Favorite Bike Route

[flip18436572]

My favorite is mostly because of the ease of access. It is a 40 mile workout route that runs 20 miles to the next real town north of mine. The highway has wide rumble strips and then a two foot wide paved area to the right of that for bicycles to ride on safely. If I don't have a lot of time for a ride, but want a workout, there is a safe place to turn around at the 10 mile mark also. I usually don't ride, if I am not going to get at least an hour of a good workout in. That is why I really like the 40 mile loop as it is a two hour plus ride, and is usually my Sunday morning ride while the rest of the family is sleeping.

So, what is yours?

If you take pictures during your rides, please post them up also!!!

[Mauleskinner]

I live in a town along a river...the "river road" is pretty nice, although it doesn't have much for paved shoulders. It winds around, and is fairly scenic.

There's a historic site (a general store that served river traffic before the railroad bypassed it) at the 10 mile mark, which is where we usually turn around when I ride with my girlfriend.

The road goes another 8 miles or so before the pavement ends at an intersection, so I'll either do the out-and-back of 35 miles or I can work out a 38-mile loop (with a serious hill coming out of the river valley if I want a REAL workout )

David

[flip18436572]

Sounds like a good ride. I liked the trails in Des Moines, when I was there on some business. It went by the river, so you got to see a lot of different animals, if you paid attention.

[Yuri4x4]

St. Louis has some really nice riding! You can start at the Arch, there's a bike trail that heads North along the river and crosses the old Chain of Rocks bridge. This bridge used to be part of rt.66. This is one of 4 Mississippi river crossings that are bike-accessible. It's easy to connect to the Madison county, IL rails-to-trails, where there are probably over 100 miles of strictly bike trail. They run through tunnels under the major road crossings, and there are even bike on-ramps when two trails cross! Using different trails, you can pretty-much make any size loop you wish. The mississippi river trail also goes North even further, with bike trails about 50 miles further up-stream, along the Illinois river until you hit Pere Marquette State Park (nice campgrounds). With a few miles of on-road riding, you can hit the start of the Katy Trail, which essentially goes from St. Louis to Kansas City.

Those are just SOME of the BIKE TRAILS near St. Louis... We also have many streets with bike lanes! A bicyclist could go just about anywhere in town using the bike laned roads. It's really nice.

Of all these, my FAVORITE would probably be either the local Belleville, IL trail (because it's close to the house, and I use it a lot for practical purposes), The Madison county, IL trails (because the scenery is nice, and there is so much that you can't get bored of them), or the trail around Forest Park (because of a different kind of scenery... jogging college girls

[Fenlason]

My favorite ride the one I happen to be on at the time.

We have a lot of great riding here... I could not even begin to pick a favorite.