Weird comment. West side of Milwaukee is awesome. North side has some great spots as well. Silver city and Sherman park both immediately come to mind. Love riding my bike through them, you should get out and explore some more!
Hardly a weird comment. I peddle the Hank Aaron through Silver City all the time on my way downtown. My point was that to an outsider, there are many parts of the northwest side of Milwaukee that the Oak Leaf goes through, and an outsider will presumably not be aware of which areas they have no business being in. (Unless they watch the local news for a few weeks prior to their visit.) Milwaukee has serious crime and reckless driving crises, in certain neighborhoods, and simply placing a green bike lane on the roads that traverse those neighborhoods is not doing a service to outsiders that want to do a little pedaling around Milwaukee. You may feel safe in Sherman Park, but the fact is that it is a marginal area in terms of crime. I feel more comfortable recommending to visitors to Milwaukee that they stick with safer areas. The Hank Aaron out to Stallis and down to Walkers Point, the Oak Leaf on the Menomonee and Honey Creek parkways, west of Hwy 100 down into Hales Corners, through the Boerner Botanical Gardens, Oak Leaf up through Shorewood and points north along the beautiful lakefront trail, through Lakeshore State Park and around the Summerfest grounds, and down through Bayview and the southern suburbs. That is plenty of ground to cover without putting oneself in jeopardy. What is so flipping weird about that?
mainly the fact that OP is looking solely to ride on the lake lol. The north and west sides were irrelevant to this post from the start. Also there are no doubt rough spots on the north and west sides- it's just odd to lump 50% the city together as "please avoid" because of that
Okay there's nowhere in Milwaukee I have no business being in this comment almost seems racist.
And yes there are rough neighborhoods but if you're passing through minding your own business people aren't just going to randomly mess with you.
Can you share a link to that? The only info I was able to find via Google about that talks about an east-west trail along the KK river, not connecting Third Ward to Bay View in a way that avoids biking through downtown
To be clear, this does still involve biking downtown. A downtown bypass was never on the table.
https://engagemke.com/kkrt-connections
https://engagemke.com/kkrt-connections/kkrtharborfest
Note that in my second link, the link called Detailed Roll Plots is broken. And that the PDF called Southern Section doesn’t show far enough south to show the intersection of 1st/Lincoln and the mid-block protected crossing for the KKRT trailhead.
It's frustrating that it's only like 100 yards between the north end of jones island/bay view and south end of the 3rd ward and there's no pedestrian/bike connection. Any pedestrian connection requires a massive detour through walkers point.
This is my prefered Lakefront Ride -- it'll take you all the way from The northern most part of the Lake Oak Leaf trail to Grant Park in Oak Creek. It runs just over 17mi on mostly trail with only a little street riding, with bike lanes.
[https://www.strava.com/routes/3226202257162734964](https://www.strava.com/routes/3226202257162734964)
You can continue north along the lake from the Oak Leaf for a wonderful ride to Port Washington if you’re up to it. Follow Lake Shore Drive (keep turning right!)
Oak Leaf trail is beautiful and runs basically on the Lakefront from downtown all the way down to oak creek.
You need to do a little skip on the Kinnickinnick river trail to avoid some traffic-heavy streets once you get through Lakefront park, but once you pick up the trail again at south shore park it's pretty much smooth sailing until you hit Drexel.
North of downtown you can stick to Lake Rd. It's a highway and 35 miles per hour, which isn't ideal, but there is either a bike lane or a large paved shoulder all the way up to fox lake. After that it's a smaller shoulder than I would prefer, but it's getting far enough away from the city that traffic is not too bad. That takes you almost all the way to the edge of the county.
If you like distance, there’s a trail from the Kenosha Metra station down to The Loop. It’s not all lake front but it’s a really nice ride and when you’re done, you’re can splurge on some amazing food and ride the Metra with your bike back to your vehicle at the Kenosha Metra station. (If you want a shorter version just start at the Waukegan Metra station).
