Reply to Kansas City start

What is the best route to bike from Kansas City to the trail head? Also does anyone know of a good bike shop in Kansas City to rent bikes suitable for riding the trail with panniers etc?

Karen, This subject has come up before. I tried to search for it, but had no luck. Anyway, traversing the KC metro area by bicycle is not an easy thing to do. I would be happy to research a route for you and possibly offer other logistic support. Feel free to contact me at dwalc [at] netzero [dot] com. When are you planing your trip?
BTW, you live in a beautiful part of the world! I spent three days riding around the San Juan Islands on a tour in 2007.

I screwed up my own email address!
Dwalc [at] netzero [dot] net

Hi Karen,

KC has several rivers, interstates, and hills with only so many bridges allowing passage thru the city. If biking to the Katy's west-end trailhead in Clinton from KC is the intent here, consider shuttling to the south side first, where the back roads and/or MO-7 will take you there fairly safely.

Both the KC and JC bike clubs here list bikeshops on their websites, below.
http://www.kcbc.org/shops
http://www.jcbikeclub.org/

I agree with the previous poster in that it seems the best path would be to get yourself to Harrisonville somehow outside of biking it yourself, and then take 7 down to Clinton. If Sedalia is your intent, however, you can look into the routes the MS150 run out of KC has used (that's its usual destination).

In a way, it's still a good deal of riding in traffic (38 miles from the 71/7 interchange to Clinton), so hopefully you are very used to it and are fit enough to do it. I would also plan on staying in Clinton.

The state also has a good resource in the biking/walking road maps that the DOT produces.

This is more daunting than I expected. It makes me ask whether it is reasonable to plan to fly to either St. Louis or Kansas City, rent bikes, do the trail, return to the rental city by trail and fly home? Has anyone done this? Or have a clear idea how to manage it?
Thanks, Karen

Whoops! I meant "return to rental city by train. . ."

I am on the KC end of the trail and have done business with several local KC area bike shops....Olathe, Overland Park, Liberty, etc. and am not aware that any have bike rentals.

You'd probably be better served by renting from a bike shop along the Katy...Rocheport has rentals as well as Defiance on the eastern end. Maybe St. Chuck has a bike rental shop...check this site for more info about businesses there. You might consider flying to St. Louis with lodging in St. Charles with someone who will pick you up at the airport and take you to St. Chuck. The Lococococo B&B does that sort of thing to my knowledge with a stay at their place. A good deal, but she is rather vague on what the rate is.(doesnt like to post it here.....would rather you call her than let everyone know what the tab is) Or.....rent a car.... or try to arrange a Uhaul pickup with a drop in Clinton or St. Chuck after you get your bikes rented.

Hi Karen. It's probably been done. Yet, I suspect most arrivals have brought their own bikes, and have shuttled to the trail rather than riding their bikes to it. I’ve met folks on trail who’ve shuttled to it, but do not recall any posts about riding to it, although it’s been done by locals and visitors.

Assuming you’re bringing your packed panniers with you, you might buy a used bike outfitted for the trail just as easily as renting one. You can check with some of the local ones to find out. A few shops on the trail also rent bikes for casual riding (phone numbers this website).

Even the cross-country riders who use the Katy come to the trail from south of the city or from around it where it’s illegal to ride on the Interstates passing thru it. Thus, bicycle bridge passage here is limited, but possible if riders know their way around well during the daytime. Some of these passable roads do not have shoulders, and the traffic can be heavy with the construction and orange barrels here now.

If flying into the KCI airport with the intent to bike ride to a westside Katy trailhead, I’d be tempted to shuttle over to Leavenworth, KS from KCI, just west of it, buy a used trail bike at a shop there, and ride south on KS-7/10/69 (which have shoulders) to KS-68. Then turn east; KS-68 turns into MO-2 to Harrisonville. From there, south a short distance on secondary Hwy-71 (with shoulder) to MO-7 (has shoulder), which will take you directly to the Clinton trailhead at MO-7/52. That’s at least 100 miles of heavy road traffic to ride fairly safely. The Katy will look great after that! :) :)

Other Katy trailheads accessible from different starting points would include: Sedalia (112-miles from KCI at least) and Rocheport (134-miles at least). Apparently you like to tour.

It has definitely been done before, many times, but of course requires quite a bit of planning. As JD pointed out, many fly-in riders bring their own bikes, so at least they don't have to worry about how to get to a rental place and how to return the rental bike. But of course there are plenty of other issues to deal with when transporting a bike by air.

You may find it much easier to fly into St Louis rather than KC. The St Louis airport is less than 10 miles from the Katy Trail, whereas KCI is about 100 miles from the trail. Also Amtrak is pretty easy to reach from the St Louis airport, via "Metrolink" (which may or may not matter to you, depending on how rail figures into your plans).

One idea: Katy Bike Rental in Defiance, which is on the St Louis end of the trail, does both bike rental AND shuttling, so they might be able to help you out. Suggest you talk to them anyway just to help you figure out what your most feasible options are (this time of year the shop might be closed on weekdays): 636-987-2673

If you are considering the St Louis airport, be sure to look at this web page (which also includes a shuttle listing): getting from St Louis Airport to the Katy Trail.

Sure it takes a lot of work and planning to pull off a trip like this, but that's part of the adventure, right? Good luck!

If you take amtrak from Kansas City to Warrensburg, then it is only 35 miles of road hell you have to contend with.

Better yet. If you take amtrak from KC to Sedalia. Then it is 35 miles of riding pleasure on the katy trail to get from Sedalia to Clinton.

Seriously, if your coming into KCI, your best bet is to take the train to Sedalia and then ride the 35 miles on the Katy down to Clinton. 35 miles on the Katy versus 35 - 100 miles of road riding on busy roads. It really is a no brainer.

Oops. One more thing. I believe the kcata bus 129 connecting the airport to downtown KC (amtrak station) has a bike rack. Double check kcata.org

I really appreciate all the comments. This trip is much more complicated than I thought it would be, but there are a few lights at the end of the tunnel based on the posted suggestions. Thanks to all of you. Karen

One thing I must keep in mind is that bicyclists definitely come into these MO cities to rest and refresh, although I don’t know how they do it in the bigger ones. On their bikes? I know of one cross-country pair that come to KC from the Katy at Sedalia. Most such riders will enjoy KC’s Plaza and the more recent Power Light Entertainment District.

While on this subject, I wonder about the possibility of any bicycling hospitality sources in this area. Aren’t they the no-fee volunteer services that will help touring bicyclists get around, or give them a place to bathe, eat and stay? Recently, I’ve read about such bike-friendly services on the crazyguyonabike.com and warmshowers.org sites, something most viewers here have already done. One cross-county journalist type went for hundreds of miles before paying for overnight lodging.

Even tho bicyclists are expected to execute most of their planning on their own, including pulling themselves out of any unexpected jams whatsoever, these hospitalities could be nice to have occasionally. Most of these services seem to be offered by committed bicyclists who like to help other touring ones. Might they be worth checking into in this area?