Route Description

Above Missouri to Mississippi. Top Mississippi to Louisiana. Bottom Iowa to Missouri.

MORMONS, MARK TWAIN, MISSISSIPPI, AND MUCH MORE Although titled the Great Rivers South Bicycle Route, you'll hardly ride any long stretches along rivers. Instead, you'll cross many of the great rivers that feed into the Mississippi. The route can be ridden from mid-spring to late fall, and even into the winter on the southern portion. Due to changing local conditions, it is difficult to predict any major wind patterns. High summer temperatures and humidity can cause discomfort if you're not used to either. Tornadoes are common in Illinois and Missouri. They occur mostly in May and June. Starting in Muscatine, Iowa, you ride on the west side of the river, beside the Mark Twain National Wildlife Refuge. You'll particularly enjoy the 11-mile stretch between Nauvoo and Hamilton, where you'll be alongside the Mississippi River. After crossing the bridge into Hannibal, Missouri, you will see a town most famous as the boyhood home of Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain). This town has tourist sites based on characters and places from his books, e.g., Tom Sawyer's fence, Becky Thatcher's home, Grant's Drug Store, and Mark Twain's Cave. Heading southward, you'll encounter hilly farm country. If you want, you can take a side trip into St. Louis to see the famous Gateway Arch. Be prepared to use your granny gears off and on until Cape Girardeau, where you cross back into Illinois. This means more farm country, and then you'll cross the Ohio River by ferry into Kentucky. You'll be using your granny gears again, and then you'll enjoy a very pleasant ride along The Trace Road in the Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area, an expanse of woods where buffalo roam. No commercial vehicles are allowed on this road, and a 45 mph speed limit is strictly enforced. The route on the Natchez Trace follows a two-lane road in a national park that continues through Alabama and Mississippi, with no commercial traffic or services permitted. All services, except for occasional campgrounds, are off the route in nearby towns. You'll encounter fellow bicyclists and enjoy many hiking trails, boardwalks, waterfalls, and historical sites along the Trace. At the end of the Trace, you can visit the antebellum homes in Natchez, Mississipi. After that, it's a long day's ride through the rural countryside into St. Francisville, Louisiana. If you ride the spur route to Baton Rouge, you'll reach the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport for transportation home. TerrainThe route starts out flat as it follows the floodplain of the Mississippi River. After Hannibal, Missouri, the route becomes more difficult, with numerous steep, roller-coaster hills the norm thoughout the Ozark Mountains in Missouri. The southern part of Illinois is generally rolling. Then it's back to the roller-coaster roads in Kentucky and Tennessee until you reach the Natchez Trace. The Trace begins with a slight downhill and then levels off with rolling-flat terrain for the remainder of the route through Mississippi and Louisiana. LogisticsServices are generally plentiful in towns along the route. Missouri state park campgrounds are superb, with gorgeous grounds, showers, and even laundromats. Illinois state park campgrounds are not of the same caliber and may have outhouses and no showers. The convenience stores in the southern states often have "southern cookin' foods" that you would normally not find up north.