Straight to Kansas

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Ray (webmaster) on 6/14/2012 8:18:38 AM:

Has anyone out there ridden directly west from Clinton?

My son wants to ride across Missouri - from the Kansas border to the Illinois border. The Katy handles almost all of that, except the 50-odd miles between Kansas and Clinton. Trying to keep the distance as short as possible, I'm looking for a good route (roads w/shoulders and few cars) to get between Clinton and the KS state line. Amsterdam MO, on the state line, is 40-something miles due west of Clinton. But I don't know what the roads in between are like.

Thanks in advance for any insights!

Trek on 6/14/2012 8:26:23 AM:

Ray.....you might search "Katy Trail" in the journals on crazyguyonabike dot com. Often times transam riders go off route to pick up the Katy and get off the road for awhile. There may be routes listed there and pictures in the journal to give him an idea of what the route is like.

SJK from Saint Louis, MO on 6/14/2012 10:27:04 AM:

According to MoDOT "shoulder maps", there are no shoulders on the highways from Clinton to Amsterdam, MO. They also indicate daily traffic <1,000 cars per day on the roads you would take, but does not appear to be more detailed than that. Highway 7(towards Harrisonville) out of Clinton has shoulders(according to the maps) but higher traffic (>5,000 cars per day), which is as high as they go with those maps.

BikerBoy from Edwardsville, IL on 6/14/2012 11:41:25 AM:

Ray, the direct choices are not the best because that is such a rural area. But it looks like MO Hwy 18 is his best shot. It's a two-lane road (one each way) and the hills are not bad. But there are no shoulders that I recall. I'd suggest that he ride east in the afternoon (or west in the morning) in order to be more visible to drivers. And wear a safety vest. To get a look at the road, find it in Google Maps, then use the Street View feature (the little orange guy) to get a look at the road up close. Good luck.

kevin from Jeff City on 6/14/2012 12:16:42 PM:

Trek speaks wisely. I've seen several people route through Stillwell, KS to Harrisonville MO and on to the Katy.

chris from ILLINOIS on 6/14/2012 2:27:41 PM:

It's a lot eaiser to come up with a route across Illinois: Get on US-50 at the Mississippi, stay on 50 untill you cross into Indiana. Road riding in MO is more sceenic, but in IL, you can see down the road farther.

Darrell from Jeff City, MO. on 6/15/2012 9:32:39 PM:

Ray, I posted a question about getting to the Prarie Spirit Trail from Clinton on Bike Forums- Touring and recieved this posibility, maybe it will be of interest to you. I have not ridden it but would like to sometime. Anyway, you can take a look.

Darrell from Jeff City, MO. on 6/15/2012 9:36:56 PM:

Duh, let's try this; http://ridewithgps.com/routes/367326

Bike forums post; http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/717679-Seeking-information-on-route-from-the-Katy-Trail-to-Prairie-Spirit-Trail?highlight=

Copy and paste should work.

Darrell from Jeff City, MO. on 6/16/2012 4:48:52 AM:

Now that I look back on these posts, they really don't help at all. Guess a road trip is the only way to know, had planned to do that quite awhile ago, just never did. Will know a bit more in a day or two.

Anonymous on 6/16/2012 5:36:28 AM:

If you're willing to share what you learn from your road trip, I would be very interested in what you find. Thanks!

Anon on 6/16/2012 8:31:55 AM:

If he wants to go border to border only, you might consider starting near Drexel MO on Route-B to Creighton, and then, take Hwy-7 to Clinton, or start near Merwin on Route-18 straight east to Clinton.

The west-east TransAm riders tend to start eastward toward Clinton further south than that. But I would be tempted to get to and use Hwy-7 to Clinton since it has good wide shoulders despite its heavier traffic. It also connects to the Clinton trailhead easily.

As you already know, getting from the Machens trailhead to Alton, IL is fairly straight forward. Good luck on this most interesting challenge.

Darrell from Jeff City, MO. on 6/17/2012 5:34:05 AM:

I'm not familiar with Rt. B from Drexel to Creighton but Hwy 7 sounds much better than what I found Hwy 18 west out of Clinton to be. Would rather ride 5,6 or 7ft. from vehicles traveling 70-mph or so on Hwy 7 than 1,2 or 3ft. from cars, trucks w/trailors and occasional big rig traveling 60-mph or more in rolling hills with NO SHOULDER. And if the vehicles don't see you in time, you won't even have 1 foot of space, the road seems more narrow than most hwys. After driving 20+ miles on Hwy 18 west of Clinton yesterday, I had seen enough to know that I wouldn't use it and will not recommend that others use it for a bicycle route from the Kansas border.

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