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« on: April 26, 2015, 12:37:14 am »
-- 170 miles or so of the Katy Trail to New Franklin, MO. From there, cut NW across Missouri to get to Iowa border at Blanchard, where we pick up the...
-- Wabash Trace Trail into Council Bluffs, Iowa. 63 more miles of trail!
I've done just that. Those 2 trails are good but FYI, NW Missouri (okay, ALL of Missouri) is VERY hilly once you leave the Katy Trail and the Missouri river bottom. You will want the lowest gear ratios you can get on your bikes. A 22t chain ring is no joke. Proper length crank arms are important too for such endless and steep hills. (really riding in the Rockies was much easier).
As someone suggested, the trails across Illinois (I&M and the Henipin canal path) to the Quad Cities, then across Iowa may be a much more enjoyable route. There are 44 years of Ragbrai routes you could follow in reverse across Iowa. Just keep off the main highways like US34, US30, US20 and US6 near the bigger cities. Iowa has roads nearly every mile e-w and n-s with about 20% paved. Most don't show up on the regular maps and mapping software/sites don't show road surfaces. Large scale maps will show great roads with nearly no traffic. That's what Ragbrai typically follows. From Davenport, take 130 to Tipton, then west to Solon, then Ely. Or from Davenport, take 22 to Muscatine for some riding along the mighty Mississippi, then west on G28 to the shards of the Hoover trail. The Cedar Valley Nature trail from Ely to Cedar Falls is quite nice. Then across the rest of Iowa heading west to north west. That route will avoid most all the hills in Iowa (NE, SW, SCentral).
About the Katy Trail. The rail trail is on the north side of the Missouri river. Most of the towns are on the south side of the river. To get to those towns requires a ~2 mile dash across old narrow bridges in traffic. The tour books recommend calling a cab. Sure. Fit 3 bikes in the trunk? I always just waited for a clear gap in traffic and rode as fast as I could across and I always got caught in traffic.