KATY TRAIL

KATY TRAIL Sponsored by Missouri Department of Natural Resources,
KATY Trail State Park and MO State Parks Foundation
East to West, June 2007

June 15

Awoke to my alarm at 6:00 AM after a restless night of tossing and turning with anticipation and anxiety of the unknown of what my latest bicycle adventure might hold.
Hard to believe after all these years I still work myself into a nervous frenzy before an event.  It never matters what the event my nerves will stir up my insides until I get diarrhea, nauseous or sometimes both sending me due haste to the nearest toilet.   Thankfully once the whistle sounds, gun goes off or whatever starts the nerves turn to
steel and all symptoms vanish.  Now as I write this, it brings a chuckle to me thinking how bad I used to get before wrestling matches my freshman year in high school.  Coach Nystrom told me he was going to have to either put a diaper on me or carry a second uniform to matches.  Nice guy he was, he did the latter. Well less I stray too far from my diary of this adventure; the point of my sharing this quirk in my psyche is to let any folks who have such a problem know they aren’t alone.

Got on the road just before 8 AM for the hour and half drive to Clinton, Missouri the meeting point for folks from the west side of the State.  The organizers have arranged
charter buses to carry us to St. Charles.   WOW!  I wasn’t expecting it but there must be  100 or more folks at just this pick up point.  There is a second pick-up point in Columbia.

After loading my gear and bicycle onto a truck I met a gal from Kansas City, Mary Yaeger this is her second KATY Trail ride.  She’s going to be staying in hotels/motels and B&Bs this week.  She told me she did the camping thing last year and it’s not for her.  Made me think perhaps I should have done the same as it’s not easy getting into and out of a small tent with my replaced knee.  Not to mention sleeping on the ground after riding all day.  Oh well, I need to see how well I survive this week sleeping in a tent as I’ve decided I’m
going to ride across America in four years. I’ll be doing plenty of tenting to keep the costs of that adventure within my price expected budget.

Arrived in Columbia at 12:15 and picked up approximately 50 more riders, then continued on to St. Charles arriving there about 3:00 PM where we hook up with another 100+ riders.  This will bring the total to about 300 riders for this year’s KATY Trail Adventure.  Later I was to learn there were 278 riders total.  For this first night we’re camping on the river just in front of Historic old St. Charles.  Within the next hour it looks like a tent city with a kaleidoscope of colors.   There’s an exhibit of the boats the Lewis and Clark Expedition used as this was the starting point for that epic crossing of America heading west up the Missouri River.  As the KATY Trail follows mostly along the river I’ll be learning the history of the KATY Trail along with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, too.  I love to read about history, especially American history.  I can feel it; it’s going to be a great week!

About 5:00 PM phoned home to let Ms. Vickie know I arrived in St. Charles and all is well.  While on the phone with her a really big wind blew up.  I’m sitting beneath a small shade tree 70 yards above and facing the river and our new tent city when I see one of the tents being swept up like a kite and flies about 50 feet before being flung back to the ground.
There was a bicycle and gear inside the tent, fortunately there wasn’t anyone in the tent.  The sky has turned a dark grey/greenish color and appears ready to let all hell break loose so I tell Vic bye and head for shelter.  Other folks are heading up to safety with me and I hear one couple saying we’re under a tornado watch for the next hour.  Just as quick as the dark clouds rolled in and the wind blew, it blew itself right past us with no more than a few rain drops.  Much to everyone’s delight we dodged the bullet with this storm.

June 16:

Woke up at 5:45 but took me until 7:35 to pack my gear, load it on the truck and get on the road.   I wore my Alaska Jersey I bought while visiting Shawn and Becky in Anchorage.  Didn’t have it on 15 minutes when I met Anna who is from Anchorage.  She’s the only Alaskan on this ride.  Anna’s goal is to ride a week in each of the 50 States.  The KATY Trail was near the top of her list as its a model for the rest of the Country to convert abandon railroad right of ways into bicycle/pedestrian trails and parks.  The KATY Trail currently extends 225 miles from St. Charles to Clinton making it the longest of such trails thus far, plans have been approved for extending it from Clinton to Kansas City in the next couple years.  The long range goal is for a network of trails in all the States which will be connected to each other which will allow folks to go safely anywhere in the Country.
Unfortunately, I don’t believe it will happen in my lifetime.  Someday it will happen though, I’m confident of that.

