Is there anyone in the Chicago land area( 50 or so miles
around), that has a 4x4 club or explorer club that
they belong to that gets together regularly for any
runs, locally? Just looking for somewhere to go without
traveling a long distance.

We used to have a club called the NoIEC (Northern Illinois Explorer Club), but the founder took a LONG vacation and it kind of died... there is word of it starting back up but we are waiting on the founder to transfer the website (www.noiec.com) to another member to maintain it and revamp the club... most of us Explorer guys in the Chicago area hang out on the www.onandoffroad.com board...