Biking Illinois: Madison County Transit Trails

Missouri was recently named the best trails state by American Trails. I think this is a very well deserved honor for Missouri to earn. You may have noticed just how much I love Missouri and am a big fan of the state park system here. I have been to many places in the country, and time and time again it seems that other states just cannot compare when it comes to their state parks. 

This being said I must admit something to you all. I am in love with Illinois bike trails.

Yes, I said it. 

I have been cheating on Missouri with bike trails across the river. My sister and her husband live in Edwardsville and they are super close to a trailhead for the Watershed Trail, just a small part of the Madison County Transit Trails (MCT). The great thing about these trails is that you can do however big or small of a loop as you want. It is this interconnected web of trails that spans about 100 miles according to their website. That is a lot of trail that is connected.

I know, I know. I live right by the Katy Trail and that has 225+ miles of bike trails. 

But this. This is paved, which I love. Missouri has great trails and pathways, obviously. We would not have been named the best if we didn't. And the St. Louis area is working hard on making the trails around here even better. But that is all a big work in progress right now. Within a few years even more trails will be built connected current trails and adding to the web of them in our area.

Turns out I am really bad at taking pictures while biking. This took about  5 attempts. Half of those were blurry pictures of the trail on accident. That is my sister pulling the trailer. 

But until then, I am glad I have the MCT. The longest stretch my sister and I have done so far has been 20 miles. We could have done more that day, but it was PX's first time in his brand new bike trailer and he was not amused. As in cried and screamed for about 15 miles of the ride. The only time he was happy was when he was asleep in the trailer or playing at the playground we stopped at.

That is another thing. The Edwardsville/Glen Carbon/surrounding areas have awesome parks. 

Anyway, I have done 3 different bike rides on these trails now and each time it was something a bit different. I think that is one thing I really like about the area besides it being paved is that with so many connecting trails you get to mix it up. You don't have to do the same thing each time. First ride was 11 miles, second one was the 20 mile one and this past Friday morning we did about 7 miles. It was a colder morning and my asthma was acting up, so I had to end that one sooner. 

Our bikes at the playground for break time

My sister and I want to bike to Augusta on the Katy Trail, which is about 30 miles each way. We figure if we can do 50-60 miles on the paved trails we can do 30 miles on the Katy. It really is shocking how much harder the Katy is to other trails if you are not used to it. Granted it seems like every time I choose to go on the Katy is just days after huge rain storms. I am sure when it is perfectly dry it is not all the difficult. 

So until we are ready for our trip to Augusta we are going to keep training on the MCT. Most of the trails we have been on are wooded and beautiful. There are parts that go through flat field areas. I am very much looking forward to exploring even more of these trails and Illinois in general.

Don't worry, Missouri. You are still my main love. 

Missouri State Parks: Cuivre River

Recently (as in, say within the last two weeks...) my sister and I were feeling the need to go to another State Park to go hiking. This time we decided on Cuivre River in Troy, MO. That is about a 40 minute drive from St. Charles, so definitely a do-able day trip destination for anyone around the St. Louis area. 

Oh, hey. That's me chilling outside the VC.

I honestly cannot remember if I had ever been there before this trip or not. Our parents took us camping all over the state (and country) and I really wish I had a list of all the places I've been during my life. Alas I have to go off the memory of my siblings to get that information. My sister did not think we had ever been there as a family, but she and her husband had camped there one summer because it was the only place in Missouri they could find with open campsites that weren't all reserved. I will post about my feelings on reserved camping spots another time...

So I was all for exploring a new to me state park! The first thing we did when we made it inside the park was stop at the visitor center. We needed maps and suggestions of trails to hike. I think the woman behind the desk slightly under-estimated our hiking abilities because my sister had to lug the baby (PX) around. She has a nice carrier that can have PX either on her front or her back. Anyway, she suggested some short, not so difficult trails for us to do. We looked around the VC, used the restroom and then went on our way to find the trailhead we wanted to start at. 

PX was super, super amused by this random bird in the VC

Let me say this. The visitor center was alright. Not the worst I have been in, but by far not the best either. It could use some sprucing up and updating, but it does what it needs to do. It get info to the visitors and also teaches some about Missouri and the environment. I understand that budgets are not entirely overflowing right now anyway, especially for the Department of Natural Resources. I assume if a State Park were to get an updated VC it would be somewhere with high traffic- like Onondaga or Lake of the Ozarks (at least I imagine those are popular destinations). I can forgive all of that. 

HOWEVER. 

Is it really all that difficult to have well placed, clearly marked signs around the park so the visitors can actually find their way around the dang place?! We thought we were going the correct direction and then suddenly were outside the park limits. We got turned around so many times. The roads had street signs but the maps were not marked with any sort of street names on them. Not. Helpful. We had issues finding our way to the lake, which should not have been as difficult as it turned out to be. 

We finally made it, parked the car, got PX all set up in the baby carrier and were off on the first trail. This was a trail that looped around the lake. Very pretty view. 

Trail around the lake

 See? Very pretty, indeed. The day was warm but incredibly windy and the wind was even worse next to the water. My advice if you hike this trail is to wear some good sun glasses to help protect your eyes. With nothing to break the wind, we had to deal with sand and dirt being blown all over the place. We made it about half a mile and said dirt made its way into my sister's eye. Not fun. So we turned back for the car, put PX back in his car seat and moved on to a different trail that was in the woods. 

