The first 3.5-mile section of the planned 35-mile Millennium Trail to connect central, western and northern Lake County communities and forest preserves opened in fall 2002. It runs from a parking area off Fairfield Road at Lakewood Forest Preserve near Wauconda east to Gilmer Road near Mundelein and Hawthorn Woods. At that point, it connects with the North Shore Trail, developed and managed by the Lake County Department of Transportation, along the edge of Hawley Street.
The North Shore Path follows streets to the east side of Mundelein, and then follows an old railroad bed through Libertyville. It connects with the Lake County Forest Preserves' Des Plaines River Trail on the east side of Libertyville and also runs further east to connect with Lake County Department of Transportation's McClory Trail in Lake Bluff.
Another section of the Millennium Trail heads south from Singing Hills near Volo to Lakewood Forest Preserve near Wauconda. At Lakewood, the Lake County Division of Transportation later will construct a tunnel to allow the trail to cross safely under Fairfield Road. The trail connects two residential areas and winds through beautiful hills and prairies and along wildlife-rich Broberg Marsh. Singing Hills now will serve as an important trail hub, with car and horse trailer parking and a toilet.
Currently, a 1.1-mile section of trail from the Singing Hills trailhead parking lot on Fish Lake Road is open to Gilmer Road. A 1.5-mile trail section through the Liberty Lakes subdivision from Gilmer to Gossell Road will be completed next year. From Gossell Road, a 4-mile section of the trail is completed south to Lakewood Forest Preserve, where additional trail parking and access is available at the Shelter B parking lot on Ivanhoe Road.
The Lake County Forest Preserves are working on future extensions of the Millennium Trail. They have secured a trail easement with the cooperation of Baxter and are working with the Villages of Volo and Round Lake to add a future trail spur that will continue north to the new Marl Flat Forest Preserve and then east to the Round Lake bike path.
Another leg will join the statewide Grand Illinois Trail, heading west from Singing Hills to Moraine Hills State Park and McHenry County. Funding for land purchases and trail construction is provided by Forest Preserve referenda overwhelmingly approved by Lake County voters, and by grants from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Plans for this regional trail were first sketched out during the late 1980s linking communities and Forest Preserves with existing and potential trail corridors. Using the Des Plaines River Trail as a backbone, the plan called for the Millennium Trail to curve 35 miles through central, western and northern Lake County. Along the way, it will hook up with other trail systems, including the state’s planned Grand Illinois Trail, which someday will stretch 450 miles from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River and back.
Elsewhere, the Lake County Forest Preserves are purchasing lands that will help form the route for the trail as it curves north and east from Singing Hills, to and through Round Lake area communities to Rollins Savanna Forest Preserve near Grayslake. There it will head north through Fourth Lake Forest Preserve and Bonner Farm to McDonald Woods Forest Preserve near Lindenhurst. Eventually, it will run east from there to connect with the northern section of the Des Plaines River Trail near Wadsworth.
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