Mark from Lee's Summit on 1/30/2022 7:18:51 PM:
As far as the start of your trip goes, you actually have a third option: You can park in St. Charles and ride west on the Katy Trail to Dutzow where you turn south for a couple of miles into Washington, Missouri where you can catch the train west to Lee's Summit. That would be about a 38 mile bike ride. Remember to check on the Missouri River Runner Amtrak service because with budget cuts, sometimes it only runs once a day in each direction across the state (instead of twice a day when it has more funding...the bike tickets are also in high demand certain times of the year...you don't want to have a ticket for you and not for your bike). The distance from St. Charles to Kirkwood would probably be about 25 miles if I gave you the winding, more bike-friendly option. I personally like riding through St. Louis City and County, but an out of town person might really like more time on the Katy Trail and go with the Washington option. If you are really adventurous, you can make a 50 mile trip from St. Charles, to the Machens trail head near where the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers meet, take either a ferry boat or a bridge across the river, and then ride down the bike lane along the the open Mississippi River on the Illinois side where you then cross the famous bike/ped only Chain of Rocks Mississippi River Bridge, and then continue of a paved levee bike trail all the way south to Downtown St. Louis where you can catch the Amtrak station there.
I can also give you a bike friendly route from Lee's Summit to Pleasant Hill. The Fans of the Katy Trail Facebook group is a great thing to check out and it is easy to link specific route maps to that site. There are lots of great options...just let me know if you want specifics about any of them!