STL Metro

[chort]

I know there are some folks on here from STL.. do you ever go riding on my side of the river? The east side!?!?!? DH and I are always on the MCT trails --- we have matching Treks.. Mine is the road and his is the mountain.. Holla at us if you see us!

[singletrackmind]

We do a lot of the Trailnet ( trailnet.org ) rides, many are across the bridge. We also do the Arch to Alton, Alton to Grafton, Grafton to Pere Maquette and the hills there, MCT trails, etc. There's some nice stuff over your way.

If I see you I will holler. I'm one of those weird people that generally wave or nod at everyone anyways.

[chort]

Yup- I'm the same way.. I generally say hi or "nod" to everyone!! We just did Lewis and Clark (route 3) to the ARch and back and we noticed that people are much more friendlier in IL! If you haven't done that ride - I thought it was awesome! Especially going over the old Chain of Rocks bridge.

I want to start doing up North more... (Grafton, Alton, etc. )

We usually don't do the trailnet rides.. .. but we'll probably catch one soon!

[singletrackmind]

Yeah, now that they've made the canal bridge safer going that way's much better than it used to be. I can sometimes be found playing on the fire truck (chain of rocks bridge) for a short time on Tuesday evenings.

Fahrradtour und Augustfest is the next IL Trailnet ride, August 5th, starting in Mascoutah during the German Heritage Festival. Routes are 16, 26, 37 or 50 miles for this one. I've been a volunteer to help with registration on some rides. That way the ride is free for me plus a card for another free ride later. All sorts of riders from very slow to quite fast. I find them enjoyable.

[bike4ever]

Try this Trailnet ride tomorrow: http://www.trailnet.org/calendar.php...mageField.y=11

It should be fairly easy going through the city. If you do the ride, stop by and say hello. I'll be there for the Alpine Shop with my tools.

[chort]

Yeah, now that they've made the canal bridge safer going that way's much better than it used to be. I can sometimes be found playing on the fire truck (chain of rocks bridge) for a short time on Tuesday evenings.

Fahrradtour und Augustfest is the next IL Trailnet ride, August 5th, starting in Mascoutah during the German Heritage Festival. Routes are 16, 26, 37 or 50 miles for this one. I've been a volunteer to help with registration on some rides. That way the ride is free for me plus a card for another free ride later. All sorts of riders from very slow to quite fast. I find them enjoyable.

OH!!! So that's how you can do the rides without paying!! lol! That one sounds good!

Try this Trailnet ride tomorrow: http://www.trailnet.org/calendar.php...mageField.y=11

It should be fairly easy going through the city. If you do the ride, stop by and say hello. I'll be there for the Alpine Shop with my tools.

AHHH! I'd love to do this if we find someone to watch the kids this weekend... If so, we'll definitley stop and say 'hello!"

[singletrackmind]

And then after you say hello there come over to registration and say hi too. I'll be the frazzled looking chick trying to register lots of people and keep close tabs on the kid all at the same time.

[bike4ever]

singletrackmind - we definitely need to meet tomorrow. If you are handling registration at a Trailnet event, then I'm sure we've met before. This is weird.

[singletrackmind]

I'm shy and not that good at conversation but yeah, we've either prolly met before or at least waved our hellos. Well, see you tomorrow, at any rate it'll be good to meet another dirt girl. (and I'm only a little weird )

[lattae]

The MCT trails are great. I've been out riding in that area for a long time, and put in a lot of miles weekly in the Edwardsville area. The trailnet rides are great too. The upcoming Macoustah ride is nice and flat. Only thing you have to look out for this time of year are the Japanese beetles hitting your helmet. My friend and I have done the Hostelling International rides too including a couple of the century routes.. very well marked and great snacks and lunch provided. We also did the 3 stooges ride which started in Lebanon Il.. we have wonderful supported rides on the Il side... we're very fortunate to have all the trails in our area and thanks to Jerry Kane and the MCT folks for all their hard work over the years to provide this to us...

[chort]

Well, I'm sure I'll meet you guys some time!!! The trailnet ride was a no-go for me this past weekend.

lattae- do you know of any rides coming up that are hilly? I need to start doing hills!!!!!!!!

[bike4ever]

A nice hill ride will be this Saturday (7/28) beginning at 8am. The ride is a MS training ride sponsored by the Alpine Shop in Kirkwood. I intentionally make this ride hilly to prepare folks for Columbia.

[singletrackmind]

Bike4ever, it was cool to meet you on Saturday. Hope you had a good mtb ride, it was a good day for it.

[lattae]

Trailnet will have a hilly ride on Aug 26th , tour of the little hills.. I haven't done that ride before but that may be a good one to get in some hill work. They'll have the peach pedal coming up at Mills Apple Farm later August but don't think there's many hills for that ride, it is a nice ride though..our group did it last year. HI will have the Beer and Brat ride century coming up,, don't know the terrain of that ride though. Have any of you gals done the tour of the little hills before?

[singletrackmind]

I've done the Peach Pedal but not the Tour of the Little Hills. We're going to try to make the Peach Pedal again this year......and perhaps the Little Hills too. Operation Stream Clean is the same weekend as the Little Hills, so we'll see.