It was 4 before I finished today’s section of the ride.  I stopped at every historical
marker for both the KATY Trail and Lewis and Clark Expedition but it was worth
it as there is so much history to be learned.   Even discovered Daniel Boone and his family settled in Missouri.  Oh yea and I did get one flat tire, not on the trail but on a footpath between the trail and Hwy. 19 leading into Hermann, Missouri our overnight stay.

Today’s distance 65 miles of easy riding as the trail is along a railroad right of way there was never a grade higher than 3%.  Actual ride time was 4 hours and 41 minutes.  The other 4+ hours were spent enjoying scenery and reading about the history of the area.

Hermann is the “Wine Capitol” of Missouri with seven wineries in the immediate vicinity.
Dinner was at Stone Hill Winery, the largest of the seven.  At dinner I hooked up with a couple Don and Cathy Warring who happen to own a winery “Nighthawk Vineyard and Winery” in Paola, Kansas.  The Warrings are in their mid-fifty’s, retired early to pursue their passion for the nectar of the Gods.  Quite an interesting couple and they did truly enjoy their wine.

The four of us managed to down 4 bottles of wine withdinner.   Dinner was pretty good too.  We were served smoked ham, brats, German potato salad, German cole slaw and an
apple crisp for desert.

Hermann has a strong German heritage and in fact hosts a huge Oktoberfest each year.  This is the life making new friends, a great dinner and a fantastic day of riding!

June 17:
Up at 5:15, I think most of the camp was up.  Appears everyone is anxious to get on the
road.  Or was it to use the toilets?  Managed to get my tent down and gear onto the
truck by 6:30.  Skipped breakfast as they were serving pancakes which makes me nauseous.   Before leaving the encampment I slipped by Don and Cathy’s tent to give
them some Chamois Butt’r for their butts.   At dinner last night Cathy was complaining she was pretty sore and didn’t know if she’d be able to ride today.   Before yesterday neither of them had ridden more than 25 miles in a single day.  And I was worried I hadn’t trained enough for this ride.

There wasn’t nearly as much to read about on the trail today as yesterday.  Skipping breakfast turned out to be a mistake today as they served biscuits and gravy and eggs in
addition to pancakes.  Oh well, I can afford to go without a meal.  My weight has been creeping upward again.  I lost 47 lbs. after having a colon resection, then a staph infection in December of 2005.  I had been a lifelong runner/jogger until my knee gave out in 1999 and had to have a full knee replacement.  From then until the operation I pretty much
had become a couch potato and the weight piled on.  Worse than the weight gain was my mental anguish, have no doubt the lack of exercise and weight gain had given rise to
depression.  I knew I had to do something but what?

