St. Charles, MO

A short drive west of St Louis, the town of St Charles has the distinction of being Missouri's first state capitol. Located on the Missouri River, it was founded in the late 1700s by a French Canadian fur trader and became an important center of commerce. The famous frontiersman, Daniel Boone became one of St. Charles first settlers and was later appointed magistrate of the county. In May of 1804 Lewis and Clark stopped here to purchase the last of their supplies before continuing on their epic journey. In fact, St. Charles is the home base for the replica boats of the Discovery Expedition.

The historic downtown retains its colonial charm with its brick buildings, sidewalks and narrow streets. However some of the charm is lost with the crush of tourist traffic. This area would benefit from a designation as a car-free zone. There is a nearly empty, huge parking lot devoted to Katy Trail users where the crowds could park and become pedestrians.

St. Charles is the current eastern terminus of the Katy Trail, America's longest Rails-to-Trails path. I say current because according to my guidebook, published in 1996, it is set to continue on to Machens, Mo and from there meet up with a network of trails coming from St Louis. I can confirm that in the past 11 years no progress has been realized. Much to Owen's chagrin we discovered this while attempting to make our way to Machens without benefit of a crushed gravel path.
















One meltdown (literally, as it was in the mid-90s and extremely humid) and 4 or so miles later we turned around to try our luck in the westerly direction. But not before discovering a fantastic network of trails hidden in the riparion region astride the southern banks of the Misssouri River. Subsequent to another 15 miles and a couple buckets worth of sweat we called it quits and headed to the Trails End Brewery for some cool beverages and cheesecake.