back sooner if you (or the group) so choose.

I'm limiting this to 12, first come first served. We don't hike especially fast (around 3 mph) but you'll need to be able to keep up since there are many twists and turns and we won't stop a lot. If someone familiar with this trail is willing to co-lead, we can split up and do the loop in opposite directions and double the attendee limit - let me know if you're willing to help out.

This should be a nice, pretty walk, especially at this time of year.
We'll start at Horsetail Lake and then head east on the Yellow trail. After that, there are many options, but my preference is to continue to the purple trail, then back west on the yellow, UP the stairs, and back, probably around 5 miles. But there are other options.

This is, as I've said, a great scenic hike with a couple of manageable hills, always a crowd pleaser. You'll need to be able to climb up the 124 stairs at Swallow Cliff or take another route around. The western staircase is easier to climb with more even steps.

This hike is weather-dependent as usual. If it's especially slippery or muddy, I'll offer an alternative or postpone it.

This hike begins at Hidden Pond Woods West which is a bit tricky to find so check the map beforehand - it must be entered from northbound LaGrange Rd. We'll start south on the brown trail then circle back north on the yellow and orange trails. Nice trail, mostly crushed stone I think, wooded, not tough but some hills. Believe it's around 4 miles. For anyone interested, there's an option for an extension on the orange and yellow that add a couple more miles (which I will probably do, but likely that someone else will lead those who wish to go back sooner).

The beginning part of the trail is sometimes muddy but the rest should be okay - so be prepared just in case!