St. Louis by Bike

To take advantage of the wonderful weather (50+ degrees and sunny) and keep up my training program, I decided to do a nice long bike ride today. My goal was somewhere between an hour to an hour and a half, but I had no real destination. I kind of wanted to get away from Forest Park, as I've done most of my running there lately. So I thought back to this one dreamlike stretch I rode late summer up near Florrisant and decided to head that way again. Where to go from there? I figured I'd make a loop anywhere up there and come back thru Ladue.

So I opened a map and looked for a route of mostly thru-streets that would be less busy and still take me past those two points of interest. Now, in my five years here I must say that I know the Wash U "bubble" pretty well and then I know patchy areas downtown, in CWE, little bit in South County, and some out by Ballwin. Not much more. I have very few notions about a lot of the smaller towns nearby, and I don't know where there are "good neighborhoods" and "bad neighborhoods." So I was planning my route looking at a street map with no idea what these streets hold.

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I knew that heading up early in my ride would take me thru a less-than-ideal part of town where we've done some community service events. No problem, because here I was still on a main road. I hit the stretch of Lucas & Hunt that I wanted, going past a large cemetary with a low stone fence and a number of small, old, but nice-looking houses. After that I was flying blind, riding thru Overland and a number of towns with California-esque names like Bevery Hills and Belle Ridge. This whole midsection of the ride was interesting, as I'd be going along very suburban-looking small homes and then suddenly on the next block I'd be riding thru a very run-down area. The contrast between any two neighboring blocks was striking. But I can't say I was upset or scared or anything. I was close to being alone: very few cars, even on the "busier" streets. I made it out to Olivette and headed down Warson into a very different area toward Ladue, where the lots are expansive and the houses are set back far from the road and hide behind natural landscaping. Coming thru Ladue and Clayton and U City toward home were the only trafficked parts of the ride. I was out for just under 90 minutes, on the move most of it. The ride felt great, the scenery was pleasant, and the weather was superb. After it all, my bike got a much-needed bath from the "commuting filth" of my daily rides to campus.