Trek to Three Floyds Brewery

The Riders at Queen's Landing

Making the trek to Munster, Indiana is one of the mainstay bike rides in Chicago's bicycle touring community.  Having grown up nearby and being extremely familiar with the area its a wonder why I have never made the trip before, by car or bike.  It was high time to join some friends and make some new ones on the ride down.  So on Saturday the 10th of April I did a brewery to brewery bike ride.  I began at (a still closed) Half Acre at 9:15am and met up with a group of riders at Queen's Landing across from the Buckingham Fountain at 10:30am.  We introduced ourselves and waited for the rest of the group and hit the path south at 11am.  Along with a few Half Acre teammates there were another handful of riders all as nice as can be.


View Three Floyds Trek in a larger map
The bike path ends at the South Shore Cultural Center so we took the street bike lane on Rt. 41 down to the Burnham Greenway bike path.   I have never been on this path and loved it.  It bisects the East Side Neighborhood and the town of Burnham Il. The bath abruptly ends and turns into Ave O which then becomes Burnham Ave. where the two towns meet.  We continued south on Burnham Ave until State St where you can head east or west to meet up with an unknown Indiana bike path to the east or pick up the Burnham Greenway path again to the west (recommended).  The path ends at the state line so the best bet is to take Ridge road east to Calumet Ave and head south.  The brew pub is across from the Centennial Park in an industrial corridor.  If you choose to take the eastern route which we did on the way down I would suggest exiting the path on Columbia Ave south.  It dead ends at Rt. 45 and that is where you can pick up Calumet Ave just to the west.  Its about 25 miles from Queens Landing and a 35 mile one way trip for me starting in North Center.  Its a great trip unfortunately the kitchen at the brew pub is under construction and the BBQ they were serving was way overpriced.  For $12 dollars a four inch bun with a couple cuts of pork roast and a bag of chips did not cut the mustard.  The beers I had were excellent Belgium style ales and most of their fans are in love with beers hoppy enough to wake the dead i.e. Zombie Dust so for y'all its a super treat.

Some of our group split off to take the Metra Electric Line back to the city.  Its about 10 miles to the west in Flossmoor Il.  Which incidentally also has a brew pub in it.  I could have made it a Triple Brewery Trip.  Hey, I might be on to something there.  The rest of us bought some beers to imbibe along a secluded point of the path for the ride home.

Peel back some layers.

Pit stop with the Chicago Skyway in the background.

Underneath the Skyway is the Burnham Greenway Path.

As the sun was coming down we got back into city limits and as we cornered the South Shore Cultural Center heading north we got the big skyline reveal which really made the entire trip top notch.  About a mile later I got a flat.  Booooo.  We were back to it in no time and we one by one peeled off the path to go home or make evening plans.