How Long Would it Take to Ride Around Lake Michigan on a Bicycle?

Chicago cyclist Phil Fox is betting he can make the 940 mile trip around Lake Michigan in 72 hours on pedal power alone. His epic journey will be a world record.

Ah, summertime on the big lake. Chicagoans love to spend time at their houses in Michigan beach towns, and Michiganders love to head up north for the weekend. Phil Fox has plans to make the trip around all of Lake Michigan all at once. An ultracyclist who has competed in several 1,000 mile races has mapped out a 940 mile route that will circumnavigate the third largest of the Great Lakes.

On June 17, Fox will clip his feet into the pedals of his endurance bike and begin the trip at Chicago's Buckingham Fountain. Travelling north, he will ride through Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula before crossing the Mackinac Bridge from St. Ignace to Mackinaw City. The clockwise trip around the lake continues by cruising all of Michigan's west coast north to south, before crossing the border into northern Indiana and then into Illinois and back to Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park.

To give you an idea of the scope of this journey, the Lake Michigan Circle Tour is a trip mapped out around Lake Michigan for cars. The route is roughly 1,100 miles long and would take 14.5 hours with no stops. Fox hopes to complete his pedal powered trip in just 72 hours. He told Chicago's ABC 7, "chances are maybe I'll get two to three hours of sleep and I'll be pedaling probably 23 hours a day to see just how fast we can pull this off."

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While some people won't drive 1,000 miles this summer, Phil Fox is dedicated to pedaling his bike almost that far around the lake to raise $10,000 for Multiple Sclerosis research. If he is successful, it just may set a world record.