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The Katy Trail draws riders from all over, including many who arrive by plane.
St Louis Lambert Airport is about 7 miles from the start of the Katy Trail in St Charles.
But it's not always as simple as you might think to get from point A to point B.
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Photo: Lambert-St Louis International Airport
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Shipping Your Bike
If you are flying to St Louis to ride the Katy Trail, you'll need to decide what to do about a bike:
- Bring your bike on the plane - check with the airline about whether this is allowed, and to find out
what kinds of boxes or containers are approved. Here's a website with useful information about
how to pack your bike for an airplane.
- Ship your bike - some B&Bs will let you ship your bike to them,
and will hold it for you until your arrival. Major shippers, such as UPS and FedEx, can handle this
for you (see the "how to pack your bike" link above).
- Rent a bike - if flying into Lambert St Louis Airport, you'll probably want to
rent a bike from Momentum Cycles on Main Street.
This is the only bike rental in St Charles - the next one down the trail is
Katy Bike Rental in Defiance, which is almost 30 miles from the airport.
Be sure to make your rental reservations ahead of time, and find out when they'll be open so you won't
be stuck in St Charles without a bike (although there are lots of things to do there while you wait).
To St Charles By Taxi
If you shipped your bike to a B&B in St Charles, or if you're renting, you can just take a taxi from
the airport to St Charles. It's less than 10 miles and the cab fare should be quite reasonable.
To St Charles By Trail Shuttles
If you brought your bike along on the plane, your first goal is to get yourself and your bike to the trail.
One easy option is to use a shuttle service. These "trail taxis" operate all along the Katy Trail, carrying passengers, bikes, and gear.
Expect to pay about $30 to get shuttled from the airport to the trail.
Make shuttle reservations well in advance.
When B&Bs offer shuttle services, it's typically limited to their guests.
Here is a list of Katy Trail shuttle services, in alphabetical order, although for the St Louis Airport
you'll probably want to use the service based in Bridgeton or the one based in St Charles.
By Bike
Although the St Louis airport is only seven miles from St Charles, that seven-mile route
is a busy interstate highway that you cannot cycle on.
My best suggestion for St Louis airport to Katy Trail is less direct, but also less life-threatening
than an interstate highway.
This route may be easier to understand if you look at
this MapQuest map of the St Louis Airport.
The airport sits north of I-70, but you need to get to the south side of I-70.
There is an underpass near the main (western-most) terminal which will get you to the south side of 70 (exit 236 on the map).
But like any airport, Lambert Field is a jumble of roadways so it may take a little hunting to get there.
Once you get to the south side of 70, follow the outer road to Woodson Road, which heads directly south (again, you can see this on the map).
Head south on Woodson for about two miles, and you'll hit Midland Blvd.
At this point, you have connected into the
Katy Trail-to-downtown St Louis route.
Take a right (west) on Midland.
Midland becomes Dorsett and after about 7 miles (rough guess), it ends at the southeast corner of Creve Coeur Park, at Marine Drive.
Go north on Marine until you see the lake (1/4 mile or so).
Follow the south perimeter of the lake and you can get to the Katy Trail connector, which leads to a
bridge crossing of the Missouri River, one of the nicest bike/pedestrian bridge crossings I've ever seen (separated from cars by a cement wall).
Here's a page with details on
the Creve Coeur - Katy Trail connector.
So altogether, it's about 15 miles from the airport to the Katy Trail using this route (rough
estimate).
There's nothing scenic about the route until you get near Creve Coeur park, it's just an easy way to get there.
The surroundings are mostly suburban residential.
By Rental Car
Some riders have found a one-way car rental to be an easy option - rent from the airport,
drive the car to the western end of the trail,
and drop off the car at Clinton, Warrensburg, or Sedalia.
Then pedal all the way back.
Obviously you would need to make sure you rent a model with a large enough trunk to
accomodate your bike (none of the rental agencies offer cars with bike racks, unfortunately).
Availability and prices for one-way rentals may vary widely, so call around in advance.
Downtown St Louis
If you want to go the other way and head east toward downtown St Louis from the airport, your best bet is to take the
Metrolink light rail system.
Bikes are welcome and you can save your legs for riding around the interesting areas downtown.
You might want to hop off at the Forest Park stop and head south into Forest Park.
This large park is crisscrossed by numerous bike paths, and includes the Art Museum, History Museum, Science Museum, and the Zoo.
Once you've explored Forest Park, downtown is just a 4 mile ride away (see the Katy Trail to Downtown page again for details).
From downtown, a favorite ride is the Riverfront Trail, which follows the Mississippi River some 11 miles north to the Chain of Rocks Bridge.
Nice views of the river, although there's not much to look at along the west side of the trail.
Again, there are some details about the Riverfront Trail and C.O.R. bridge at the
Katy Trail to Downtown page.
Also check out the Trailnet's website.
While getting around St Louis, be aware that all the Metro buses have bike racks up front.
The buses are run by the same organization that runs the light rail, here's
Metro's website again.
Useful/Related Resources
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Comments
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Subject: long term parking in St Charles?
Started: Jul 18 2007 2:35PM
by John
, Winter Park, Florida
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Is there long term (10 days or more) secure parking available for my car in St Charles?
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Replies: 3
(Last reply: Jul 18 2007 5:55PM
by rhona lococo St. Charles:
"you can call 636-946......"
)
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Subject: Airport to Katy Trail
Started: Sep 1 2006 8:59PM
by Lissa
, St Louis
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If you unpack your bike in the airport and walk out the doors on the level with the baggage carrousels you can cross under the parking and the north Highway 70 frontage road to the 'bus port' Ride your bike to the right (east) out of the bus port and under highway 70 to the south frontage road then left towards Woodson or right to wander through residential streets. Very brief time in the traffic.
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Coming to the airport, take frontage road west from Woodson, duck under highway 70 and ride right up to either the arrival or departure level. ...
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