Rock Island Trail Forum

The signs that were put at trail entrance points as the construction was finished now all say "Trail Closed". Anyone know why? There are no barriers to the entrance points and there are many riders and walkers on the trail but the sudden appearance of those signs are worrisome. Does this have anything to do with the pending legislation?

*Correction: Pending lawsuit NOT legislation!

I believe this article explains what you're referring to...
https://www.kmbc.com/article/walkers-and-bikers-use-rock-island-trail-as-delayed-project-remains-closed/26967668

I was on the RIT yesterday 5/4/19 starting at the Northern most trailhead at Brickyard Rd. The Trail Closed sign was still up. I went South two miles and didn't see any construction. The trail under the bridge was wet but that was it. I also saw several cyclists that went farther South than I did but no one reported construction. The mystery continues ...

Hello all! I am planning a trip this summer from Clinton to St. Charles with my son who turns 13 this summer. He doesn't currently have a bike that fits him so we are shopping for a new bike with the Katy Trail in mind. Any suggestions as to what features, size, tire options we should shop for would be appreciated. I am looking on craigslist, facebook marketplace etc. Currently looking at a Diamondback Cobra 24. Will a mountain bike be too heavey for him to do long days on the trail of 30-40 miles?

Thank you,

Jon from KC

Although a 13yo probably has a lot of energy, if he is not used to riding 30 - 40 miles a day he may need the energy to do that without being punished for having to ride a heavy mountain bike with poor rolling resistance. Do him a favor and find a hybrid type bike with more suitable wheels/tires and less rolling resistance.

I strongly suggest going to a bike store and have him fitted for a bike. The Katy is not a casual ride -- it is a multi-day commitment and he will be in the saddle for 20 to 24 hours. Improper size/fitting can not only cause discomfort (saddle sores), but also permanent damage (e.g. seat too low causing knee problems later). Yes, the bike will cost more than Walmart, but it's a small price to pay for comfort and security. He should also have padded bike shorts.

Hybrid bikes are great for the RIT and Katy. But he's going to need to build up stamina no matter which bike you buy. If he can't ride 25 miles on pavement, he's not going to be able to do 30-40 on the Katy, even with a longer ride time.

I am planning a trip with my 11 year grandson. We will be doing a lot of riding before we start and will do a over night test ride on the Rock island spur.
I bought me a new bike last summer and personally know that a lighter bike makes for a more enjoyable ride. So I will be looking at a new bike for him also. I really liked going to a bike shop and being helped to find a bike that fit me and my riding.

Your son has a Super Power. His Super Power he is 13 years old. He does not have in his head that he needs a fancy bike to ride.

My son, then 18 y/o, rode the entire KATY Trail on a Mountain Bike, that was in 1997, when Mt. bikes were heavier than today. Shoot. MY BIKE was heavier than most people ride today. We made it fine with no complaints about our, then, nice new bicycles.

I would recommend a 26" bike. He is 13 and will shoot up any time now (in size). (unless he is very short that is)

We just did the trail from Clinton to St Charles with our 13, 11 and 9 year old and it was great. We did it with all mountain bikes but did find the rides seemed easier for my 11 year old with the 27.5” wheel size on a mountain bike. Our other bikes had 26” wheels and were also fine. We did have a few flat tires even with the mountain bikes but that may have just been bad luck with tubes? One other thing we did at the last minute that worked out great was to rent a mountain bike tandem (from Katy bike rental in Defiance)!because the 13 yr old had a quad injury. It worked out great because then my 9 year old could trade off with her when he got tired! There was one detour before Rocheport that was on the highway for a couple miles that was a bit scary with kids but turned out fine! We do wish that we had done maximum 25-30 mile days just because they get to be long days. We had it broken up over 6 days as 35,50,38, 35, 53 and 13. Sometimes where we stayed also added a couple miles (especially Jefferson City). Have fun and bring a lot of snacks:)

A hybrid is probably the best choice. Your kids will be riding in style.

