Trails
For several years now, I have been meaning to get down to central Missouri to bike on the Katy Trail, the state park that runs along the Missouri River from around St. Charles to west of Columbia. Still haven't done that, but.....
From what I hear, the trail has been a huge boon to a number of small towns along the river. B & B's, inns, restaurants, bike rentals, all sort of tourism-related businesses have sprung up. So naturally, I wonder -- why doesn't this area develop something similar?
The Katy Trail was built on the bed of an abandoned rail line. We don't have any similar long line in this area that I know of, but we do have an extensive network of levees along the river, which have level tops, typically wide enough for a vehicle to drive along. Wouldn't it be possible to link these levees with connections to roadways here and there to create a Mississippi River trail?
From what I hear, the trail has been a huge boon to a number of small towns along the river. B & B's, inns, restaurants, bike rentals, all sort of tourism-related businesses have sprung up. So naturally, I wonder -- why doesn't this area develop something similar?
The Katy Trail was built on the bed of an abandoned rail line. We don't have any similar long line in this area that I know of, but we do have an extensive network of levees along the river, which have level tops, typically wide enough for a vehicle to drive along. Wouldn't it be possible to link these levees with connections to roadways here and there to create a Mississippi River trail?
posted by Allthenewsthatfits at 7:37 PM
12 Comments:
Great idea except --- the vast majority of levees are sand which of course makes a poor biking surface and I believe it is illegal to operate a vehicle on the levee system.
I've been waiting for my kids to get old enough to ride it. My youngest gets a multi "speed" bike this year. Time to go! 9:02 is probably correct.
Since there was a RR before there was a bike trail, a lot of small towns exist on the trail because they were built up along the RR out of necessity. I haven't been on the Katy in a few years, but if you go:
*Stedman's Only BAR (SOB) in the very small town of Stedman (near Jeff City)
*several wineries
*the beer garden in Augusta
*the restaurant/bike shop near Rocheport for pancakes
*the MKT spur into Columbia
*lots of great views of the Missouri River
I wondered about the no-vehicles deal. Does that mean all vehicles or only motor vehicles? The Mississippi River is such an asset....you'd think that tourism agencies would be working to create some sort of a trail that could connect, say, the River Road trail in Hannibal with the hiking trails in Wakonda State Park.
Many miles of levee top have been paved for bike/etc trails from Alton south, connecting to the extensive Madison county trail system and also to the Missouri side and St. Louis via the Old Chain of Rocks bridge (used to be Route 66, now it's bike and pedestrian only).
Agree with Dave's Katy highlights completely, especially the Augusta beer garden. Now that Hermann has a bike only lane on their new bridge, looking forward to that extension as well.
When it comes down to it, we're just way behind times here. However, with some creativity we could easily tap into existing network of trails. We have the perfect terrain to do just that.
The Katy Trail is fabulous. I wish we could have something like that in the Quincy area. Ever notice how hard it is to find a bicycle rack in this damn town? What is the deal with that? For some reason Quincy is neither bicycle nor pedestrian traffic friendly. YOu are a target in this town for the gas guzzling drivers.
If you go to the Columbia area on the Katy make sure you take the MKT up to the trailhead in Columbia and quench you thirst at Flatbranch Brewery. The outdoor patio is very nice, the beer is excellent and the food is very, very good.
We're at least a decade behind the curve in this area.
Adams County does have apropose dtrail plan, and the Quincy Park District is laboring mightily to accomplish something cool with the Cedar Creek Parkway (and future plans to finish linking all parks with bike trails). In fact there are some decent biking ops in Quincy thanks to the Park District pushing (though I wish they'd run the bike lanes on less busy streets).
But sadly nothing on a statewide level like the Katy Trail, and as I said, we're still a decade behind in Quincy and Adams County.
Qcy Park District also said there would be a dog park coming soon.....3 years ago.
Take a drive through the parks in Quincy and tell me where you see bicycle racks on which a person can actually lock a bicycle up. They are no where to be found. Well, except for right by the batting cages at Upper Moorman.
The only businesses with bicycle racks are the mall and the bicycle shop at 8th and Jefferson. Oh, and I did see where Dairy Queen at 12th and Harrison has put one in.
Make Quincy more bicycle friendly and perhaps people will take advantage of it.
The Quincy Park District only does stuff when they actually have the money to do it (unlike most of the rest of city government).
For that we should be praising them, not griping because they didn't get a dog park done.
Kee-rist, you can take your damned dog to the regular park (just carry along your pooper scooper).
Bike racks are not a requirement for a bike friendly town. Quit making excuses for not getting your fat ass on a bike and on the road.
(I'm going schizoid here now: C'mon, be fair. 5:16 has a point. You do need someplace to leave the bike so no one walks off with it. And you don't know jack sh!t about his ass, fat or otherwise.)
I concede that, but still, there's nothing to keep anyone from riding their bike around town except excuses. Sort of like how people don't want to go downtown saying theres too much crime (statistics don't bear that out), there's nothing there (oh bull), etc. etc.
It's basicallly only "non bike friendly" in the minds of people who say they want to bike but have all kinds of excuses for not biking.
2:54
You're right, you know nothing about my ass and whether it's fat.
You also don't know that I take my dog to the park (on leash instead of off-leash like a dog park provides) and yes, I pick up after my dog unlike many. You also don't know that I ride my bicycle a lot in this town to assess whether it is bike friendly. You also don't know that I ride my bike downtown often and patronize business down there...after I lock it to a street sign or rail because there are no bicycle racks downtown.....ANYWHERE.
You ever been to south park during the months of Nov. thru March? They close the lower section off to vehicular traffic, yet they lay piles and piles of cinder on the roadway down there. The money wasted on that could be used to fund an off-leash dog park or bicycle racks or both. Look at the waste of money the new little shelter is on North 18th in Bob Mays Park. It's close to a fairly busy road with a wonderful view of the industrial park. Time to add a big ugly playground to it now.
When I say Quincy isn't bicycle friendly I am also referring to the way vehicles treat both bicyclist and pedestrians in this town. How many times have you tried crossing the street at a traffic signal with the walk sign lit and have a car turn right in front of you as if you didn't exist? It seems to happen too often and there is no respect for shown by the vehicle drivers.
Okay I'm done. You can kiss my ass, fat or otherwise!
I agree that too many driving Quincyans are way too unfriendly to pedestrians and bicyclists.
We have to be extra careful on the streets, for sure, because "they" don't pay much attention...
Downtown is quicker to maneuver on foot or bike though.
No bike rack at Quincy City Hall, hell they even have sign prohibiting bicycles. Leaders with vision!
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