Well. The map did not make it totally clear where to go to get onto the trail. We suddenly were in the campground area. I asked one of the workers (not sure if she was a campground host or naturalist or what) where that trail was located. She pointed towards the electric campsite, told us to go that direction and we would find two different trails. So we went. What she didn't mention was there is no parking over there so again we left that area to find a different trailhead for the trail. By this point we were both frustrated and hungry (or at least I was hungry) and we had only had a mile hike. It was starting to feel like a bust of a trip.

We found the start of the trail and started on our way. It was nice! We were among the trees, the wind had calmed down and the scenery was pretty. We managed to get lost while hiking though and ended up in this creepy area with a bunch of empty cabins. We took a wrong turn on the trail and then we lost the trail so I am fairly certain we were off-trailing it for a bit. I didn't feel so bad though. Yeah, you should stay on the trails, but in Missouri you are not going to do a whole lot of damage. Unlike that time in Utah when I did 500+ years worth of damage to the ground by accidentally getting off the trail...

Apparently people need to mark trails better, jeeze. 

To be fair, MO State Parks' trails are normally really well marked and it is not an issue to find your way around. For some reason this trail was not always marked clearly, and we were not the only people we ran into that day who had similar issues.

See? Well marked part of trail!

Not so well marked part of trail...

All in all the day turned out well. We got about 6 miles of hiking in. Not as much as we had hoped but with all the getting lost that occurred, I was okay with 6 miles. Plus by the end of it I felt pretty blah from low blood sugar so I was totally ready to head into Troy and find some dinner. We accidentally skipped lunch. 

I was not in love with Cuivre River but would totally be willing to come back. And I do want to try camping there as well.

I really need to come up with some sort of rating system for the parks I visit...

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and 70 and I am off work so fingers crossed I will get lots of biking or hiking in. I need it. Lately all my days off have been rainy and gross. 

Until next time, happy trails! 

Last Few Weeks Smashed into One

Well, I am rather behind with posts for this thing. I have been super crazy busy. Since the last post I left my last job, finished my last class for my MFA, turned in my thesis, and started a new job. Oh, and I have been adventuring during that as well. 

Spring started with a bang and then turned into a blizzard. Not really, but it might as well have been. Suddenly 8 inches of snow fell when it had been nearly 70 degrees the day before. Not cool.

Snow from outside my apartment. In March.

Despite being crazy busy and dealing with snow, I did not let that keep me from going out and gaining more miles and being active. My sister and I walked on the Katy Trail some more (And discovered my new favorite cafe The Bike Stop Cafe. Oh my goodness. We stopped in there for a mid-walk snack and it was amazing. I got these waffles with apples on top. My sister had an egg and some veggie and cheese wrap. I made my boyfriend go there with me a few days later and I tried one of their other wraps. I totally plan on starting my day there whenever I do a big ol' Katy bike ride. 

On that walk we also hopped onto Main Street in Historic St. Charles. We walked by the First Capitol of MO site. It is a Missouri Historic Site. The store was closed but I took a picture of the sign. A few days later I was able to pop into the gift store. I now want to buy almost every book in the store. I plan on doing the tour some time soon. I feel like a lot of people do not realize (or remember) that St. Charles was home of the original Missouri State Capitol. I'd post the picture I took but something funky is going on between blogger and IPhoto. Most of the new pictures I just uploaded and edited are not showing up for me to pick when trying to load onto this. Oh, technology.

As the snow quickly melted we decided to go to Forest Park in St. Louis City. Seriously, one of the best places ever. Museums, Best free zoo ever, outdoor theatre in the summer. We chose there because the pathways are paved so we would not have to mess with as much mud and nastiness from snow turning the ground to gloop. Yes, that is a technical term. This plan worked out for the most part, but my minimalist shoes did not work so well with all the puddles. 

Not sure why there are two trails right next to each other...

I also spent time on the Katy Trail by myself. I had time to kill and wanted to walk at least five miles (which I did) so I started at the St. Charles main trailhead and walked until I reached Bangert Island Park, a conservation area that is owned by the Missouri Department of Conservation but is taken care of by the City of St. Charles. I love hiking in there. You get some nice views of the Missouri River and there are enough hills to keep it interesting without it being killer. I just remembered at this moment that I meant to call or email the parks department to let them know some of the trails were totally blocked by fallen trees. I ended up crawling under some of them but others I could not get through. So then I walked around some of the trees (yes I was off-trailing it...) but some spots were so bad that all I could do was turn around.. The nice thing about this park (when the trails are not blocked) is there are several trail loops so you can be in there for less than a mile or 4-5 miles without having to do multiple laps around the same trail. I will be spending a lot of time in there and it is SUPER close to my apartment. 

This was also my first experience of hiking in barefoot shoes. It was interesting. I would not suggest hardcore hiking with barefoot shoes (at least the type I own) because I think my ankles would need more support, but I was not planning on venturing into the conservation area and was not sure what the state of the Katy was due to all the melting snow and rain fall. My barefoot shoes are much easier to wash than my other shoes. 

Sidenote: I own those barefoot shoes but I also own a pair of tennis shoes that have a minimalist-style sole but the top looks like a normal lace-up shoe. I refer to those as my minimalist shoes because to me they are not straight up barefoot shoes. Those are Reebok but I cannot recall the style.

Truth time: this photo is not from this past visit but I left my home without my camera.

My new job actually gives me some weekends off whereas before I worked every single weekend. This is amazing news for me because I can go camping when other people are actually free to go with me! And I can do more weekend-related adventures. Bad news is this means I will have less middle of the week days off which means less sister and nephew adventures on a weekly basis. 

Here's to more time to adventure and write about it.