The Madison County Transit (MCT) Trails are an interconnected network of multi-use trails around Madison County, Illinois. There is currently over 130  miles of trails and the network is still expanding! This is really a great resource for this area. My friend and I decided to work on walking all of the trails! Below I will blog about each of the trails!

All of our walks are out and backs since we are not shuttling between cars. Also, the trails are dog friendly so Ellie gets to walk too!

Stay tuned as the post gets updated!

Bluff Trail

This trail starts at New Poag Road in Edwardsville and ends 2 miles south near the SIUE Korte Stadium. There is a parking lot along Stadium Drive that is the perfect access point for this trail. The trail is asphalt and relatively flat, but with one larger hill. I liked this trail as it was not too busy and during the fall, the trees were beautiful! There is also a historic log cabin along this trail!

Delyte W. Morris Trail

To walk this trail, we parked at the same parking log mentioned in the above post for the Bluff Trail along Stadium Drive in Edwardsville, Illinois. While this isn’t an official MCT trail, since it is part of the overall network, we decided to check it out. The asphalt trail cuts through the heart of the SIUE campus and ends at New Poag Road. We also explored the SIUE Gardens which is a beautiful area near Tower Lake that connects to this trail. In total, our out and back walk was about 2.75 miles.

Ronald J. Foster Heritage Trail – Part 1

We picked up this trail at the parking lot on Mont Road in Glen Carbon, Illinois. From here, we hiked west to the Greenspace East Park. I had no idea this little park existed, but I really liked it! The rolling hills are home to native prairies and it added a nice loop to our walk. We walked about three miles in total.

This trail is a total of 12.2 miles long and stretches from Main Street in Glen Carbon to Marine Village Park. As we walk more of this trail, I will keep this post updated!

Ronald J. Foster Heritage Trail – Part 2

For the next section of the Foster Heritage Trail, we picked up the paved trail at the main parking lot in Glen Carbon (see Nickel Plate Trail below). From the parking lot, we headed east towards Mont Junction. I really like the prairie grasses at the beginning of this trail! This trail crosses under Interstate 270. We turned around before reaching Route 159.

Nickel Plate Trail

This trail is the longest trail at 28.5 miles in the MCT network! We hopped on this trail at the main parking lot in Glen Carbon. The parking lot is actually off of the Glen Carbon Fire Protection District parking lot. Here, the Heritage Trail meets the Nickel Plate Trail and “Cole” the Canary of the coal mines watches over this intersection! The pink bird is a nod to Glen Carbon’s rich mining history.

We walked the trail north east towards Edwardsville past Miner Park and all the way to the Green Space North Park. The paved trail also crosses beneath Interstate 270.

Glen Carbon is also a really cute little town. Be sure to check out the historic log cabin, the wooden bridge in the middle of town and grab lunch at the Wooden Nickel!

Monarch Valley Trail

The Monarch Valley Trail is an urban trail nestled in the heart of the historic LeClaire Neighborhood in Edwardsville, Illinois. While this trail is only .7 miles long, it is incredibly special since it is designated as a “pollinator pathway” for butterflies and bees.

The trail runs from Emerson Ave to Irma Ave. There is no specific parking lot, but we found street parking along Franklin Ave.

To be continued… 🙂