Some sample bicycle loop routes - paved and gravel - in the Higginsville, Missouri, area.

These are bicycle touring routes that connect through or near the Higginsville, Missouri, area, and/or ways to connect from & to Higginsville from major cross-state bicycle trails and routes: *** U.S. Bicycle Route 51 - https://ridewithgps.com/collections/37214 *** Adventure Cycling Association Lewis & Clark Bicycle Route - https://www.adventurecycling.org/routes-and-maps/adventure-cycling-route-network/lewis-clark/ *** Adventure Cycling Association Eastern Express Connector (TransAmerica Trail) - https://www.adventurecycling.org/routes-and-maps/adventure-cycling-route-network/eastern-express-connector/ *** Birthplace of the Santa Fe Trail Bicycle Route, both paved & gravel options - https://ridewithgps.com/events/97552 *** Lewis & Clark Missouri River Adventure - https://ridewithgps.com/events/105329 *** Paved & gravel connections to the Katy & Rock Island Trails in Boonville, Sedalia, Windsor, and Independence *** Connect to the Butterfield Stage Experience Bicycle Route at Cole Camp or Syracuse - https://mobikefed.org/ButterfieldStageExperience

Experience the full Missouri River adventure in mid-Missouri, riding both sides of the Missouri River valley and fully exploring the Lewis & Clark route between Jefferson City and Boonville. You've ridden the Katy Trail - now experience it from the other side as you explore little known, seldom visited river vistas, massive bluffs and towering rocks, every Lewis & Clark Campsite, and the real Americana of small-town Missouri. See Rocheport, Diana Bend, Franklin Island, Huntsdale, Eagle Bluffs, Easley, Hartsburg, the towering Moniteau Bluffs - all from the OTHER side. As a loop route you can park and ride from Boonville, Rocheport, Jefferson City, or any other convenient location along the route. Or travel to & from in Jefferson City via Amtrak (with your bike!) and make it a 100% car-free vacation. Most riders will plan 2-5 days for the south side of the river, and another 2-3 days to return via the Katy Trail. But a two-day (or even one-day) trip is certainly possible.

Boonslick Road was Missouri's first main road to the West - was one of very the earliest roads crossing Missouri in the early U.S. period. Following and linking many Native American Trails, Nathan Boone led William Clark along the route in 1808. Soon thereafter, Nathan and Daniel Morgan Boone built the trail into a wagon road between St Charles and their salt spring operation in mid-Missouri. The route was soon surveyed as the "Missouri Road" became the primary highway for American settlers to travel to mid-Missouri - as well as the wagon road leading to the Santa Fe Trail, the Oregon Trail, and California Trail. Along this route passed tens of thousands of wagons, travelers, traders, and emigrants from the early 1800s through the Civil War era, on their way to central Missouri, western Missouri, Oregon, California, and other points west. Along the route are many stations, historic buildings, and ruins dating to the early and mid 1800s. The Boonslick Road Association has more details about the fascinating history of the road: https://www.booneslickroad.org/

Several side trips, loops and bicycle route connectors visiting historic and scenic areas of central Missouri are available starting from the Katy Trail in the Boonville-Rocheport area. Spend an afternoon, a day, or a few days visiting central Missouri's scenery, culture, and history--places few Katy Trail visitors get a chance to see. Note that these routes are part of MoBikeFed's work to document historic, cultural, and scenic paved, gravel, and trail bicycle routes throughout Missouri. Check each route for details - some are fully vetted, ground-checked routes, others are route plans and ideas that have not yet been fully vetted. We need your help--if you ride a route and have feedback, contact us at MoBikeFed.org Note that these routes intersect with several larger systems, including: - Butterfield Stage Experience bicycle route - Birthplace of the Santa Fe Trail bicycle route - Lewis & Clark Missouri River Adventure bicycle route - Bike MOPAC - Rock Island/Central Missouri Connectors Find these and many other bicycle touring routes around Missouri on MoBikeFed's Bicycle & Touring Routes page: mobikefed.org/missouri-bicycle-and-touring-routes https://mobikefed.org/missouri-gravel-grinding-bikepacking-bicycle-routes-and-maps

