St. Louis Riverfront Trail

Summary Data
Total Time (h:m:s)	1:16:38	3:32 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s)	1:16:38	3:32 pace
Distance (mi )	21.66
Moving Speed (mph)	17.0 avg.	28.1 max.
Elevation Gain (ft)	+512 / -512
Avg. Heart Rate	134 bpm	Zone 3.2
Temperature (°F)	48.8°F avg.	50°F high
Wind Speed ( mph)	N 17.2 avg.	N 18.4 max.

Start Time: 07:30:05 AM
Odometer: 1136.97
Google Earth View of Ride

During the extraordinary Southbound portion of the trip, I kept thinking that the Riverfront Trail in Saint Louis FINALLY gives me a reason why living in St.L. would not be so bad. Coupled with the bikeways across the river in Alton, the Chain of Rocks Bridge, and the not-too-bad road rides in the suburbs (from my youth), the relatively long cycling season could make St.L. a reasonable home.

The Riverfront Trail is too short (less than 10M), but the scenery is an interesting mix of gorgeous river views (East) and the industrial backbone that utilizes the barge traffic (West). The builders of the trail have wisely run as much as possible along the top of the levee wall, giving the best possible view. Twice, I had to slow down to avoid wild turkeys (unbelievable, I know) running across the trail. As you get closer to the city, the trail dips up and down and you ride through floodgates and past a variety of industries. For a rather nice morning, it was surprisingly vacant (I only saw three other people on the trail, none of whom seemed dressed for commuting/exercising).

It is hardly perfect. Saint Louis is obsessed with park closing times and the trail is 'closed' from 10pm to 6am. This seems to be their way of keeping vandals and graffiti artists away---but that is clearly not working since both seem to be prevalent. A better approach would be to light the trail adequately, patrol it, and keep in in use 24/7. The zigs and zags between floodgates is a bit annoying and the double hairpin turn (at 38° 38' 41.35"N, 90° 10' 56.18"W) nearly pitched me off the bike. The trail ends at the old Laclede Power building, unceremoniously dumping the rider onto the street with little warning. Once there, you compete with minimal, but bike-unfriendly traffic headed to the Casino in the rather sad-looking, much deteriorated Admiral.

Dreams? Laclede's Landing needs help anyway and someone wise would take the Laclede Power building and make it a destination: Coffee Shop/Diner/Bike Shop/Bar/Bookstore/Art Gallery & Studios/Something ala Old Town School of Folk Music/Front Porch Music (Valpo). Can you imagine that great building with all of that under one roof---and a bike path to bring people there from North and South? The Landing needs all of those things anyway, and my unscientific, outside survey suggests that Laclede Power could be just right for a revitalization project.

May or may not work. St.L. has a list of problems, not least of which is that so much of the population has moved out to St. Charles or Chesterfield---leaving the central city to rot. And it is such a sports town that maybe people do not have money or time for things like cycling, coffee, interesting music, and art. I remain a huge Cardinals fan myself, and I love the fact that a mid-market town like St.L. is so fanatical about its baseball, hockey and football, but St. L. could be so much more---and it needs to be more because why else would you choose to live in that humidity?

OK, back to cycling. As I flew down the path (Miles 2 and 3 averaged 24+, the whole Southbound averaged 20.4 even with the traffic at the end) I kept thinking about the good. The massive headwind (which caused me to average 14.4 going North) gave me ample time to think about the bad.

Looks like the lakefront had winds from the North in the 30 knots range this morning---and the waves this afternoon were huge---so I am sure I would have had the good thoughts/bad thoughts occur today too. But the bad usually goes to these proposed tax increases, not whether or not Chicago is a city worth living in. I may be a Cardinals fan, but my blood runs with Chicago blue.