From https://www.makeyourdayhere.com/Facilities/Little-Blue-Trace-Trail
An 15.5-mile hiking and bicycling trail highlights the park, which also includes - along this trail system - 4 shelters and 30 picnic tables. The trail currently starts at Blue Mills Road and extends 15.5 miles south to Phelps Road in Kansas City. It will ultimately extend to Longview Lake.
About theTrail
- 15.5 miles, 1 way
- Entrance access at:
- Blue Mills Road
- Ripley Junction
- Bundschu Road
- M-78
- Necessary Road at R.D. Mize Road
- Hartman Center at Heritage Park
- Phelps Road Trail Head
- Concrete and Rock Surface
Sean Nunn added (April 2017):
Addition to Little Blue Trace to be completed at some point. There is already a section that has been added to the south that currently just crosses under 350 Highway at "Knobtown". Not sure when that section will be completely linked up with the main section, but at a minimum a foot bridge has to be constructed over a small section of creek just south of Lee's Summit Road. I believe this section will add about 5-6 miles to LBT to bring the total distance to 20 miles or so.
Editors note: as this trail grows, we ask local athletes interested in it to reach out to us to adjust this route page. If significant mileage is added to the trail, we will probably create a new variation for future efforts, and effectively archive the old, shorter route.
Comments
Approximately 1.5 miles has now been added to the south end of the trail. This would make the trail about 33 miles round trip at this time. Â
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Sean Nunn
Raytown MO
Mark Boucher reported (Sept. 2012):
I ran the entire length of the Little Blue Trace Trail as an out and back from the middle covering the entire length of the trail twice. It is located in Lee's Summit and Independence Missouri. I ran from the gate at Lee's Summit Road to the shelter at the North End. Total distance of 30.16 miles per my Garmin 110. Time of 6:28:17. I ran this self supported by parking in the middle and using my truck as an aid station. I ran the Northern end as an out and back first, then the Southern end out and back second.
If anyone plans to run this trail in the future - good luck. There is no water, so plan accordingly. I started at the parking lot near Centerpoint hospital. I completed the Northern section first by using a full Nathan hydration pack with 65 oz and stashing a 24 oz. bottle about 4 miles in. The Southern tip is reachable with a hydration pack.
This trail is fairly scenic for an urban gravel based trail. Many sections of woods and it follows the Little Blue River. The weather was good today with temps in the high 50's at the start and ending around 80 degrees f.