Trail under water on Memorial Day

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Matt from St. Peters on 5/31/2011 12:09:36 PM:

There's about a mile of section in between Machens and St Charles that is under water from the Missouri River. I rode the trail yesterday (Memorial Day). Luckily, you can back track a bit and ride on a dirt rode on top of the levee for a mile and it will connect back up with the trail. Alot of riders were doing this, but keep in mind it may not be Katy Trail property. This was somewhere around mile marker 35.

Also there was a tree down covering the entire trail in between Machens and the Black Walnut stop. You can just walk your bike around the tree, but stay observant when your riding this section of the trail for it.

Anonymous from St Peters on 5/31/2011 8:54:40 PM:

Rode today from the dog park to Machens and back to the dog park. There was a span of about 30 feet that was underwater, about a foot deep. On my return trip, a barrier had been put in place to close the trail at this area. Rode around it as I had to get back to my car!

SteveK from saint louis, MO on 5/31/2011 11:22:17 PM:

Thanks for the report, since the river was about a foot above "flood stage" today, it seems the Machens route should be avoided whenever the river gets to the flood stage or above. I could be wrong, but I don't think it is advisable to ride around this area on the dirt road as DNR surely was aware of the flooding issue when they built the trail that low. They were likely trying to avoid a conflict with the Levee District and/or landowners in that area, and I would not assume anything has really changed since that section was built.

Tom from St. Charles on 6/1/2011 7:59:46 PM:

That's disappointing to hear because I am off work Friday and was planning to ride from St. Charles to Machens (and back) for the first time. Does anyone know who one can call to get the "official" word on trail closures? SteveK mentions DNR... Is that Dept of Natural Resources, and do they manage the trail?

Cathy from Jefferson City on 6/1/2011 9:18:01 PM:

Www.mostatepark.com/advisories is the web site I believe.

Sara from Saint Charles on 6/3/2011 9:52:38 AM:

I called State Parks this morning (Fri 6/3). After a confusing woman, was routed to a guy who works/manages that end of the katy. He said they just reopened mi34.5 this morning. As SteveK on board here alluded to, I've found several articles online indicating there were issues with Consolidated North County Levee District and several landowners which kept the state from completing the trail on top of the levee. So yes, you would be trespassing by riding on the levee to avoid the flooding (for future reference, since it's supposed to crest again on Tue).
A bit of background from Sep 2005 is here- http://www.greatrivers.info/DocumentStore/ecd7b9c422494659a1cdfac8e72728aa/PD%20On%20KATY%20Trail%20no%20quick%20fix%20for%20unfinished%20miles%2009.25.05.pdf
and info from 2000 here- http://www.riverfronttimes.com/content/printVersion/108564/

Kevin from Overland Park on 6/6/2011 8:18:05 AM:

I rode the section from St. Charles to Machens and backyesterday morning. The trail was not wet or soft anywhere. You could see where the river had crept out of its banks a little bit into the trail last week. This part of the trail was hardened dirt (originally mud) that wasn't too bad to travel on. It would not take too much rain to raise the river level for this to happen again.

John from St. Charles on 7/6/2011 5:16:32 PM:

Tried to ride from St. Charles to Machens today, went past the orange thing blocking the road, then there was part with tree limbs that we walked our bikes through and then there was another flooded out part that looked kinda deep and may have had snakes so we went back. I think this was around mile 35.

Anonymous from St. Charles on 7/26/2011 1:09:54 PM:

I rode this section on Saturday. It's clean now. It looks like they re-graded it.

Pam from Independence on 7/26/2011 1:45:20 PM:

Yippee!!!!

Billy from Mokane on 7/26/2011 1:46:42 PM:

Good job of getting useful information out.

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