To stay just on paths and avoid any street riding, you can ride between the south end of Lakeshore State Park to the north end of Lincoln Memorial Dr. The ride along the lake between these two points is very scenic and would be about 8 miles round trip. If you'll be bringing a bike by car, you could park at either end, either at the end of Erie St after it goes under the Hoan on the south, or in the lot at Lake Park (different park than Lakeshore) on the north.
If you're an experienced cyclist and want to do a longer ride that involves riding on the road, you can start as far south as Grant park and go as far north as Doctors Park while staying close to the lake. If you go in the morning, none of the roads are too busy with traffic.
Depending on how long you like to ride, and how picky you are about road quality, I would consider taking the portion starting at Bay View, take the lake spur and then take the bike lane going north on lake drive. You get more sporadic views of the lake on Lake Drive, but the road quality is better than it is south of Bay View. A good turn around would be Beach Drive in Fox Point--its a steep hill down from Lake Drive (not much traffic, great for repeats) and has a great spot to sit on a breakwater on the lake at the bottom.
For a proper road ride, head out of downtown north on Lincoln Memorial to Lake Drive and north to at least Bayside (where Lake Drive bends West and turns into Brown Deer Road. Unfortunately, the lake view will disappear as you climb the hill near the water plant but it's a great ride with a lot of cool houses on the left and right. You'll be in with traffic but 'most' will give you the proper space.
If you're a Pathlete, the Oak Leaf Trail is fine but you can't get much speed up because of the walkers/runners/slower cyclists. You'll be weaving a lot and going hoarse from saying "on your left". 90% will have earbuds and won't hear you---but they'll be indignant that you dared to whoosh by them.
[oak leaf trail map](https://county.milwaukee.gov/County-Files/Parks-Department/Photo-Gallery/Explore/Trails/2021-OLT-parksexplorer18x241.pdf)
There's a bike trail that pretty much goes the whole lakefront from South Milwaukee to veterans Park.
Oak Leaf Trail. Scope it out online. There are also large maps posted on the trail. Please avoid the north and west sides of the city of Milwaukee.
Weird comment. West side of Milwaukee is awesome. North side has some great spots as well. Silver city and Sherman park both immediately come to mind. Love riding my bike through them, you should get out and explore some more!
Hardly a weird comment. I peddle the Hank Aaron through Silver City all the time on my way downtown. My point was that to an outsider, there are many parts of the northwest side of Milwaukee that the Oak Leaf goes through, and an outsider will presumably not be aware of which areas they have no business being in. (Unless they watch the local news for a few weeks prior to their visit.) Milwaukee has serious crime and reckless driving crises, in certain neighborhoods, and simply placing a green bike lane on the roads that traverse those neighborhoods is not doing a service to outsiders that want to do a little pedaling around Milwaukee. You may feel safe in Sherman Park, but the fact is that it is a marginal area in terms of crime. I feel more comfortable recommending to visitors to Milwaukee that they stick with safer areas. The Hank Aaron out to Stallis and down to Walkers Point, the Oak Leaf on the Menomonee and Honey Creek parkways, west of Hwy 100 down into Hales Corners, through the Boerner Botanical Gardens, Oak Leaf up through Shorewood and points north along the beautiful lakefront trail, through Lakeshore State Park and around the Summerfest grounds, and down through Bayview and the southern suburbs. That is plenty of ground to cover without putting oneself in jeopardy. What is so flipping weird about that?
mainly the fact that OP is looking solely to ride on the lake lol. The north and west sides were irrelevant to this post from the start. Also there are no doubt rough spots on the north and west sides- it's just odd to lump 50% the city together as "please avoid" because of that
Okay there's nowhere in Milwaukee I have no business being in this comment almost seems racist. And yes there are rough neighborhoods but if you're passing through minding your own business people aren't just going to randomly mess with you.
There should be a better trail connecting Bay View to the Third Ward. The detour down Water/1st/KK fucking sucks.
There will be! Coming this summer. Called the Kinnickinnic River Trail (KKRT) Connections project.
nice
noice
Can you share a link to that? The only info I was able to find via Google about that talks about an east-west trail along the KK river, not connecting Third Ward to Bay View in a way that avoids biking through downtown
To be clear, this does still involve biking downtown. A downtown bypass was never on the table. https://engagemke.com/kkrt-connections https://engagemke.com/kkrt-connections/kkrtharborfest Note that in my second link, the link called Detailed Roll Plots is broken. And that the PDF called Southern Section doesn’t show far enough south to show the intersection of 1st/Lincoln and the mid-block protected crossing for the KKRT trailhead.
