I’ve been wanting to travel on the Mississippi Riverfront Trail for some time now. It starts in downtown St. Louis just north of the Gateway Arch on Lenore K Sullivan drive. The trail follows the Mississippi river on the west side nearly 12 miles to the Chain of Rocks bridge. The path is in red below.
I started at the south end near the arch on my unicycle and went north for 6 miles. The path is interesting having the city quickly transition to heavy industrial and then more open.
About 3 miles into the ride, I came across the Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing Visitor’s Center. This center celebrates a Mary Meachum, a free black woman, leading a group of slaves from Missouri to Illinois in an attempt at freedom. They didn’t make it across before being caught. The slaves belonged to a famous St. Louis man, Henry Shaw. Because of Mr. Shaw, this was news and documented well in the newspapers. The center was a great friendly place to view the river and see some history.
From here, I had a fantastic view where the Chain of Rocks canal comes back into the Mississippi river.
I stopped to get a unicycle selfie near one of the trail’s signs.
After turning around to head back to the start, I got a fantastic view of downtown St.Louis and the arch!
Finally, one of the best things about this ride is being close to the railroad tracks. I spent a long amount of time watching a train being unloaded and onto a barge!
Watching a train unload grain.
Hogan Haake