Sunday was another lovely weather day in St. Louis – sunny with a high of 68° F. After waking up at noon, I finally left my house to go on another bike ride around 3:00 pm. I started riding down Hampton Ave toward Forest Park. There was a bike repair station here so I stopped to inflate my tires. I have a small portable bike pump with a gauge but it is very difficult to pump to an air pressure more than 65 psi. My tires instructed to inflate up to 165 psi, the most I had ever seen on a bike tire! However, the bike station pump didn’t have a gauge, so I just pumped for awhile until the tires felt extra firm, then continued biking.

Next, I traveled west on Forsyth Ave through Washington University in St. Louis, into Clayton. The city was very clean, although a bit corporate, being the home to St. Louis County offices and pretty empty on a Sunday afternoon. I biked to Shaw Park next, which was where I had to make a decision: Do I ride to Creve Coeur Lake or take the longer route from Chesterfield to ride on the Katy Trail?

As I decided to go to Chesterfield, I realized that I could take the bus, shortening my ride through busy suburban roads – but the bus left in either 5 minutes or 65 minutes – from the other side of the Park! I rushed, pedaling as fast as possible, sharing sidewalks and streets with cars, humans, and dogs about to break off their leash. By the time I made it to Clayton MetroBus Station, I had less than one minute until it left. Luckily, there were other people waiting – the bus was late! 3 minutes later I set my bike on the front rack and boarded the bus.

About 35 minutes later, the bus arrived at the St. Louis Premium Outlets in Chesterfield. It looked like a very comfortable spot to wait for the bus (which would be good, since it only comes once per hour). I rode through the parking lot and found the connector to the Monarch Chesterfield Levee trail. I wish the malls my mom shopped at when I was a kid had bike trails like this, that would have been much more fun than walking in circles around Kohl’s or JCPenney’s for hours on end!

From here, I crossed the Missouri River on the Daniel Boone Bridge and made my way onto the Katy Trail. I noticed there were tons of spider webs coating the fence along the bridge. I was just glad the spiders were staying on the bridge and off me/my bike.

I then rode for awhile on the mostly tree-covered Katy Trail, which had mostly a finely crushed limestone surface with some occasional larger stones throwing the narrow bike tires off track a bit. Not too bad.

There were probably about a dozen people every 5 miles on the trail – a mix of people running, walking with their dogs, and biking. The rocks were evidently bumpy enough to knock the water bottle holder off my bike. I tried to grab it without stopping and was able to prevent it from falling on the ground, but couldn’t pick it up. I gave in and stopped, retrieved my multi-use tool (probably the last thing I ever bought from Kmart) from my saddle bag and quickly reattached it.

Road crossings broke up the path, mostly uneventful, except for one blind corner on Green’s Bottom Rd. Luckily, I saw the SUV coming around the corner in time. Surviving the intersection, I was rewarded with a beautiful view of the autumn foliage reflecting perfectly on Duckett Creek.

I continued down the Katy Trail until I reached Bangert Island Park. My friend/co-worker Mike told me about this place where he runs sometimes. By now it was 5:00pm. I had again wanted to go to Pere Marquette State Park but knew I wouldn’t make it there before dark so knew if I wanted to run during daylight hours, I would have to do it here. I looked at Strava and saw several running routes, including one segment with a course record of 5:59/mile. Maybe I could beat it! Before I knew it I was running down dusty, sandy, rocky paths. A nice change/challenge. I got a bit lost going down some unofficial paths, and ended up much slower on the segment, 7:08/mile. Harder than I thought!

Missouri River from Bangert Island

Onward, I passed an AMC movie theater and under I-70 via the Blanchette Memorial Bridge. Next I reached Frontier Park, a very familiar place – the finish line of the previous week’s half marathon! I refilled my water bottles and continued northward.

Eventually I reached a point, Dusable Park, where I needed to diverge from the Katy Trail and travel on Missouri Highway 94. Riding with traffic along the highway was not great but most drivers were courteous and gave me space. The road went past Boschertown Go Karts, through several miles of corn field, broken up by houses, one or two gas stations, churches, and schools. Road traffic was too busy to take a photo of the exact moment of sunset, but I watched the sun dip below the horizon while a farmer was using a combine to harvest corn. Maybe it was fueled by dust from the harvest, but the sunset was very beautiful. Turning down a local road, I passed Smartt Field Airport, and reached the southern terminus of the Grafton Ferry.

I just missed the ferry by about 2 minutes (probably all the stops taking pictures). I didn’t mind, it gave me a chance to eat a Gala apple I packed and add some layers of clothes. I noticed the rear brake had also shaken loose so I tightened that. About 10 minutes later, the ferry returned with cars traveling south from Illinois to Missouri. There was nobody else in line, so for $5, I got my own private cruise! More beautiful views, this time of the Mississippi River.

Moon rising over the Jersey County, Illinois bluffs along the Mississippi River

From Grafton, I rode east on the Sam Vadalabene trail, following the Great River Road. It was warmer than I though (probably the river effect – I felt it earlier and it was quite warm), so I took off 2 of my 4 layers (a little overkill but it was really cold the day before!). The Piasa Bird, Ardent Mills and Argosy Casino landmarks welcomed me to Alton. I felt like I was almost home, but really still had over 30 miles to go! To be fair, the Amtrak takes about an hour to get between Alton and St. Louis.

From Alton, I continued down the trail past the Melvin Price Locks and Dam through Hartford, where I stopped at a Casey’s gas station to use the bathroom and get a few snacks. I saw a McDonald’s in Alton and was tempted to stop there but forced myself not to! However, maybe because I was spoiled by Daniel’s chocolate selection, was a bit disappointed with the 2 for $2 chocolate candy bars. Nonetheless, they gave a helpful boost. Riding along the Madison County Transit Confluence Trail was quite annoying with large rocks and small patches of broken pavement interspersed with very loose gravel. I was happy when it ended near Granite City.

Finally, I reached the McKinley Bridge where I crossed back into Missouri. I was extra careful riding, trying not to hit broken glass, trash, discarded furniture, who knows what else. Around 10 miles later I arrived home, finishing 84 miles of riding. I was happy I had leftover homemade soup and crackers to eat, and quickly fell asleep after.