- When: Saturday, August 5, 2017
- Where: Far Northwest Suburbs, ends in Palatine
- Metra Line: Union Pacific Northwest
- Cost: $8 Metra Weekend Pass, $8 McHenry County Fair entry at the gate (or $6 if you pre-pay online)
- Hashtags: #YardSocial #CountryCrawlUPNW
Another train crawl? Get out of town! Way, way, WAY out of town… Join us for our first-ever Country Crawl on the furthest reaches of the Metra system! This all day crawl takes us waaaay out into the hinterlands of McHenry County with stops in Harvard, Woodstock, and Crystal Lake, with a special stop at the McHenry County Fair. We’ll wrap it up back in suburban civilization at a perennial Yard Social favorite, The Lamplighter Inn in Palatine.
Coming from the city? The UP-NW line conveniently shares the Jefferson Park terminal with the CTA’s Blue Line and several CTA bus routes including the #81-Lawrence.
Important Note: No alcohol is allowed on Metra trains on August 5 due to Lollapalooza.
Itinerary
- 8:48am: Depart Jefferson Park outbound
- 9:24am: Depart Palatine outbound
- 10:30am: Hub Lounge, Harvard
- 11:35am: Depart Harvard inbound
- 12:15pm: McHenry County Fair, Woodstock
- 2:45pm: Public House of Woodstock
- 3:48pm: Depart Woodstock inbound
- 4:00pm: Williams Street Tap, Crystal Lake
- 5:00pm: Matt’s Tavern, Crystal Lake
- 6:00pm: Depart Crystal Lake inbound
- 6:30pm: Lamplighter Inn, Palatine
- Inbound trains depart Palatine at 8:25pm and 10:25pm
Transit Connections
The Metra UP-NW line begins at Ogilvie Transportation Center and runs almost directly northwest out of Chicago, paralleling Milwaukee Avenue and Northwest Highway. There are several transit options to connect with the UP-NW line outside of downtown.
CTA Blue Line – Runs 24 hours a day, every 8-15 minutes at most times
The Jefferson Park Terminal offers direct connections between the CTA Blue Line and the UP-NW, as well as the following buses:
- CTA #56-Milwaukee
- CTA #68-Northwest Highway
- CTA #81-Lawrence (24 hours)
- CTA #81W-West Lawrence
- CTA #85-Central
- CTA #85A-North Central
- CTA #88-Higgins
- CTA #91-Austin
- CTA #92-Foster
- Pace #226-Oakton (also serves Des Plaines UP-NW)
- Pace #270-Milwaukee Avenue
Pace Route #250 – Dempster Street – Operates every 30-60 minutes from 7:10am to 12:15am
Pace Route 250 serves the Des Plaines UP-NW station and also connects with O’Hare Airport, Metra MD-N trains at Morton Grove, Metra UP-N trains at Evanston – Davis Street, and CTA Yellow Line trains at Dempster-Skokie.
Travel Guide
Interactive Map
To open the map in a new window, click here.
