Reply to KC to Clinton Bike Route

I am looking for a bike route from the train (Amtrak) station in KC to Clinton, Mo. Is there anyone out there who has experience with all or a portion of this. Route ideas, suggestions, are extremely welcome.

There really isn't a good one. The problem is that there are really only two roads in and out
of Clinton and both are high speed, and very busy. There was a thread on this awhile back ...
here is a link to part of it... http://www.bikekatytrail.com/talk.aspx?
thid=675¬efmt=1&sortby=0&pg=34&adprice=1. You could ride the train to Sedalia,
then bike from there or, just do the out and back to Clinto if you want to say you have done
the whole thing!

I couldn't get the link to work. Could you tell me how far back it was, or what the title of the comment was?

I did a search on Sharron because she was the one who made the inquiry...it was begun on
April 30, 2006. There were some prior postings as well, but they are back further than the
comments are kept. Sharron ended up riding from KC to Boonville on state highways and
then riding the Trail from Boonville to St. Charles. I even asked an acquaintance of mine who
lives between KC and Clinton thinking there might be some country roads and his advice was
to not even think about trying to bike between here and there. It's too bad. Hopefully, in the
very near future the Trail will come to KC...I am anxiously awaiting that day! Sharon

That's bad news. Thank you for checking it out for me. I went about 15 pages and couldn't find it.

There has to be a way. But maybe there isn't. If anyone else out there comes across something, please let me know. Thanks!

It was on page 35, but now it seems to have dropped off...sorry about that. Basically, it
confirms that everyone on here (at that time) pretty much agreed there is no decent bike
route between KC and Clinton. The problem is that Missouri roads were developed pretty
much by chance...the farm to market paths that had been created over time were simply
paved...so, there just aren't a lot of alternate routes and it makes it hard to get to a lot of
places. I grew up in Kansas, a land survey state, so the roads were built according to the
land survey so there is a road every mile...it is all laid out in a nice grid so you can always get
there from here...not so in Missouri...plus, Missouri has a lot of hills and rivers and such to
work around...Kansas geography is more amenable to a nice grid.

Here's the link that Sharon referenced above that BLM had trouble viewing. And here's one other discussion of KC Airport to Clinton from a little further back.

I did a database search through the old forum notes and couldn't come up with any other discussions of riding from KC to Clinton.

One other option is to take Amtrak to Warrensburg, and then ride your bike to Clinton. Here's a discussion of riding Warrensburg to Clinton. Also not the easiest ride, but easier than KC to Clinton.

Someday, the Katy Trail will reach all the way to KC, and we won't have these problems. But that's still a LONG way off, unfortunately.

Good luck!

Thanks, Ray. I must make note of those directions from Warrensburg to Clinton...I have
ridden that route before and it wasn't bad...but, I had forgotten about it.

Is the trail really going to extend to KC or is that merely idle gossip? What's the schedule?

The extension to KC is not a certainty yet, but it's looking more positive now than it ever has. That's because Ameren, the energy company, is currently negatiating with the state of Missouri to compensate for the Taum Sauk Reservior disaster. This was when Ameren's dam burst a year and a half ago, destroying Johnson's Shut-ins State Park. They're trying to work out a settlement to make up for this disaster, and one of the items on the negotiating table is an unused rairoad corridor from Windsor (on the Katy Trail) to KC. Ameren owns this railroad right-of-way, and could give it to the state as part of the settlement. The state would then use it to extend the Katy Trail to KC. The two primary negotiators for the state, DNR Director Doyle Childers and Attorney General Jay Nixon, have both expressed their desire to see this included in the settlement.The Missouri Bike Federation has put together a form on their website where in two minutes you can send a note to all three parties (Nixon, the DNR, and Ameren) asking them to keep the railroad corridor at the top of the negotiating list - if you'd like to see the trail reach KC, please take a couple of minutes to do this.In the meantime, some of the towns along the route to KC, such as Pleasant Hill, have already started to develop a trail system that will fill in gaps between the Katy Trail and Kansas City.So it's not a sure thing yet, but Katy-to-KC is looking more likely all the time!

There is one important thing that everyone seems to forget about this line. MOC (Missouri Central) only owns the line to Pleasant Hill, MO. The line north of that (railroad west), through Lee's Summit, Raytown, and onto Leeds, is still owned by the Union Pacific Railroad. It is highly unlikely they would ever part with this 25 some odd miles, as it is a win, win, win situation for them at this time. They win now, because the line is being leased to two utilities (fiber optic and water). The second win is by keeping it the way it is, they prevent another railroad from getting the line if they put it up for abandonment. The third win is, if the line is, a very highly unlikely event, should ever be reopened someone else would have to foot the bill. There also could be a very slight, and extremely remote chance UP would reopen it, if they ever opt to double track the main line. In short, the line between Pleasant Hill, and Kansas City, is owened by the UP, not the MOC.

As I understand it, there is an alternate plan to get from KC to Pleasant Hill that involves securing the easements/Right-of-way that would not be dependent on getting another rail line. Though that may prove to be quite a challenge, there are plans being made to do this.

Step 1 is to get the Ameren Right-of-way from Windsor to Pleasant Hill, and apparantly there was some funding that was set aside in prior years to construct the route to KC via a railbanked line. I would think that securing the Ameren Line would at least allow for opening up the route to Pleasant Hill from Windsor, which would at least give someone coming from KC a much shorter trip.

steve k,

you are correct - i know Pleasant Hill has a bike route in the works for their town, and there are many completed, and planned bike routes in and around KC. The MetroGreen group has detailed plans - http://www.marc.org/metrogreen/

I can get you from KC to Clinton on mostly state hiways and county roads. You would avoid the "high speed" roads for the most part.

I am not familiar with KC, so you’re on your own getting to Belton and MO 58. This is where the KS MS 150 has started in years past. If you can get to Holmes in KC, it turns to county road D just south of 150, then you pick up MO 58 (east), through Belton to county road J (south)to Hubach Hill Rd (east). Then you pick up MO 58 at Mo 291. Take MO 58 (east) through Pleasant Hill, Strasburg, Kingsville to Holden. Pick up MO 131 (south) to MO 2, jog west a little to County road B (south). Here you have a couple of options:

1)Follow B to Urich and pick up County Road K (south out of Urich) to MO 18. Go east on 18 to Clinton.

2)Turn onto County Road N (east towards Blairstown) go to Norris and take County Road O (south) to the outer road just north of MO 7. I would not recommend MO 7. It is still a divided 70mph hiway at that point.

2b) You could follow N to MO 13 (south), but this is a very busy road as well. I have been on it before but it was pretty scary.

If you have access to a DeLorme Missouri Atlas & Gazetter (under $20 at Wally-World), you can follow these directions pretty closely. I would avoid MO 2 between MO 131 and MO 13 as the hills are KILLER. My wife and I did them on a 105 (actual temp) day during the MS150 a few years ago (not pretty).

PM if you have questions. I have ridden nearly all of the route I described.

Tom

Thanks for the route tom I am planning a trip for june ,from OP start on a sunday morning less traffic . first ill take mission road south at some point ill hook up to your route thanks .