Reply to Has anyone biked from the Alton Amtrak to the eastern terminus in Manchens?

Is there bike friendly passage

The hills in Alton are no joke, so many people take the Amtrak train all the way to Downtown St. Louis where you can ride the paved (and flat) Mississippi levee trail back up to river to Alton. Coming from Downtown St. Louis allows you time along the Mississippi River and you get to cross the historic Old Route 66 Chain of Rocks Bridge back into Illinois before you get back to Alton. If you do want to ride to Machens from the Alton Amtrak station, most cyclists get to Hwy. 67 as quickly as possible so you can ride on that wide paved shoulder towards the river crossing. The two lane small sidestreets through Alton from the Amtrak station are narrow, wind around all over the place, and are really steep up and down. Either way, once you cross the river into Missouri along 67 Hwy, you will want to take St. Charles Street, then 94 Hwy for just a short stretch, Saale Road, Dwiggins Road, then 94 again for just a short stretch, and then Machens Road to the Katy Trail. If you want to ring the bell at the Machens trail head, you do have to double back a short distance before you start bike west towards St. Charles.

Thanks for the help.

Mark, I had heard that at times, a local has asserted that Machens Road is private and has had a chain/cable across it. Do you know anything about that?

Mark: Although I like your route on Machens Road to the trail, I think Bill is correct. One thing I noted about the way you suggested getting to the trail via Machens is slightly different….most posts I’ve ever read direct one to turn immediately left after crossing the working railroad tracks to access the east end of the trail. Your directions suggest to continue westward after crossing the tracks and follow Machens until you reach the trail…..riders can then backtrack to the east end of the trail to reach the bell. Although technically trespassing someone might get away with doing this despite the wishes of neighboring property owners….but they should know they’re risking getting scolded if caught….I’ve been following this topic since 2021. Apparently every bit of property surrounding the Katy Trail is privately owned, including PART of Machens road. Earlier this year the state of Missouri DNR/Parks finally weighed in and posted that trail users may NOT access or depart the Katy from Machens road and the only access is from the closest trailhead at Black Walnut. I’m active in the two largest Katy Facebook groups and on a recent one noticed in someones video or pictures that the brush/trees seemed to be filling in the area beyond the end of the trail…..if this is the case, it may “solve” the issue for the property owner by eliminating the easy access. Anyway….After some map exploring I noted there appears to be a closer access than Black Walnut via Ell road which might be helpful for some trail users…..particularly those riding in from the Alton area. I don’t like any of this and wish the property owner, whose name actually is Machens, would be more trail friendly. When I rode this way I was an eastbound rider, all the way from Kansas, and I exited the Katy at Machens road before backtracking to catch the Grafton Ferry across the Mississippi to make my way to St Louis via the scenic route. Please note this comment is intended for the people reading this thread, not just Mark. When I prepared for my cross Missouri ride I learned from this group and Facebook. Also, the webmaster of this page has similar pages for quite a few of the larger rail trails in the country….if you weren’t aware.
About 5 weeks ago I was in the process of repeating my 2021 ride across Missouri, but this time riding to home in KC. On day one I traveled to downtown St Louis via Amtrak. I started from the Arch and made it 23 of the 30 miles to St Charles. I was at the last traffic light before Creve Couer Lake….and blocks before being on an actual TRAIL, when I got into a crash with a car. Totaled my bike, got my first ambulance ride as a patient which REALLY sucked as a 30 year paramedic, and worst part had to have my bride drive to St Louis to retrieve me from an ER. Oh, and cancel the rest of the trip. Could have been worse. New bike day is cool and everything, but not when you actually liked the bike you had before. Safe travels everyone!

It looks like you are correct and Ell Road is the closest public road that you can take to access Machens. Sorry to hear about your bike accident.

Thank you, Mark and Eric. Eric, I hope you have healed up well.

Glad you’re ok.. hopefully you have a new bike ?? in your stable.

I’m contemplating doing the ride as a solo bike packing trip east to west. I’m currently on average riding 150 to 200 gravel miles a week with a couple of gravel centuries under my belt this season, so fitness wise am thinking I’ll be fine. Initial thoughts from a planning perspective is to do 50 to 75 miles a day. I have 2 of my daughters that live in the Blue Springs area, only reason of east to west plan ( know the winds are more favorable the opposite direction) What’s the latest date you’d do the ride? Might have missed my window for this year, my available time to ride this year is the 1st or 2nd week of November.. would probably do in the spring if that doesn’t work out.

Mitchy: I’m cut/pasting my September 2021 post below from Facebook group Katy Trail Rider. A few notes…if you’re riding from Downtown St Louis the ride to Alton was interesting and enjoyable. If the Grafton Ferry is closed for the season you could take the bridge into Missouri at Alton. I’m sharing this to give you an idea for planning days and the mileage I desired AND aligning that with lodging….i prefer not to camp and this was my hardest part of planning. I’m not the best person to ask about when is the latest time to ride as I’m cold blooded….if you can tolerate the cold there’s definitely more time to ride, just bring the right gear for staying warm and dry…even if it stays in your bag. I did get a new bike. Another carbon fiber Salsa, but now I have a Warbird which isn’t quite as nice as a Cutthroat, but does everything I need it to do. I took my first mini-trip a couple of days ago from Big Lake State Park in Missouri, rode over to Nebraska, down into Kansas, then looped back to the start. Half the ride was on an Indian Reservation and I saw two separate Lewis & Clark historical markers. Those are common in the Missouri River Valley. The ride was 42 miles with about 1300’ elevation. Some gravel but mostly lightly traveled two lane roads and one highway shoulder. Here a link for those that like that stuff. https://ridewithgps.com/trips/345290432


I just rode my bicycle across the entire state of Missouri, plus about 31 miles into Illinois crossing the Mississippi via a river ferry. Later going back across the Mississippi via the historic Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, ending my ride at the Gateway Arch and Busch Stadium. The Cardinals were about to play and it was a very fun environment. That atmosphere made me realize why some people want to see the Royals have a stadium downtown. This bike ride took six days and 394 miles, starting on Monday, Labor Day and concluding yesterday, the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Garmin does not have the ability to track multi-day rides, perhaps I can merge them later with an app. I rode all of the Rock Island trail and almost all of the Katy trail. The majority of the trip was gravel trail, some paved trail and perhaps 35 miles on streets or highway. I did not camp, opting to stay in AirBnB and hotels, allowing me to travel lighter plus have showers and good rest. My bike and I caught the Amtrak back to Kansas City.
I want to give a shout out to Platte County Parks 100 mile challenge for their brilliant idea to motivate residents to be active during COVID in 2020. They were unable to host the usual activities of organized bike rides and paddling events (due to COVID) so they challenged residents to complete 100 miles of activities in 100 days. That gave me the motivation to do it and I kept going. No way I would have ever considered doing anything like this a year ago. I lost 30 pounds and have improved my health.

Day one Westwood, KS to Pleasant Hill, MO 36 miles
Day two P Hill to Sedalia 71 miles
Day three Sedalia to Columbia 68 miles
Day four Columbia to Hermann 82 miles
Day five Hermann to St Charles 67 miles
Day six St Charles to St Louis 69 miles