Type: Trail, Out-and-back
Difficulty: 3 / 10
Dog Friendly: Unknown
Jog-Stroller Friendly: Unknown
Filed Under: Running
The Al Foster Trail is wonderful place for a long run. It consists of a light gravel path and dirt trail and runs along the Meramec River. There are few, if any, road crossings and you can feel very isolated even though there are homes and small towns only a few hundred feet through the woods. Once you have run about 3 miles out on the light gravel path, you can connect to the Stinging Nettle Loop/River Scene Trail of Castlewood State Park. This is a dirt trail that continues along the river. Both parts of the trail are mostly flat.
You can access the Al Foster Trail from several areas. I like to park at Castlewood State Park at one end of the trail, but you can also reach the opposite end of the trail at Glencoe, Missouri.
Directions to Castlewood State Park: From the I-270 loop, exit at Dougherty Ferry Road and travel west for about 1.5 miles. Turn right at Big Bend Road for about 3 miles. Turn left (south) onto Ries Road. When Ries Road dead-ends, turn left into Castlewood State Park. Drive past the Ranger Station on your right, over a small bridege, past a field on your left, and under a railroad bridge. Just past the railroad bridge, there is a parking lot on your right. Park in this lot. The trail begins from the parking lot.
Directions to Glencoe: From the I-270 loop, exit at I-44 west. Take exit 264 (State Route 109) and go north. Turn right at Old State Road and then an immediate right onto Grand Ave. This will take you to the small town of Glencoe. There will be a parking lot on your left. Park here. The trail begins at this parking lot and immediately crosses some small tiny train tracks.
Posted by: KalamariB and last modified on Feb 02, 2006 by thoos
Comments
bobzemuda said ...
you can also access this trail from The Sherman Beach side and run away from Castlewood instead of towards it. They say this is 2.5 miles, but in all our attempts to measure it, it's more like 2.1-2.2. It's pretty flat, but it's a nice mid county flat route that is mostly well shaded for those hot summer months.
I found a map and put it on my website here:
http://www.zemudaville.com/run/pics/AlFoster-StingingNettle.jpg
Leave a Comment