Be prepared for flats! It doesn't necessarily happen a lot but likely you will have at least one along the journey. So make sure you are prepared to easily fix a flat on whatever bike you have.

my girlfriends 8 year old daughter has a Specialized 24inch 7 speed mountainbike, it's light enough for her to keep up with us, even up pretty nice size hills. lightweight and geared is the way to go. You can also get thinner diameter tires too. We're planning on taking her to the Pedalers Jamboree. I am 100% confident she'll do just fine 40 miles out and 40 miles back. Flat ground with multiple stops.

13 year old. ... no problem

30-40 miles per day for 5 days in a row...different problem

Get him the bike you think he will be most likely to use after the Katy. This is a relatively flat railtrail. Biking it is not hard. 40-50 miles a day on a mountain bike with street tires should be no problem. The Katy is the perfect baby tour to initiate a young cyclist on. Short, minimal hills, no traffic, ample amenities--just the thing to get him hooked on an incredible mode of travel. I rode a mountain bike from Canada to Mexico along the Pacific Coast and it was fine.

Take him to a reliable bike shop and test ride some proper size bikes that are fiited to him the let him ride the bike for a few miles. Let him decide..

Happy Trails 5

What and when is the peddlers jamboree

www.pedalersjamboree.com

Is he a pretty amazing biker? And overall serious endurance athlete? 35-40 miles on the trail is like 55 miles on a paved surface. I don't know many (if any) 13 year olds who would be up for that. Even on a good day it feels constantly uphill because of the drag, and if there's any rain, it gets lots tougher in a hurry. 20-25 miles per day is more likely to be enjoyable. But that's just one guy's opinion.

Just my 2 cents: my son was 13 the first time we rode the whole trail together. Our shortest day was 25 miles (and that felt too short), longest day was about 45 (and that felt way too long). Ideal length FOR US was somewhere around 30 to 35 miles. But we later went on to ride RAGBRAI with much longer daily distances - a mile on the trail really is tougher than a mile on paved surface.

BUT the key is training - lots of advance riding. It's not just about getting your legs strong; your butt also needs to get used to being in the saddle for hours at a time. Do long rides of 20 to 40 miles on weekends, and short rides during the week. If you go out there cold, with no advance training rides, it won't go well.

One way to find out if you're ready for long days, would be to ride from Pleasant Hill to Windsor on the Rock Island. Spend the night in Windsor, and then ride back the next day - that's about 45 miles each day. Or Clinton to Sedalia for 38 miles each way. Those two days will tell you a lot about how ready you are for five straight days.

The other thing I always recommend is tire liners to help prevent flats. Our first end-to-end ride, we had about 6 flats. The next time we had tire liners and zero flats. Regardless of what you have for tire protection, be sure to have a repair kit or several extra tubes and a pump or compressed air.

Good luck!

I rode the trail with a 15 year old once. He had a pretty good bike already. The biggest problem we had was boredom. We pretty short distances 25 or so a day, but at 15 he really wasn’t interested in sightseeing and meeting new people. The challenge of the whole thing was pretty soon overtaken by being bored. At about the 100 mile marker he was ready to quit (we started in Clinton). The only thing that saved the trip was we started riding with 3 other people (one was a girl about his age).
Saddle pain may be an issue after 2 days or so, even well seasoned riders usually have this because of the constant vibration and sitting all the time with no coasting or standing. I really don’t have a solution for this, at 13 you may not want to give him bicyclers cure all for pain, ibuprofen.
Good luck with your trip.

Allen

Interesting article on how all these were tied together with Eldon, MO.
http://www.newstribune.com/news/opinion/story/2019/may/05/perspective-rock-island-trail-would-benefit-rural-missouri/777402/

Fantastic stay at the Lindenhof! This is a classy B&B, delicious food, comfortable, and the most wonderful proprietors who make you feel right at home.

Superb stay. Hostess so accommodating. House very well outfitted and extremely clean. Hot tub a welcome reward at end of day. Breakfasts out of this world. Highly recommend.

The Lidenhof is amazing...wish we could have stayed there forever!! My husband and I were actually there the same time as Mary from Iowa! We stayed up late in the common room just talking and talking. The hostess, Kathy, thought of every detail. You will love the Lindenhof.

