The Trans Missouri Trail - The "TMOT"
 

Us Missouri adventurers are working on a trail system through our state. Our plain is to provide a few different routes through the state both North/South and East/West. Whether you are heading down to jump on the TAT or just passing through, we hope to send you on a good ride either way!

The first North/South I routed hands off to the Trans Arkansas Trail(TART) in Blue Eye, MO at the MO/AR border. It's beautiful Ozark lake country down there!

GPS Files

Bash3r's TMOT South Track : Download Here : From O'Fallon, MO to Blue Eye, MO : 423 miles
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/184772/GPS/BashersTMOT.jpg


BigDog's TMOT West Track : Download Here : From Chester, IL to Blue Eye, MO : 481 miles
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/184772/GPS/BigDogsTMOT.jpg


Ride Report: Our TMOT South Trip 5/20-22/11.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=692869

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3548/...532499c1_z.jpg


There's still work to do going north. If you are coming through the state and need some help routing.. just let me know.

In! :clap

Good start on the website, bash3r! BTW, is there any point on the MO-IA border that the IA trails begin? Daughter is attending Truman in Kirksville, and it's been a plan of mine to go looking up there for some gravel routes around that area. I see a lot of gravel county roads that start just a few hundred yards off of Hwy. 63, so I know there is some potential riding up there.

I have been working on a Trans MO Trail all winter. It is a total of 700 miles. It starts in Athens Missouri and ends in Blue Eye. Some of the highlights:
Two covered bridges
The Soldier In The Field
two or three swinging bridges
three historic mills

I have incorporated the first 125 miles into a planned ride next weekend (http://www.rideforum.net/forum/viewt...p?p=8696#p8696) Once ridden I will have ridden over 75% of the route (if you include driving over 85%) at one time or another.

I hope later on this winter I'll be able to ride the entire route. I'll post it when I do.

Great.. we'd love to see your route. There are some great gems in MO to see! But coming from a Jayhawk Fan, seeing is believing for us Tigers in the Show Me state!:rofl

And for some of us Tigers in Arkansas too. I am for two teams, Mizzou and any team playing against Arkansas. Did I mention I am a transplant?

BigDogs TMOT Chester, Illinois to Blue Eye
 

I put together this little ride that starts on a levee on the Missouri side of the Mississippi river at Chester, Illinois---and ends up in Big Eye, Arkansas--the start of the Arkansas Trans trail. The gps file is below.

If you ride it--keep these notes.

The track log I made shows 481 miles in length--however there are a lot of straight lines on the track log---so it will be quite a bit longer than that----maybe close to 600 miles.

It starts on a gravel levee and drops down into a valley and crosses a very old one lane wooden bridge that few people know about--it was there last year.

I've dropped many waypoints along the route---take note of each--some, such as the many spring waypoints may be a little off the route---try to find them if you like. It may be one I've been to--it may be one I found on a topo map (and haven't been to) and it could be really neat--it could be on private property (stay out)--it could be dried up--and it could be beautiful. It's an adventure.

You'll do many creek fords----some are not do-able at high water. A couple you'll have to route around quite a distance if the water is deep. The Sheldon ford is a different animal everytime I do it---after every rain it changes dramatically.

You'll ride by many old grist mills and the glade top trail and cross on a ferry at Bull Shoals Lake.

You'll ride stuff that could be ridden on a gold wing---and some pretty gnarly stuff---I personally wouldn't take a large bike on this ride---a 950 KTM would be the only big bike I would recommend----a KLR or smaller would be much more fun and the riding would be much easier.

The route goes thru the tram trail near Van Buren---probably the most difficult riding besides the river fords.

The riding near the end at Blue eye---may not be so great---but I got nauseated when the route got to close to Branson.

You'll have plenty of places for gas and food along the way---I'm not going to get into campsites or motels---your on your own to do as you like.

Have fun with this----I have over 100 springs marked in Missouri---but just put a few on here near the route.

Hope you enjoy it :D

http://www.bigdogadventures.com/imag...rassyTrail.JPG

map overview
 

Thanks BigDog!!

I'm throwing your TMOT in the master gps file. Some of the other routes I'm looking at through the National Forests are yours, and this file sure will help me out!

This will be very cool Bash3r. I'm looking forward to what you come up with.

Mark, this community can always count on you. I'm looking forward to getting your gpx catalog online. To whip this file out on a whim leaves me wanting to know what else you have in there.

Yes! Once we get a few clean routes, we'll post the official routes on DSM! We'll have a few different routes depending on where folks are headed...

I'm thinking the TIT should pick up right where Mark's TMOT starts :thumb Then that route will hand us off at the TWAT (Trans Wisconsin Trail) We got a lot of riding to do!

A bunch of upper midwest stuff was posted the last few days. You should take a look. I'm so excited about all the great data that is finding it's way onto the site. I just need more time to ride! If I get my wife a side car rig so she can haul the youngster and all three of us and hit the trail. One of these days she will see the wisdom of this idea :norton

. . . and further connect to the WMDSA or the UPAT and back down into Indiana and on from there.

Yeah, tracks very similar if not identical to these were just posted on dualsportmaps. Those are the ones I wanted you to look at Bash3r. There is also a Trans-Minnesota Trail that is worth looking at.

Crafty, who is posting my tracks to your web site?

Edit: Let me explain my concern. I am careful to update my tracks as changes take place to keep them legit (MVUM, land use changes, etc). I only continue with this thought in this thread because it will be of interest to all of us that post tracks. Once a route is republished by someone else on a site out of visibility or control of the person responsible for the file, those changes can be lost, people can violate inadvertently, and the author gets slammed for putting out a bad track or one that does not abide by the rules. Case in point - a forest superintendent I coordinated a track with contacted me the other day to let me know that new restrictions are in place that required me to alter the track. I made the changes, took down the old file, and put up the new one to get everyone legit. I don't want to belabor this in the thread, so I'll get with you off line. I don't know that it is a good idea for anyone to be able to post someone else's track without references to the source and a warning to verify with the source.

I also notice that someone took the tracks from the WMDSA, renamed them "Trans-Michigan Adventure Trail", and posted them there. Kind of hard to keep track of that once it is casually renamed. :dunno

Kknuth

Take a look at them, if they are yours I can transfer over to you if you have a login. It's easy to do. In fact, he asked me today if how he could transfer them to someone else. Perhaps he meant you.

I prefer to think of it as OUR site. :)