TromboneAl

In May my wife and I will drive from far northern California to St. Louis (for our daughter's graduation on May 15) and back. The plan is to take our bikes, take our time, and do a number of one-day bike rides along the way. For example, we might drive for a few hours, set up camp and go for a bike ride. Or we might drive, camp, and go for a long bike ride the next day.

So in this thread I'm soliciting specific bike rides or routes. Ideally, I'll store a bunch of these on the computer, and every day we can plan a few days in advance. You can provide a mapmyride.com or bikely.com route, or just describe it. I'm looking for some of the best rides in the country.

We can take our time and roam far and wide. That is, the rides do not need to be along a straight line between home and St. Louis. Anything in this area could work:



Here are our priorities for the bike trips:

1. Good roads (smooth pavement)
2. Low traffic
3. Non-city
4. Opportunities for pie
5. Loop preferred
6. 40-80 miles round trip
7. Campground close to the route

Also, if there are any organized rides that might work, please let me know.

Thanks!

Sapling

Here's a good one that starts and ends in Evergreen, CO. The route as depicted stops in Georgetown but you can continue on back to Evergreen on the highway frontage road, no traffic problems involved.
https://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...-Idaho-Springs

Edit - couldn't open the attachment, so don't know if this is on your way or not. PS - stop at the lodge at the base of Mt Evans for a righteous breakfast or chunk of pie.

Homebrew01

You could try the touring forum too.

zacster

There are 2 places that come to mind, me being from the east coast. Moab, Utah has a lot of MTB trails, it is the most popular MTB destination in the world after all. The road biking was also nice. Glenwood Springs, Colorado also has a lot of road trails emanating from it, plus has the largest hot pool in the world. Check the 50+ forum for DenverFox, he has more info about Glenwood.

Ritterview

Well, this one isn't a loop, but fits your other criteria, and certainly would be memorable.

BengeBoy 

Lawrence, Kansas, is a pretty college town on your way East. There is an annual ride there called the "Octoginta" and the local bike club posts the route map for each year's Octoginta on their website (or you can find it on MapMyRide or Bikely.com).

Typically the route goes Southwest of Lawrence and routes around Lone Star Lake and Clinton Reservoir, or it heads up north of town. There would be nice camping at Lone Star or Clinton.

You could spend another day in that area taking loops up toward Perry Reservoir.

Another nice ride not far off of I-70 would be to stop in the little town of Lindsborg, Kansas "Little Sweden USA." Good pie. You can take some backroads toward the west of town toward Kanopolis reservoir, and to the little town of Marquette.

And in Missouri there is the Katy trail...

Mudu93

While in and around St. Louis, you might try a ride up the great river road through Alton Illinois and Grafton. Pretty good paths and bike lanes, not much worry of traffic.

TromboneAl

Hey, that's perfect. My wife was born and raised in Sweden, so she'll love that. Thanks.

BengeBoy 

chamber of commerce:

https://www.lindsborg.org/index.html

do not under any circumstances miss this little art museum:

https://www.sandzen.org/

Here's a 30-mile route I mapped out once. Part of this is on hard-packed sand roads; if you have a bike with larger tires should be no problem.

https://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united...org/1007487076

If you are coming in from the west, you could/should stop at Kanopolis Reservoir and take a hike in Horsethief Canyon...

https://www.kdwp.state.ks.us/news/Sta...lheads-A,B,C-D

There are also little roads that go around Kanopolis Reservoir - you could spend a day just exploring the areas on one side of the lake, crossing the dam and going to the other side of the lake.

Pendergast

If you're passing through Grand Junction/Fruita the loop through Colorado National Monument is a great ride.

NoGaBiker

One day bike trips across the country will require you to absolutely HAUL ASS.