I tried out a new bike trail over the weekend - the River des Peres Greenway. River des Peres is an 18 mile long "metropolitan river" that serves as a drainage channel for the city's sewer and storm water runoff (much like Brush Creek in Kansas City). Technically River des Peres starts in my neighborhood, but after years and years of flooding, about half of it was confined to sewer pipes running underground.
So in order to get to the trail, I took Metrolink to the Shrewsbury stop - the trail begins right across the street. Everything is brand new with lots of signage, lush landscaping, and even a few pocket parks with water and restrooms.
The only bad thing about a "greenway," as opposed to a rail trail, is that it can have fairly steep inclines when you're passing over or under cross streets and some designers can get a little carried away with unnecessary curves. I stuck with the "straight" portion of the greenway that ran alongside River des Peres all the way down past I-55 and the ICL factory, but next time I'll have to check out some of the spurs branching off the trail and see where they lead.
