the 2002 wild onion chicago course:

For the 2002 Chicago edition of the Wild Onion, participants started out with a 12-mile in-line skate from North Avenue Beach to Rainbow Beach. Upon arriving at Rainbow, two team members were given kayaks for an 8-mile Lake Michigan paddle, while the remaining team member had an eight-mile coasteer/run/in-line skate. The teams could switch out at two locations before finally reuniting at 12th Street Beach. From 12th Street, they had a 2.5-mile scooter to the Sears Tower, where they climbed 103 flights of stairs to the observation deck. After descending, they were back on their scooters for another 10 miles, touring bars, restaurants & other attractions in downtown Chicago. Ending back at North Avenue, they next had a 15-mile city cycling leg with 3 miles of dirt thrown in the middle to spice things up. The cycle ended at the Des Plaines River, where they canoed south to Riverside for 16 miles. After the canoe, they had a short 11.5-mile cycle to Red Gate Woods in Palos Park. Once in Palos, they had 5 miles of classical foot orienteering & 6 miles of single-track mountain bike orienteering. Teams then had another 18 miles of cycling back toward the city, stopping at the Orange line near Midway, where they had either the option of taking the train back to the city or cycling back to 31st Street Beach. Once at the beach, a 4-mile coasteer south to Jackson Park Beach awaited the teams. At Jackson Park they picked up Triad gear, scootering, cycling & skating to Navy Pier where a traverse & rappel off the twin towers marked a highlight of the race. The Triad continued back to North Avenue Beach where teams began a 5-mile metro trek (run) through the loop, punctuated by landmarks. It ended at 12th Street Beach, where all three team members then had a 5-mile paddle to North Avenue Beach. A short run across the pedestrian bridge and into the International Outdoor Festival and the teams were across the finish line. The total course distance was 128 miles.