Route to Circumnavigate St. Louis

This is a crazy idea. I imagine it will exceed 100 miles.

Katy Trail

Pick up the Katy Trail at Washington, Chesterfield Valley, or Creve Coeur Lake. I would ride it to its eastern terminus.

Machens to Alton

A road route from the eastern terminus of the Katy Trail to the northern terminus of the Confluence Trail. I can take Machens to Route 94. Is Route 94 rideable all the way to US-67? Then US-67 crosses the bridge into Alton. It looks like the bike lane on the bridge is only on the Western side of the bridge. From there, I guess one must ride west on Landmarks Blvd, and then south east on Ridge St. to pick up the Confluence Trail.

Confluence Trail

From the northern terminus in Alton down to the southern terminus at the McKinley Bridge. About 20 miles.

Illinois Side

One option is to find a route south from McKinley to the J.B. Bridge at I-255. The challenge is finding a route from McKinley to Cahokia. Levee Rd. runs from Cahokia past I-255.

Missouri Side

Another option is to cross the McKinley Bridge and find my way to Grant's Trail. I imagine I could do that mostly by riding Broadway.

Grant's Trail

This would get me from River Des Peres to Kirkwood.

Kirkwood to Valley Park

I could ride Big Bend to Marshall, and then Marshall to Valley Park.

Valley Park to Eureka

I must stay on this side of the Meramec, because there is no place west of 141 that I can cross it again.

Vance to Hanna to Big Bend to New Ballas to Manchester back to Kehrs Mill to Wild Horse Creek is almost all shown as bike-friendly, dropping me where Hwy 109 does. That skipped Eureka, though.

Google Maps doesn't show it, but there is trail all the way from Castlewood to Hwy 109. Update: This connection is rough, especially for a gravel bike. In particular, there is a wash-out in the narrow strip of land between the river and the railroad.

The question then is, how would I get from Vance to Castlewood, without going all the way up to Big Bend? Huh. Can I ride/drive on Fernglen Drive? That must be the location of the old landfill, and there is a (gravel?) road around it. At the southwest corner, there is what looks like a power cut and a very short distance to a trail or road within Castlewood. Update: I rode this trail to the point, but not back up to the power cut. At the point, there appears to be a significant elevation change, which is probably why no one has blazed a trail.

The Great River Greenway has a proposed trail connecting Castlewood to Hwy 141.

Hwy 109

This is an insane road to ride. Talk about steep grades, and I don't know if it is safe. However, Hwy 109 reaches to Wild Horse Creek Rd. and then becomes Eatherton. When I get down into the valley, I can take Centaur Rd. west to pick up the Monarch Levee Trail.

Update: Strava's Global Heatmap shows that almost no one rides Hwy 109 itself. However, coming from the Meramec Greenway, there is a 1.5 mile paved trail (the start of the so-called Western Greenway) that reaches to Rockwoods Reservation. There are two roads from there popular with cyclists. Melrose to Ossenfort to Wild Horse Creek to Centaur is the way to go, all popular with cyclists, and it completely bypasses the bluff climb. Glencoe to Wild Horse Creek is a bit shorter, but it was gated today and I was unable to drive it.

Monarch Levee Trail

The Monarch Levee Trail takes me to I-64, where there is indeed a bike lane now. Crossing there should take me to the Katy Trail.