The Missouri USBR 51 Organizing Committee is proposing a few updates to USBR 66 in the Springfield area, to improve the route for cyclists and to make the new USBR 51 route and USBR 66 coincide between Springfield and Webb City MO. To see the new route, zoom into the area immediately around Springfield. BLUE=old route; GREEN=new route. You can see how USBR 66 will work together with USBR 51 and USBR 251 here: - https://ridewithgps.com/collections/2948148

A 555 mile bicycle touring loop through southeastern Missouri and southern Illinois connecting the Katy Trail, Great Rivers South Bicycle Route, Tunnel Hill Trail, Goshen and Confluence Trails. Highlights: * The confluence of America's largest river - the Mississippi - and its longest river, the Missouri. * Lewis & Clark history and historic sites * St Charles - Missouri's first capitol * Washington - historic riverfront town and Missouri's German Heritage Corridor * Mark Twain National Forest * Cape Girardeau - Missouri's French heritage along the Mississippi River * Confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. The Ohio is the Mississippi's largest tributary and in fact contributes more water than the Mississippi main stem. * Railroad history along the Tunnel Hill Trail, following the railroad route built in the early 1870s * Shawnee National Forest * Cahokia Mounds World Heritage Site (13-mile optional side trip) * Edwardsville, 3rd oldest city in Illinois located on Route 66 * Alton, historic Mississippi River town and site of Abraham Lincoln's one and only duel Trails and routes: * Katy Trail (eastern portion) - Alton IL to Washington MO * Great Rivers South Bicycle Route (Adventure Cycling Association) - Washington MO to Cape Girardeau MO and Karnak IL * The Tunnel Hill Trail - Karnak IL to Eldorado IL * Newly planned connecting route - Eldorado IL to O'Fallon IL * The MCT Goshen Trail O'Fallon IL to Edwardsville IL * The MCT Confluence Trail to Alton IL What to expect: The Katy Trail and Tunnel Hill Trails are both state parks - lengthy, soft-surface trails with no motorized traffic allowed. The Goshen and Confluence Trails are Madison County Transit Trails. These trails and generally paved, with no motorized traffic allowed. The Great Rivers South section, from Washington MO to Karnak IL is an established Adventure Cycling Association bicycle route. The route is all on paved roads, generally in rural areas with lower traffic counts. However, some sections close to cities and towns will have more traffic. These are generally rural roads with 55-60mph speed limits. This route begins by crossing the Missouri River at Washington on the new Route 47 bridge. This bridge has a protected 10-foot bike/ped path connecting the Katy Trail to the city of Washington. The connection from the trail to the bridge is still a work in progress, and currently includes a section on Augusta Bottom Road and a short section on the shoulders of Route 47. The Great Rivers South section of the route crosses the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau on the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge/MO-74, which has generous 10-foot shoulders - one of our best Mississippi River crossings. The section from Eldorado, IL, to O'Fallon, IL, follows scenic, lower traffic rural paved roads. Note that this is the one section of this route that is not well established as a bicycle route - consider this is the first draft of the route through this area, and not yet battle tested. Connecting the Goshen and Confluence Trails is a short section of low-traffic road. Connecting the Confluence Trail back to the Katy Trail involves crossing the Mississippi River on the Clark Bridge, which has buffered bicycle lanes - again, one of our best Mississippi River crossing points. After the Mississippi River crossing, there are a few miles of low-traffic, paved rural roads to connect to the eastern end of the Katy Trail at Machens. Camping and Lodging As a rule, the route passes through small cities and towns regularly. You should have no trouble finding convenience stores, grocery stores, and sometimes restaurants and cafes along the route. Many towns will have lodging and/or camping - though pre-plan carefully, as many rural communities have few services available. These sites have information about the various trails and resources and services along them: https://bikekatytrail.com/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/615471375669169/ https://www.hikingwithshawn.com/tunnel-hill-state-trail/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/tunnelhillstatetrail/ https://www.mcttrails.org