I'm planning to fly from Panama City, Panama to San Diego, California. From San Diego I will take tAmtak to LA. From LA Amtrak to St. Louis, Mo. Will start on the Katy Trail and ride back west.

Wowee! Are you coming all the way from Panama just to ride the Katy Trail? If so, that's pretty awesome & somebody ought to bring it to the attention of some local media for a great story.

To answer your question: Check out this page: https://bikekatytrail.com/kirkwood.aspx. I don't think it takes into account any trail closures, but it's a good resource.

Approximately when are you planning to ride? I'm a frequent Amtrak rider and used to ride the Katy trail a lot. I may be able to offer some suggestions since you are so far away. You can email me at jw.orr@att.net

Not sure if you NEED to go from east (Kirkwood/st louis) to west. You might want to ride Amtrak from LA to KC then to Lee's Summit (KC suburb) and ride the Rock Island Trail to the Katy, going west to east (with the wind). West to east is supposed to be slightly easier since riding with the wind.

I can tell you more about the Amtrak options to/from KC, St. Louis, Kirkwood.

Another option might be getting off the train in Washington MO, two stops before downtown St Louis. It's a short ride from there to the Dutzow trailhead with good shoulders the whole way.

Note that you will want to make your train reservations as early as possible because the Amtrak train in Missouri only accommodates a handful of bicycles, that number could be 4 but don’t quote me.

If you decide to get off in Washington, you may want to arrange a shuttle over the bridge and to Ditzler. The new bridge is open but the bike path on it is still being worked on. No completion date set yet. Also the shoulder on the highway between the bridge and Dutzow isn’t the best with vehicles traveling 55mph next to you.

For a shuttle across the bridge and to a trailhead, call Joe at Revolution Cycles.

***autocorrect struck again — Ditzler is supposed to be Dutzow ??

Hi, William! How's your planning going? If you're still seeking info on riding from the St. Louis or Kirkwood Amtrak stations, let us know. I'd be happy to give you some insights on making those routes.

The tunnel is closed, and it looks like it will be closed for a long time. They are doing some kind of work on the rock around the western opening. There is a ridearound on the highway. We did not take the ridearound, so cannot comment on the traffic.

Bill, if the tunnel is closed and you didn't use the detour, how were you able to pass through? Planning to ride the whole trail soon, and your reports are helpful.

I checked out the Rocheport closure while riding my motorcycle today. Yes, work is being done right at the tunnel. I rode, by motorcycle, the detour suggested by the state park system. The 1 mile section on Highway 240 spur seems fine, no shoulder but very little vehicle traffic. The next section of the detour is 3.2 miles on US Highway 40. US Highway 40 has the grooves cut into the highway along each shoulder. If you are traveling westbound on the detour, there is approximately 1 to 2 feet of pavement between the road grooves and the gravel on the shoulder, MAYBE enough paved shoulder space to not have to ride in the vehicle lane. If you are traveling eastbound on the detour on Hwy 40, the grooves on the highway are cut so close to the shoulder, that there is not enough room to safely ride on the paved shoulder without getting in the gravel. From what I could see, most of the eastbound route on Highway 40 will be riding in the vehicle Lane. I guess you could ride in the gravel/rock shoulder for 3 miles, but it is not hard-packed chat surface like Katy trail. We start our Clinton to St. Charles ride next Monday, not sure if I am going to take my group out on US Highway 40.
Also checked out the closure at Boonville. As of Sunday afternoon, the orange gates were on the shoulder of the trail at the Boonville Trail head and at the other end of the stated closure, mile marker 191.

Lynn, there were no workers on Sunday, so we walked through the constructions zone. We would not have been able to do so if workers were there.

This is a question for Mark. What time of day did you ride the detour and what was the level of traffic?
I have toured on roads quite a bit and this type of road is ok with me unless the level of traffic is high.
Thanks,
Allen

Allen: I rode the detour on my motorcycle on Sunday afternoon around noon. I would say traffic was light. I do not want to expose my wife, sister and sister-in-law to those detour conditions. If I was by myself, I would ride the detour, being cautious as you would be riding on any other road.

