New ways to roll down the Mississippi River by bicycle

K2M bicycling team

The roads and trails along Mississippi River are gaining new, and well deserved, attention as destinations for bicycle touring.

Earlier in May, the US Bicycle Route System added a 150-mile stretch of trail and road —  USBRS 45 — that connected Hastings, Minnesota, to the Iowa border.

Now a team of bicyclists, above, from Tennessee has just finished and made available a 155-mile route from the Kentucky border to Memphis as part of the Mississippi River Corridor.

Add to that the “Bicycling Guide to the Mississippi River Trail” written by cyclist Bob Robinson in 2008 and the online maps for the 3,000-mile long Mississippi River Trail, and we have the ability to experience Old Man River in the same way Mark Twain did in “Life on the Mississippi.”

The new route — dubbed K2M — avoids high traffic roads and sticks to the Old River Road (Highway 181). Stopping at diners and general stores along the way, the inaugural group of 11 bicycling pioneers spent 2 days to complete the route.

The route passes through the Chickasaw Wildlife Refuge and Meeman-Shelby Forest, finishing at Greenbelt Park in Memphis.

Organizer Wade Archer told the Memphis Flyer blog:

“This route is for those bicyclists who have a bit of adventure in them and want to get out in the open country for a few days. I won’t say it’s easy, but it’s very doable, especially if you can get enough friends together to arrange for a support vehicle to tag along behind.”

Click for interactive map link

Maps, photos and videos are all online at the K2M website.

As I reported earlier in May, the USBRS 45 rolls out from Hastings and rolls through 3 state parks to the Iowa border. The Minnesota Department of Transportation plans to include the state’s entire  800 miles of roadways and bike paths along the Mississippi River into USBRS 45.

Long-range plans are for USBRS 45 to roll out all the way from the source of the Mississippi to its mouth in New Orleans. The nonprofit Adventure Cycling Association is coordinating plans to make this happen with the various states and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, which handles route designations.