After the colon operation I began walking but didn’t feel like it was doing me much good.  I added weight training to the walking but found that exercise to be boring as hell by
myself.   Not one to give up easily I got a stationary recumbent cycle and discovered it wasn’t so bad an exercise, which then led me to consider bicycle riding.   The only serious bicycle riding I’d ever done was a 100 mile bicycle race around Vernon County back in 1976.   That ride almost killed me you can read about it on this website under
the heading Bicycle Adventures “The Bike Race from Hell”.   Thus, I started looking for a bicycle to ride.  I still had the bicycle I raced but just looking at it made me remember all the pain from that day, no thank you.  Three bicycle shops later, I finally found a salesperson willing to take the time to visit with me about buying a bicycle.  Guess I didn’t fit the image of a Lance Armstrong bicyclist image?   This third salesperson ended up being the owner of the shop.  Anyway he took the time to listen to me and suggested I bring my bicycle down to his shop to look it over and see if my problem was the fit of the bike to my body.   You mean a bicycle has to fit your body size and shape to be
comfortable?  I thought every person over the age of 12 automatically graduated to a 26” bicycle?  The owner of the shop assured me “No” that wasn’t the case.  My next trip to Joplin I brought my bike to the shop.  The owner looked at the bike and shook his head and gave out a short chuckle before stating your problem clearly is the bike is much too big for your body, it’s a 28” bike which would do well for someone over six feet tall but not a 5”6” guy like me.  He took a new bicycle off the floor had me stand over it, made some adjustments of the saddle height and position, handlebar height and suggested I take it for a 5 mile ride.  Are you kidding take it for a five mile ride?  I had told him I had ridden my bike 4 miles a few weeks ago and all the painful memories of almost 30 years earlier came
rushing back.  How was I going to ride this demo bike 5 miles, this guy had to be a loon but I said OK and off I went.  Surprise, surprise!  Riding this new “Hybrid” bicycle 5 miles was
a relatively easy task.  In fact, I felt like I could have gone much further.   Yep, I walked out of the bicycle shop with a new bike.  Over the course of the next 30 days I rode almost every day and got up to doing 30 miles on a couple days.  I was hooked.   Now my desire was to go further faster.   Thus, another trip to the bike shop and I was the owner of a
full-fledged “ROAD” bike with 27 speeds.   By the end of December, 2006 (started in
June) I logged 1,375 miles on my bicycle.   In 2009 logged another 2,700 miles and by the time 2008 is over I plan to ride over 3,500 miles.  In addition to riding the KATY Trail this summer I’ll once again ride the granddaddy of all group rides RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Ride Across Iowa).  I did it for the first time last summer and it’s amazing with 15,000 riders snaking across the entire State of Iowa.  I’ll share my RAGBRAI experiences with you another time.  Now it’s time to get back to this KATY Trail adventure.

Tonight after the group dinner of spaghetti Don, Cathy and I got together and went to a little boutique serving what else, wine.  Cathy couldn’t thank me enough for giving them the Chamois Buttr’, said it was a life saver or at least a butt saver.  She gave me a new nickname “Butt Butter Man”.  We all got a good laugh out of that.   Amazing how fast you make friends with folks on a bicycle.  In addition to Don and Cathy, I’ve met numerous other riders both in camp and on the trail.  It’s like having instant family.  Sure wish I could convince Ms. Vickie of all the benefits of bicycle riding.  Bicycle riding is not only good exercise for the body, it’s good for the mind and soul as well.

Today’s ride was 55 miles from Hermann to Hartsburg.  I rode it in 4 hours and 21 minutes, finished at 1:15.  Tomorrow we’re going to have to shuttle around 4 miles of the trail as the river has it flooded due to heavy rains last couple weeks.  So far we’ve
escaped any rain.  Hope our luck holds.

June 18:
Wednesday, up at 5:00 AM as have to get all my gear packed and on the trucks including my bicycle unless I want to ride five miles on a winding road up and down hills on deep loose gravel?  Hearing the description of the road we’d have to ride if we missed the bus was plenty of incentive for me to be one of the first with gear stowed and my butt on a bus.
They weren’t kidding either as the bus ride itself could give you a good case of car sickness.

Due to the detour around the flooded section of trail today’s ride was only 36 ½ miles which I road in 3 hours, one minute and one second.  Yea, I have a bike computer
which provides this information.  Total time on the trail was 5 hours, most of the extra two hours I used taking pictures of the flooded river alongside the trail, some spots it was right up next to the trail and reading historical markers. Guess we were lucky not to have to detour even more of the trail.  I also rode much faster today, feels like I’m getting stronger as the week progresses.

The section of the KATY Trail between Hartsburg to Rocheport is by far the prettiest with high bluffs, lots of forest, views of the river and many historical sights to see.