MoDOT is building a new I-70 bridge over the Missouri River at Rocheport. This means that the Katy Trail at that point will be closed sporadically between 2022 and 2024. (Note that the trail will remain OPEN through MOST of the construction - closures will just be a few days here and there.) When the Katy Trail is closed, what are your detour options? Find out about current trail closures from Missouri State Parks here: https://mostateparks.com/page/84206/katy-trail-state-park-advisory-map What are your route options to bypass these closures? Note that, when the Trail is closed, Missouri State Parks has declared the closures to be "hard" closures with no alternative routes available. However - that's not quite true: This collection includes two really awesome and scenic detour routes for you to consider. According to Strava Cycling Heatmap, Option #2 (the shorter option) is used more frequently by cyclists. But Option #1, which uses a piece of the Old Boonslick Trail, is ridden as well. A longer detour option, including the MKT Trail to Columbia and exploring the Old Boonslick Road Rocheport-New Franklin is available here: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/39002432 There are some shuttle services that will bridge the gap for you. Check BikeKatyTrail.com for a list of shuttles: https://bikekatytrail.com/planner.aspx?scid=12&ecid=11&rt=0&rtid=1&svcs=|17|

Want to put the Katy Trail, the Rock Island Trail, and the Flint Hills Nature Trail together to make an epic, two-state bicycling adventure? Here is your guide to connecting these three trails in Missouri and Kansas. NOTE: We have now created DIRECT routes - check them out: https://ridewithgps.com/collections/36150 You can combine the routes on this page with the new routes to make a grand Katy-Flint Hills circuit route. Description of the route: Take the State Parks Katy/Rock Island Trails to Pleasant Hill, then the Greenwood Gap Connector to Lee's Summit, then the Rock Island Trail northwesterly to its current end point, then Rock Island-Indian Creek Trail connector west or east, then at MILE 10 of that route you take the Blue River Trail south a couple of miles, where you jump on the SFE-03.01P Santa Fe Trail through KC area, joining it around mile 26. Take that to the end of the route at Gardner Junction, then jump on the Santa Fe Trail mostly-gravel option (or paved, if you prefer), taking that west to near Council Grove, KS, where it meets the Flint Hills Trail. MoBikeFed article about bridging the gap between the Katy & Flint Hills trails: https://mobikefed.org/2020/10/how-connect-mos-katyrock-island-trail-kss-flint-hills-nature-trail-using-trails-low-stress Katy Trail/Rock Island Trail guide: https://bikekatytrail.com/ Flint Hills Nature Trail: https://kanzatrails.org/flint-hills-nature-trail/ For more bicycle touring routes across Missouri, see: https://mobikefed.org/missouri-bicycle-and-touring-routes https://mobikefed.org/missouri-gravel-grinding-bikepacking-bicycle-routes-and-maps

A collection of routes (some mostly paved, others mostly gravel - so your choice) connecting the Katy/Rock Island Trails in Missouri to the Prairie Spirit and Flint Hills Nature Trail in Kansas. NOTE: All routes are draft and not ground-truthed. They look pretty good, though! For more bicycle touring routes across Missouri, see: https://mobikefed.org/missouri-bicycle-and-touring-routes https://mobikefed.org/missouri-gravel-grinding-bikepacking-bicycle-routes-and-maps

Missouri's Rock Island Trail from Kansas City to the St Louis metro area is currently partially complete and partially under development As the trail is developed, you can use these mostly-gravel, low-traffic routes to make all the connections and visit all of the communities along the Rock Island corridor. Once the trail is complete in each area, these routes remain amazing, scenic, low-traffic routes that you can use to make loops and side-trips from the Rock island Trail to the neighbor countryside. For more bicycle touring routes across Missouri, see: https://mobikefed.org/missouri-bicycle-and-touring-routes https://mobikefed.org/missouri-gravel-grinding-bikepacking-bicycle-routes-and-maps