I spoke with a rep from State Parks System. The tunnel had to be closed unexpectedly due to unstable rocks in the tunnel and above it.
Project could be done "around May 1", depending on weather and actual condition of the tunnel.

It's 4pm on Wednesday 5/1. I've just returned from a walk to the Katy Tunnel at Rocheport and it remains closed to bicycle and pedestrian traffic. There is equipment at the East side of the tunnel and they are using very tall extendable platforms with men and pneumatic or electric powered chisels to scale to the very top of the tunnel bluff and chisel off loose or nearly loose rock that might fall on trail users below. It appears that the entire east face of the rock bluff above the trail has been removed...I can't estimate the depth of the removal but some amount of that rock face is gone. It is a safety issue and one that DNR has worried about for at least a decade. Perhaps fifteen years (or more) ago, the tunnel was closed for a month or so while evaluations were made for this safety issue. Apparently, at that time, no action was taken. I wasn't able to ask any workers when they thought the job would be finished. No matter for a few days anyway. The river will slightly cover the trail just west of Rocheport and that alone would result in a trail closure and detour from the west into Rocheport.

We walked all around this rock and didn't see marks for floods.

Are there actual marks that a person should be able to see?

Or is there just the idea that in the past people made some marks that are now gone?

When I saw it last year, the marks were faded. They were pretty high up on the rock and if memory serves, on your right side if you are facing the rock from the trail.

Be on the lookout for a territorial goose that was lying down in front of standing rock and we were not able to pass a few weeks ago. It was a bit scary as he kept flying in front of us and hissed at us. We had to get off our bikes and use that as protection.

Trigirl, that goose attacked me!! He swooped on me once, and then sat on top of the rock giving us the evil eye!

Jerry, thanks for confirming! I couldn't see anything. I guess I imagined that someone would have chiseled the marks in, but I think I just imagined that.

The Dormatory room was clean and comfy. My husband is over 6 feet tall however,and we pulled the mattress off the top bunk onto the floor so he could stretch out. Mattresses were good quality though. We really appreciated the locked bike shed and the free washer/driver right outside room. Extra bathroom down hall came in handy too. Only disappointment I guess would be the convenience store muffins and bagels served for breakfast.

Jackson County & the KCATA are planning to officially open the first 6-mile section of the Rock Island Trail from Lee's Summit to the south Raytown area in June 2019.

So how do you get from this new Rock Island Trail segment to the Rock Island Trail in Pleasant Hill. How do you get from the Amtrak Station in Pleasant Hill to the new Jackson County Rock Island Trail or the State Parks Rock Island Trail in Pleasant Hill?

We have mapped bicycle-friendly routes to make all of these connections, and the main Rock Island connector between Lee's Summit and Pleasant Hill is now marked on-street with fluorescent orange arrows and initials "RI". More details here:

http://mobikefed.org/2019/04/369-miles-connected-trail-across-missouri-new-rock-islandkaty-trail-connections-maps-routes-

Jackson County & the KCATA are planning to officially open the first 6-mile section of the Rock Island Trail from Lee's Summit to the south Raytown area in June 2019.

So how do you get from this new Rock Island Trail segment to the Rock Island Trail in Pleasant Hill. How do you get from the Amtrak Station in Pleasant Hill to the new Jackson County Rock Island Trail or the State Parks Rock Island Trail in Pleasant Hill?

We have mapped bicycle-friendly routes to make all of these connections, and the main Rock Island connector between Lee's Summit and Pleasant Hill is now marked on-street with fluorescent orange arrows and initials "RI". More details here:

http://mobikefed.org/2019/04/369-miles-connected-trail-across-missouri-new-rock-islandkaty-trail-connections-maps-routes-

Brett thank you for everything that you and your organization have done to help make this happen. Very exciting to see the Rock Island Trail expanding westward!

Brett thank you for everything that you and your organization have done to help make this happen. Very exciting to see the Rock Island Trail expanding westward!

Is there a bike route from Independence to RI trail head or a schutte service.

Happy Trails

Is there a bike route from Independence to RI trail head or a schutte service.

Happy Trails