JOHNHOF

Anyone on this forum in the St Louis area? I have been riding the Katy Trail and the paved trails in Maryland Heights and St. Charles. I would be interested in hearing about any fun and pretty areas to ride within a hour or so from St. Louis.

JerrySTL

I live over in Belleville. If you like trails, I suggest riding over in Madison County, Illinois. There's around 75 miles of paved trails. My favorite trailhead is behind the Culvers Restaurant on Hwy 157. It's just a little north of I-55/I-70 at the Collinsville exit..

Here's a good map. MCT Trails Map

Part of that trail system goes north and south of Alton. The northern route up to Grafton and Pere Marquette State Park is nice as long as it's not too windy. On your side of the river there's the flat areas out of St. Charles around New Town and Portage de Sioux.

There's also some good road riding out of Columbia, Illinois. Plenty of flat roads and also a lot of steep hills.But you probably want to tag along the first few times until you know where you're going.

I love riding on the Katy. I've done it end-to-end the last 8 years.

Wildwood 

Used to park near Spirit Of St Louis Airport and ride west to Babler Park area, south toward Wildwood and return to car.

Early Sat & Sun mornings Hwy 100 (west) used to be pretty deserted, starting from west county destinations.

Never really liked the roads south and west out of Eureka.


....but I've been gone awhile.

JerrySTL

It's very, very busy now. Wild Horse Creek Road was a favorite of mine. So was doing laps of Babler. Lots of housing developments now. From the airport to the Smokehouse was almost completely empty except for the Gator Flats gas station. Now there are hundreds of businesses there. The next 100 year flood of the Missouri River is going to be very interesting.

DadBod79

https://gorctrails.com/

lots of trails described in this organization's website. i'm not a member, but I'd consider it. I'm particularly interested in the work they're doing to maintain STL area trails and add new ones. Seems like they are plugged in well to the STL region political scene and have demonstrated success at lobbying for bike-friendly developments.

smullen

Not a really long ride, but you can also start at the Chain of Rocks Bridge and ride down to the arch and back.

CliffordK

Not there now, and it is a while so I'm trying to remember some of the places I rode.

I think I did an organized ride (half century?) in Illinois when I was there. I don't remember the route, but generally flat, low traffic through farmlands.

Creve Coeur Lake has a nice paved path around it, and then connects up with the Katy Trail at one of the bridges. Not a long route, but a good simple ride.

There are good bike paths along the Columbia River, and along the levee, although a bit dirty in places.

The Chain of Rocks Bridge, of course, is a bike bridge. I think it connected with some good paths along the river on the West Side, but don't remember the East side being that exciting, but that was a decade ago when I was there.

I think I did the levee paths on the West side, but then for some reason hopped over to the East side to ride northward up to the confluence of the Missouri/Mississippi. Past 6 flags?

There was also a path that I took more or less just south-west of downtown... River des Peres Greenway, or Gravois Greenway.

Ahh, found this map. Click to make bigger.

Jmpierce

The river road is a great Sunday morning ride. Alton to Grafton and back about 24 miles.

GBearFan

St Louis' best map for the metro east area is the interactive map from Metro East Parks and Recreation District ( https://www.meprd.org/trail-map/ ). They keep it up to date and it includes all of the trails. Play with the different settings and features to see trail names, types of surfaces, routes under construction, future proposed routes and more. It includes all of the Madison County Transit (MCT) trails and the trails in St. Clair County trails. HAPPY CYCLING ALL!!!