Boonslick Road was Missouri's first main road to the West - was one of very the earliest roads crossing Missouri in the early U.S. period. The west end of the Boonslick Road dovetails with the start of the Santa Fe Trail from Franklin to Cooper's Fort By combining the historic Boonslick Road in this area with the nearby Katy and MKT Trails, loop routes and tours through Columbia to Rocheport, New Franklin, Boonslick State Historic Site, and Boonville exploring the west end of the Boonslick Road, the east end of the Santa Fe Trail, the Katy Trail and the MKT Trails are possible. A full loop tour Columbia-Boone's Lick-Boonville-Columbia (or making the same circuit starting from any point along the way) is about 95 miles. The Boonslick Road & Santa FE Trail segments are relatively rugged, hilly, remote, and scenic with many remaining historic buildings and locations. The Katy and MKT Trails are, by contrast, relatively flat, straight, smooth, and well maintained for bicycling. On your bicycle tour, you can spend some time and energy exploring the more remote and hilly Boonslick Road/Santa Fe Trail route - and then return quickly and easily by the much flatter and faster rail-trails. Following and linking many Native American Trails, Nathan Boone led William Clark along the Boonslick Trace route in 1808. Clark established Fort Osage at the western end of this route. Soon thereafter, Nathan and Daniel Morgan Boone built the trail into a wagon road between St Charles and their salt spring operation in mid-Missouri. The route was soon surveyed as the "Missouri Road" became the primary highway for American settlers traveling to mid-Missouri - as well as the wagon road leading to the Santa Fe Trail, the Oregon Trail, and California Trail. Along this route passed tens of thousands of wagons, travelers, traders, and emigrants from the early 1800s through the Civil War era, on their way to central Missouri, western Missouri, Oregon, California, and other points west. Along the route are many stations, historic buildings, and ruins dating to the early and mid 1800s - as well as a number of well preserved segments of the original route - some almost completely untouched, others part of the county road system but still retaining their rural and remote character. The Boonslick Road Association has more details about the fascinating history of the road: booneslickroad.org Note that the route is accessible via the Amtrak stations in Jefferson City or Sedalia (add 30 miles each way from the Jefferson City Amtrak Station to the MKT Trail; 35 miles Sedalia Amtrak-Boonville).

Great bicycle connecting rides and routes centered on Raytown, Missouri. Many of the rides and routes take off from the Rock Island Trail, which runs through the center of the city. These routes take you from Raytown to somewhere, or from somewhere to Raytown. You can also check out the Raytown area Loop Routes: https://ridewithgps.com/collections/33310 Also in the area: Birthplace of the Santa Fe Trail - routes following the Santa Fe Trail from Boonville and Arrow Rock through Independence and Raytown to the Parting of the Trails in Gardner KS and beyond: https://ridewithgps.com/events/97552-birthplace-of-the-santa-fe-trail-bicycle The Rock Island Trail: Get there from almost anywhere in the Kansas City area: https://ridewithgps.com/events/89549-rock-island-trail-get-there-from-almost- Rock Island Trail Gravel Routes - travel the entire Rock Island route Raytown to downtown St Louis, via a system of parallel (mostly) gravel roads: https://ridewithgps.com/collections/15786 Bridging the Greenwood Gap - bicycle seamlessly from Raytown to the Katy Trail via the Rock Island Trail and some connectors: https://ridewithgps.com/collections/28919 For more bicycle touring routes across Missouri, see: https://mobikefed.org/missouri-bicycle-and-touring-routes https://mobikefed.org/missouri-gravel-grinding-bikepacking-bicycle-routes-and-maps