I can decide which has been the best this week the beauty and history of the KATY Trail or meeting and making friends along the way?  I think I’ll call it a tie.  When you are on a bicycle facing the same challenges every day you become a family.   The funny thing is you talk with folks like they are close friends or family maybe for only a few minutes, most of the time don’t even get around to asking each other’s name.  Kindred spirits doing something we love.  Life on a bicycle is good.

June 19:
Today covered 38 miles in 3 hours, one minute and 21 seconds.  Thursday, I’m up at 5:10 and on the road by 6:30.  Actually got on the road at 6:20 but missed the trailhead signs and had to backtrack a mile to the Boonville bridge.

Today’s ride we were told was rated the most strenuous of the week with a 5% grade in a couple spots.   Really made us riders feel special.   They even had vendors set-up selling crafts and foods.  I had to have some homemade ice cream and a funnel cake.  So much for thinking I might lose weight this week.

For lunch I was asked by a group of the fast riders to join them for a few beers and a burger.   It was interesting listening to this group of riders talk about all the group rides they go on and the mileage they average each week.  I definitely was out of my league with this group.  Guess I’m somewhere between them and the Don and Cathy types.  The fun is
being able to socialize with all levels and types of riders in my estimation.

Folks with the Department came around to our campsites warning we might have severe storms tonight and to get to the building where we were going to eat dinner in the event the storm sirens went off as it’s rated as a storm shelter.  Just as we all sat down for before dinner, it began to rain with wind blowing hard enough it appeared the rain was coming down sideways.   By the time dinner was over the storm had pretty much passed.  Before proceeding with tonight’s entertainment, we broke to check on our tents.   Ah, my Boy Scout experience pays off again as I had set my tent on a slight knoll.  My tent was still standing and dry inside.  Many of the folks surrounding me their tents are flooded.
One mom and her daughter in particular I can see their gear floating inside the tent.  They abandoned their tent and headed back to the shelter to sleep tonight.  I went to bed in my tent and actually enjoyed my most comfortable and restful sleep of the week.

June 20:
Friday, last day, up at 4:45 but was unable to ride until6:15.  The delay was caused by having to use the crapper and only two available to serve 278 people.  Even being one of the first to get up, I still had a 20 minute wait.  Learned we had over 2” of rain fall in about an hour last night.  Although my tent is wet my gear is fairly dry, damp feeling from the humidity.

My goal today is to get this final day done quick as possible as I want to get back to Nevada early enough to join Ms. Vickie for a short trip to visit relatives in Nebraska.   No more and got to the trailhead and discovered my front tire is going flat.  After fiddling with my CO2  air-pump I manage to get enough air in my tire to get down the trail.  Is nothing going
to cooperate with me today?  Lesson learned, learn to use your tools before you need them.  Thankfully, my tire held enough air to get to the first rest stop 12 miles up the trail, where I was able to use a floor type air-pump to top off my tire.  Between riding as hard and fast I could with low tire pressure I still managed to make good time.

Took about a 20 minute break at this rest stop to see if my tire was going to stay up and to eat an apple with peanut butter and drink some Gatorade for the energy to finish off the last 26 miles of the ride.  I stopped one more time after this to check my tire at the last remaining rest stop before Clinton.

Guess I made up all my lost time in getting started this morning as I completed this 38 ½ mile section of trail by 9:50 for an actual ride time of 3 hours and 4 minutes.  I rode fast enough I even had to wait 20 minutes for the truck carrying my gear to arrive.  The end of the ride was at the Clinton High School where I was able to take a quick shower.  To my surprise I was pleased to find out the ride included a final sack lunch which I was able to take with me and eat on my drive home.

The KATY Trail is an easy “FUN” type ride which can be enjoyed by anyone in half way decent shape.   It’s rich history and beautiful scenery makes my list of rides I would
enjoy doing again and again.  Missouri’s KATY Trail is a bicyclist paradise ride awaiting you.