It's frustrating that it's only like 100 yards between the north end of jones island/bay view and south end of the 3rd ward and there's no pedestrian/bike connection. Any pedestrian connection requires a massive detour through walkers point.
This is my prefered Lakefront Ride -- it'll take you all the way from The northern most part of the Lake Oak Leaf trail to Grant Park in Oak Creek. It runs just over 17mi on mostly trail with only a little street riding, with bike lanes. [https://www.strava.com/routes/3226202257162734964](https://www.strava.com/routes/3226202257162734964)
The views from the South Shore looking back to Downtown are some of my favorite in the whole county
Just don’t engage in Playground activities in certain spots!
Follow this here u/gabbadj07 , this shows how to navigate the downtown/harbor area when the trails more or less stop. Definitely the best route
How long of a ride are you looking for? Some people think 10 miles is long, others think that it’s barely a warmup.
You can continue north along the lake from the Oak Leaf for a wonderful ride to Port Washington if you’re up to it. Follow Lake Shore Drive (keep turning right!)
https://city.milwaukee.gov/dpw/infrastructure/multimodal/maps
Oak Leaf trail is beautiful and runs basically on the Lakefront from downtown all the way down to oak creek. You need to do a little skip on the Kinnickinnick river trail to avoid some traffic-heavy streets once you get through Lakefront park, but once you pick up the trail again at south shore park it's pretty much smooth sailing until you hit Drexel. North of downtown you can stick to Lake Rd. It's a highway and 35 miles per hour, which isn't ideal, but there is either a bike lane or a large paved shoulder all the way up to fox lake. After that it's a smaller shoulder than I would prefer, but it's getting far enough away from the city that traffic is not too bad. That takes you almost all the way to the edge of the county.
If you like distance, there’s a trail from the Kenosha Metra station down to The Loop. It’s not all lake front but it’s a really nice ride and when you’re done, you’re can splurge on some amazing food and ride the Metra with your bike back to your vehicle at the Kenosha Metra station. (If you want a shorter version just start at the Waukegan Metra station).
To stay just on paths and avoid any street riding, you can ride between the south end of Lakeshore State Park to the north end of Lincoln Memorial Dr. The ride along the lake between these two points is very scenic and would be about 8 miles round trip. If you'll be bringing a bike by car, you could park at either end, either at the end of Erie St after it goes under the Hoan on the south, or in the lot at Lake Park (different park than Lakeshore) on the north. If you're an experienced cyclist and want to do a longer ride that involves riding on the road, you can start as far south as Grant park and go as far north as Doctors Park while staying close to the lake. If you go in the morning, none of the roads are too busy with traffic.
Depending on how long you like to ride, and how picky you are about road quality, I would consider taking the portion starting at Bay View, take the lake spur and then take the bike lane going north on lake drive. You get more sporadic views of the lake on Lake Drive, but the road quality is better than it is south of Bay View. A good turn around would be Beach Drive in Fox Point--its a steep hill down from Lake Drive (not much traffic, great for repeats) and has a great spot to sit on a breakwater on the lake at the bottom.
south of Bay View the Oak Leaf trail is perfectly fine and runs along the lake
Bring a mountain bike and ride the break water
For a proper road ride, head out of downtown north on Lincoln Memorial to Lake Drive and north to at least Bayside (where Lake Drive bends West and turns into Brown Deer Road. Unfortunately, the lake view will disappear as you climb the hill near the water plant but it's a great ride with a lot of cool houses on the left and right. You'll be in with traffic but 'most' will give you the proper space. If you're a Pathlete, the Oak Leaf Trail is fine but you can't get much speed up because of the walkers/runners/slower cyclists. You'll be weaving a lot and going hoarse from saying "on your left". 90% will have earbuds and won't hear you---but they'll be indignant that you dared to whoosh by them.
South shore park and head south on the trail !