Great bicycle loop rides and routes centered on Raytown, Missouri. Many of the rides and routes take off from the Rock Island Trail, which runs through the center of the city. You can also check out Raytown area connecting routes: https://ridewithgps.com/collections/42027 Other area routes: Birthplace of the Santa Fe Trail - routes following the Santa Fe Trail from Boonville and Arrow Rock through Independence and Raytown to the Parting of the Trails in Gardner KS and beyond: https://ridewithgps.com/events/97552-birthplace-of-the-santa-fe-trail-bicycle The Rock Island Trail: Get there from almost anywhere in the Kansas City area: https://ridewithgps.com/events/89549-rock-island-trail-get-there-from-almost- Rock Island Trail Gravel Routes - travel the entire Rock Island route Raytown to downtown St Louis, via a system of parallel (mostly) gravel roads: https://ridewithgps.com/collections/15786 Bridging the Greenwood Gap - bicycle seamlessly from Raytown to the Katy Trail via the Rock Island Trail and some connectors: https://ridewithgps.com/collections/28919 For more bicycle touring routes across Missouri, see: https://mobikefed.org/missouri-bicycle-and-touring-routes https://mobikefed.org/missouri-gravel-grinding-bikepacking-bicycle-routes-and-maps

Some property owners in central Missouri do not want to see a trail built on their section of the Rock Island corridor. Is there a way we could bypass the most problematic sections of the corridor while still maintaining statewide connectivity for the route as a whole? The blue line represents the Rock Island Railroad Corridor, and the idea of these potential bypasses is to allow some or all segments of the coridor between Eldon and Belle to remain undeveloped. The maps explore some potential solutions on this issue - potential ways to maintain connectivity of the trail corridor while preserving certain segment of the corridor undeveloped. These ideas are presented for consideration only, as the starting point for a discussion. Each the potential route could be further refined if those with local knowledge wish to pursue the idea. Some solutions may be smaller in scale as well: Perhaps a land or right-of-way swap moves the trail in some areas to the borders of land parcels, allowing their present uses to continue without intrusion - while still allowing the statewide trail to maintain connectivity. Disruption to local residents and landowners would be minimized.

How do you connect from the Kirkwood Amtrak Station, the Amtrak Station Union Station in downtown St Louis, the St Louis Airport, or major trails in the St Louis are to the Katy Trail? MoBikeFed's collection of bicycle routes and connectors will show you how. If you would like to contribute a bicycle route to make an important connection from somewhere in the St Louis metro area to the the Katy Trail, please contact us: https://mobikefed.org/about-us For more bicycle touring routes across Missouri, see: https://mobikefed.org/missouri-bicycle-and-touring-routes https://mobikefed.org/missouri-gravel-grinding-bikepacking-bicycle-routes-and-maps

Several side trips, loops and bicycle route connectors visiting historic and scenic areas of central Missouri are available starting from the Katy Trail in the Sedalia-Boonville-Jefferson City area. Spend an afternoon, a day, or a few days visiting central Missouri's scenery, culture, and history--places few Katy Trail visitors get a chance to see. You can make Amtrak Connections with your bicycle at Sedalia and Jefferson City. Note that these routes are part of MoBikeFed's work to document historic, cultural, and scenic paved, gravel, and trail bicycle routes throughout Missouri. Check each route for details - some are fully vetted, ground-checked routes, others are route plans and ideas that have not yet been fully vetted. We need your help--if you ride a route and have feedback, contact us at http://MoBikeFed.org Note that these routes intersect with several larger systems, including: - Butterfield Stage Experience bicycle route - Birthplace of the Santa Fe Trail bicycle route - Lewis & Clark Missouri River Adventure bicycle route - Bike MOPAC - Rock Island/Central Missouri Connectors Find these and many other bicycle touring routes around Missouri on MoBikeFed's Bicycle & Touring Routes page: https://mobikefed.org/missouri-bicycle-and-touring-routes https://mobikefed.org/missouri-gravel-grinding-bikepacking-bicycle-routes-and-maps

These are USBR 51 Spur and Alternate Route options that we have considered or could consider in the future for inclusion as part of the Missouri USBR 51 system.

This shows possible USBR 51 route options Warrensburg-Lexington, including possible Higginsville options, for discussion and consideration. Also included are a scouting ride & drive I took in the area, with some notes and photos.

3 paved routes & 3 gravel routes area of Urich, Missouri, for the Urich Bicycle Festival. YOu can ride loop #1, Loop #2, AND/OR Loop #3 to get 33, 66, or 100 mile routes paved, gravel or even mix the two.