Hi all,

My wife and I are cycling across the country and are coming through Carbondale in a week or so. We're in Owensboro, KY now. We are riding the Adventure Cycling Transam to Murphysboro and then our own route to St. Louis. I'm wondering if you anyone would have advice about a route on the Illinois or Missouri side.

I have been told that if we can get to Collinsville, the Chain of Rocks bridge is a good way in, but I'm not sure of a good route to Collinsville. I'm also wondering if crossing the Mississippi near Murphysboro and then coming up is a better way.

Thanks for the advice.
Eric

Illinois has some excellent maps for cycling. You can get them from their department of transportation and elsewhere. Here is a link to the Internet version: https://www.dot.state.il.us/bikemap/state3.html

I second the idea of using the Illinois bike maps. They are useful and they show you tons of paved, quiet roads. Throughout Illinois you can take tons of paved county and township roads with virtually no traffic; usually no need to ride on the busier state and federal highways. Examples of those roads found on a journal of a short bike trip we took last year: https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/p...58#pic_1205301

Consider going generally north out of Murphysboro and approaching the St. Louis metro area from the area generally west of Edwardsville and Collinsville. There is a good system of bike trails in Madison County, IL, and if you enter the trail system via Marine, you are entering it pretty much outside of the suburban fringe, and can ride trails into Collinsville: https://www.mcttrails.org/

This will give you a detailed route but you will have to scroll down to bottom of the pdf pages. Do try and stay away from East St. Louis but if you must, pass thru during daylight hours, preferably on a early Sunday morning.

https://www.bikelib.org/wp-content/up...deSegments.pdf

Since the flooding, parts of the Confluence Trail is in a bit of a state, with the road covered in brickabrack left by the floodwaters, just south of the Great Rivers Research & Education Center Field Station (what a mouthfull). I don't know when they'll get around to cleaning it up. Once you get past the Lewis & Clark Historical Site, Camp River Dubois, the trail goes from asphalt MUP to crushed gravel Levee road. I don't know how the trail is from there. The entire trail from Alton to Hartford is mined with Goose-droppings! There are also roving gangs of wild turkeys near Hartford.

Rather than staying on the Confluence Trail through the East St. Louis area, I'd cross the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, and use the Riverfront Trail, though the gain in safety is probably marginal at best. Daylight hours, and don't leave vehicles (including bicycles) parked unattended at the trail parking lots, and you should be no less unsafe than anywhere else in the Continental US...

I would ask the OP where in St. Louis you'll be going. Coming from the south it may be best to cross the river on the south side of St Louis, there is a separated bike lane on the I-255 bridge over the Mississippi River. If the OP is going into the south or west end of STL, this is the way to go, MUCH better than Chain of Rocks. Agree. there are some nice paved roads connecting southern Illinois, even study Google Maps to get to the I-255 bridge. I'd connect Murphysboro, Ava, Sparta, Baldwin, Freeburg, Columbia then the I-255 bridge. Have fun, that is the area where the glaciers from the Great Ice Age stopped. All of those rolling hills are the dirt and debris that was pushed ahead by the ice....cool!! That is also why there is s much coal and oil development in that area.

??? I didn't think I-255 allowed bicycle traffic, being part of the interstate highway system. The IDOT bicycle safety maps lists 255 as "bicycle not allowed" roads. I wanted to use it to ride to Fosterburg IL, but they have those "No non-motorized vehicles or farm equipment allowed" signs posted.

Edit: Okay, so it is discouraged, but tolerated on the MO side. On Illinois side, it isn't tolerated, and bicyclists must get off at the first off ramp