How many of you use the Line Creek Trail and get to the north end, see this view, and go "when the heck is this going to go up to Barry Road?" Thanks to easements donated by Barth Real Estate and an ownership group controlled ny MD Management, this gap is going to be gone real soon.
The final gap in the Line Creek Trail is out to bid. I don't know if I ever had a project where I can't wait to start tearing stuff up and start fixing it. This segment of trail is going to be one of the top two segments of trail within Kansas City. Starting at the end of the concrete, the trail will curve to the right and then back to the left right along the banks of Line Creek. The trail will transition from the low floodplain area to the high bank. This picture is about 500 feet due northeast of the trail end and is looking to the southwest at the trail corridor.
The trail runs on about 1800 feet of the old Kansas City to St. Joe Interurban Railroad railbed. This is looking south about a quarter mile north of the trail end.
As you can see in the pictures, the biggest threat facing the valley right now is very ambitious beavers. After the trail is built we will have to wait and see if the native Missouri Redneck still inhabits the area and will remove these anti-tree varmints.
It then winds around the banks of the former Drennon Lake till it gets to the old house south of Barry Road and Line Creek Parkway. The picture below is the view of the trail as it moves away from the old Interurban and moves to the East. Note the topography through the trees and how Ozark it appears.
This view is southwest along the south side of old Drennon Lake.
This shot was taken from the convergence of the north and west sides of Drennon Lake and looking north. Again note the relief.
This picture is the dam for the upper siltation basin. The folks who built Drennon Lake were smart enough to realize that if they were going to get people to pay to swim, camp, and fish in their lake that they needed to make sure the water was clean and silt-free so they built a lake upstream that would fill in and the cleaner water would enter the lake (ahem novel idea Weatherby Lake). I don't think you can make it out but at the far end of the dam in the picture is an abandoned upside down BMW. The first time I went out there, I called KCPD and they went out and looked at it and reported that the car had been stolen for some years, they knew about its location, and no one ever wanted to come get it and tow it away.
This is the overview looking south at the silt basin and will be the first good glimpse for trail users of the awesomeness of the area. This is only about 500-800' south of Barry Road.
The trail will go underneath an existing reinforced concrete box culvert and connect to the sidepath along the west side of Line Creek Parkway (which will soon connect to the Route 152 Trail).
Here is the map of the Line Creek Trail final KCMO project that is out to bid.
I have some more pictures uploaded to Panoramio in case you want to browse.
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