Biking Missoula's Riverfront Trail System

Missoula, Montana is bisected by the Clark Fork River, and several parks can be found along the river.  The Riverfront Trail connects these parks as it runs for several miles on both sides of the river.

The trail is the corridor of the former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific Railroad, better known as the Milwaukee Road. The Montana portions of the railroad were built between 1906 and 1909

A convenient trailhead for accessing the various trails is McCormick Park, located west of Orange (also called Stephens farther south) and just south of Broadway and the river.  The park also has athletic fields,  an aquatic building, a skateboard park, and nearby is the baseball stadium.

From the large parking lot, I rode the Riverfront Trail east through parks and past the old Missoula train station and the University of Montana football stadium, all nicely landscaped as seen here...

The trail alternates between crushed gravel and asphalt until you reach the Kim Williams Nature Trail after about a mile. This trail continues east along the river for about 4 miles and degrades to loose gravel and rock outcroppings.  A road bike is not recommended here...

When the Kim Williams Trail ends, a single-track continues and a fork in the track offers two options.  I took the left fork and found myself riding along the active railroad tracks until it ended at a road.  I came back on the other single-track which climbed 25 feet up onto a ridge and I enjoyed this bit of mountain biking -- a narrow track with tall weeds on both sides, complicated by a drop off of 25 feet just 2 feet to my right, and a fence line on my left with constant shotgun blasts from a skeet shooting club.

Heading back, I detoured into the university campus using their bike lanes, then returned to the Riverfront Trail, crossed the river on a bike bridge, and explored that trail which ended several times requiring detours around private property to return to the river. You pass more parks, one of which had a large play area called Dragon Hollow and also a working carousel.

When that trail ended, I crossed the river on another bike bridge.  As I reached the baseball stadium parking lot, I saw a trail around the lot, and it took me to this round-about.  The post in the center said MILE 0 -- and trails led off in all four directions. To the left was McCormick Park and back to where I started.

To the right, was the Milwaukee Line Trail, which I discovered only goes a half mile or so but was in the process of being extended.  Heading straight ahead (south) was the Bitterroot Branch Trail which ran a mile and a half or so along an active trail line, through a light industry area with many road crossings.

 It was good for adding a bit of additional mileage to my total but had zero scenic value. It is possible to ride streets for a bit to reach another segment of this trail, but I was already over 20 miles and out of time.