Mission Endure #80: Hitting the Trail

I took the bike out for a spin on the local bike trail this afternoon. It was a great ride!

Goshen Bike Trail near the O’Fallon, Illinois trailhead

We are fortunate to live a half mile from the Goshen Bike Trail. It is a 19.5 mile trail that is the southern connector spur to the Madison County Trail system, linking us up to 135 miles of paved bike trails that connect the St Louis Metro East area. A map of the MCT Trail system is below.

I rode for about 50 minutes and covered about 15 miles miles. We live in Illinois, so it was pretty flat with only a few hills on the ride. Here is a map of today’s ride:

If you haven’t been on the Goshen Bike Trail it is very well planned. St Louis Metro East is full of farm land and the trail only crosses some minor farm roads. The trail was constructed from an old Terminal RailRoad rail bed that ran from St Louis to Springfield, Illinois and makes for a very flat, straight, and beautiful trail. There are a few former railroad tressle bridges that have been converted into smaller trail bridges such as in my photo above and a couple of other bridges that cross over major roads and highways. All in all it is a beautiful ride. They opened the trail about 5 years ago to link O’Fallon up to the larger Madison County Trail system. I rode at noon today and I only saw three other bikers and no walkers. If you go for a ride after work you will typically see lots of people on the trail. There are a few bike shops in O’Fallon, and Wednesday evenings seem to be when they have their large group rides, so the trail is congested on most Wednesday evenings, but other days and during the early afternoon it is pretty empty. This was my first ride on the trail after a few months lay off and it was good to be back. I plan to make it a daily event until the weather gets too cold to ride.