steelbikeguy

some photos from a scenic bike trail that runs along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. This is part of a series of trails along the Mississippi near St. Louis, MO. This section runs from Alton, IL north to Pere Marquette park.

The section just north of Alton is a separated path, paralleling Route 100. It is asphalt, but has some rough or buckled sections. I recommend 28mm or larger tires.



Further up the trail is the Village of Elsah. It is nestled into a "hollow" or valley in the river bluffs. It is a very small, but scenic/picturesque community. I think that tourism is their main business, with a few small inns and cute shops.


an attractive vintage house in Elsah....



and back on the road...
this stretch of the trail north of Elsah puts bikes on the shoulder of the road. It's fine for me, but not everyone will want to be this close to traffic.


Steve in Peoria

stardognine

There's some nice riding there, around St. Louis.👍 When I came through, I missed a turn, and crossed the river on the wrong bridge. It got pretty scary for a bit, lol, lots of traffic. 😁

non-fixie 

Speedboat races on the Po river at San Nazzarro, couple of weeks ago. The sound of highly-tuned engines drew me to the river, and I realized that those sounds will be gone from our society rather sooner than later ...

steelbikeguy

I'll just assume that you are talking about the bridges near downtown St. Louis. Lots of bridges, weird combinations of interstate designations, some beat-up road surfaces (mostly on the Illinois side), and terrible traffic density at rush hours. Given a choice, I take the outer belts!

Biking in the St. Louis area has improved since I lived there, but it's still hard to find good roads in the main urban areas. I'm very fond of the outlying rural-ish areas, though, such as Wildwood and the stuff around Babler Park.



Steve in Peoria (where the options for good bike routes are much better, imho)

steelbikeguy

Continuing my tale of a bike ride from Alton, IL to Pere Marquette park... there is an old barn right next to the trail. The barn and an adjacent house seem to be abandoned, or maybe just vacant? The barn is pretty classic, and above the door is the text "H. Eastman, 1876". I stopped for a few quick bike photos with the barn....







The park has a road that goes up the river bluffs, and has a few scenic overlooks. You can see the nearby Illinois river, and all the way to St. Charles (or St. Peters?) in Missouri, which is across the Mississippi river. There is a popular bike route that takes ferries across the two rivers, which makes for a novel bike ride.







Steve in Peoria (also located on the Illinois river)

steelbikeguy

After riding from Alton north along the rivers to the scenic overlook at Pere Marquette park, it was time to head back south. The route south to Grafton included dodging walnuts on the trail (lots of 'em) and a couple of folks on e-bikes moving fast. Grafton has transformed itself into a party spot, with a bunch of restaurant/bars, hotels, and boat marinas. Pretty impressive for a quiet little town, honestly, but a real pain for cyclists passing through on the weekend.
At the harbor, they've erected a little lighthouse... although I'm not sure it's a functional lighthouse.




a closer look at the bluffs that the road and trail run along...




of course, there are water fowl... an egret, a crane, and some canada geese..


and a closer look at the river bluffs....
Now that I think about it, how is it that rocks aren't falling on cars all of the time?



Steve in Peoria

XxHaimBondxX

steelbikeguy

a wrap-up of the ride from Alton, Illinois up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers to Pere Marquette park...
This is the last leg of the ride, from Grafton back south to Alton. The trail leaves the shoulder of the road and becomes a separate path again.





the wildlife was making itself visible here and there. A black snake, maybe?


Back in Alton, I did a little riding up and down the hill in the older neighborhood....
Definitely some neat old houses!






Steve in Peoria

Prowler 

Yesterday was a perfect fall day on the Delaware and Lehigh rail trail. It follows the west bank of the Lehigh River along a massive cut that left a high rock embankment on the west side of the trail and almost continuous river views on the east side. I admired the masses of very tall, clear trunk trees that had clawed their way up into the sunlight. I believe there are sections of that trail that don't get direct sunlight all year long. And "in the middle of nowhere" is a concrete phone booth, nicely preserved. "See stuff" indeed.







And lots of this view as you roll along

steelbikeguy

The trees were looking good today!



This is an area where a controlled drainage path was constructed. A side benefit was that it opened up a nice view of the Illinois river!

Steve in Peoria

Inusuit

Inusuit

northbend 

Trouble ahead...
Now this doesn't look good. Just N of town.. by Matthew Pendergast, on Flickr

steelbikeguy

the trees near St. Louis are looking pretty nice right now! I did a 40 mile loop in the Wildwood area on Sunday, starting at Babler Park, through Rockwoods Reservation and Greensfelder Park, and back through some of the similarly scenic and rolling country roads. Gorgeous!









Steve, back in Peoria

stardognine

I almost hit a couple of these ladies & kids, about half an hour ago, on the way to the store. I counted 7 at that point, but by the time I got the phone out, some left. 🙄

These deer are very used to being around people, not really skittish, unless ya scare them with a bike. 😋😁😉

dbhouston 

Just discovering this brilliant time-suck thread, so I'll play!

Off a gravel road east of Stillwater, Oklahoma, a big gleaming "marble" sculpture in someone's red dirt farmyard:

Tulsa's beloved Golden Driller statue with my beloved Centurion ProTour15:

PilotFishBob 

A bit difficult to tell from this picture, the Mississippi River at Memphis is at a historic low, almost 11 feet below normal. And it's going to get lower. It's impacting cargo traffic, as if shipping problems weren't already causing things to be expensive.

stardognine

This billboard has been really bothering me, for several months now, because I saw it, then forgot exactly where, so couldn't go back & grab a pic. 🙄😁😉

It's just West of the Yolo Bypass Wilderness Area, between Davis & Sacramento. The restaurant is in Davis. ✌️

bwilli88 

Finally got a nice long ride on my Witcomb
First a French colonial era watch tower for customs and pirate watch. Boats going up and down the Mekong would have to stop here to pay customs tax on their goods for Kampong Cham.

When was the last time you saw children playing in a school yard unsupervised? Also check out the hand pump for their water.

Fresh delivery from the local butcher.

50s era Wat

Fat me and my shadow.

typical flooding for the rice fields

steine13

Medieval ruins on the Rhine river.
Mäuseturm in the middle of the stream.
Mid 90s Cannondale in the foreground.

Ehrenfels

stardognine

Now that Halloween is actually here, I can post Willie the werewolf. 😎 Just outside of Fairfield, CA.

steelbikeguy

I was out for a quick ride this morning and came across this group of classic cars parked along the Illinois River...


high res version: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c4e26e_k_d.jpg
(although it's a crappy phone camera photo, so it's just not a great image)

There were three guys near the cars, and it turned out that all of the cars belonged to one fellow. I was riding my shiny Hetchins, so I explained that I enjoyed shiny old stuff and thought his cars looked great. Had a nice chat, etc. Apparently the other guys were there to video an interview with him and get shots of the cars. No idea of whether they were local media or you-tubers or what. I was just glad to see some cool cars that had gotten a lot of love and made a fellow happy!

Steve in Peoria

DQRider 

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hazetguy 

beer stuff.

Archetype (West Asheville)


New Belgium

Stevensb 

hazetguy
Perhaps you can add a few detailed photos of your Wes Mason to this thread:

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...-have-mkm.html

Is that a Crane RD?

Cheers.

Brad