Indianapolis East Side Routes

[SmokinMiles]

I will be in town next weekend with my daugther for a convention and am staying on the east side on North Shadeland near I 465 and I 70.

I'd like to get in some riding as the weather looks to be nice. Can any of you advise me on which direction to go to head out toward some quiet roads or to a path? I don't mind transporting my bike somewhere if it's too dangerous to ride from where I am.

Thanks! Crystal

[Tom Stormcrowe]

There's the Monon Trail, from Downtown out to Carmel. Also, the White River Parkway connects, etc.

http://www.indianatrails.org/Monon_Indy.htm

Here's a map of the whole Indy Greenway system.

http://www.indianatrails.org/main_ma.../IG_09_map.pdf

[Stealthammer]

Try the Monon Trail or the downtown cultural trail if you prefer MUPs. If you are willing to ride the streets though I would suggest picking out some of the interesting points of interest such as Memorial Circle and War Memorial Plaza or cross over to the west side and ride Eagle Creek Park (use 71st to get there). If you end up traveling just a bit north Zionsville has some excellent restaurants and coffee shops. Its a small, quiet village environment and well worth the ride.

http://www.indianatrails.org/Monon_Indy.htm

[Sir Real]

The area you're staying in is not the best for riding. There's plenty of traffic and little to no shoulders. Riding the Monon Trail is nice, but it gets crowded with foot traffic around Broad Ripple and Carmel on good weather days. If you look at the 2nd link Tom posted, you can start on the Monon and take the Fall Creek Greenway Northeast to Fort Harrison Park and around Geist Resevoir.

How much riding time will you have?

[SmokinMiles]

Thanks for all the replies. I could tell by the google map that it probably wouldn't be good to ride from there. I will have a 3-4 hour block of time for riding.

[SmokinMiles]

Thanks for all the replies. I could tell by the google map that it probably wouldn't be good to ride from there. I will have a 3-4 hour block of time for riding.

[smunderdog]

Not knowing specifically where your hotel is, here is a route that you will have to drive to, but isn't far from Pendleton Pike/465. If you switch to satellite, you'll see there is a parking area at the start of the route.

I mapped the route first heading east into a "back" entrance to Ft. Benjamin Harrison park and doing a loop on their paved MUP. There are other roads in the park to explore if you'd like...or...

I then mapped you back past your car and then down Fall Creek Parkway. While there is a MUP (asphalt sidewalk) that winds along the creek, it isn't the best surface (bumpy), so I'd just stick to the street. At the 11 mile marker of this route, you'll hop off the street and onto the MUP, cross the bridge over the creek continuing on the MUP. Crossing 38th street (mile marker 12 of the route) will be the most traffic you see so be careful there.

I ended this route where the Fall Creek MUP intersects with the previously mentioned Monon Trail. If you turn right (north), you'll head into Broad Ripple which is worth checking out - and it wouldn't be that difficult to map you a loop back to your car from Broad Ripple on city streets.

If you turn left (south) on the Monon, you can ride that into downtown where there is a ton of things/places to explore.

Not knowing how long of a ride you want to do, let us know if you want to do one or the other and we can answer questions about DT, Broad Ripple etc...

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5224763