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The Training Times - July 2005 - Part 2 of 3
by Ted and John Burris
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The Katy Trail Section of the Trip |
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For those who are not familiar with the Katy Trail it is a
Missouri Rails to Trails project. Rails to Trails is a program that converts
unused Railroad Tracks to Trails for Non-Motorized transportation. Funding
for the projects comes from Federal and State governments along with Private
Donations. The KATY was a line formerly used by the
MKT Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad
before its demise and purchase of the line by
Union Pacific
Railroad in 1988 There are literally hundreds of websites with
information on the Katy Trail. Here are a few of my favorites.
MO-Department of Natural Resources
Bike The Katy Trail
Katy Central
The American
Discovery Trail |
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The Katy is marked with the old railroad mile marking system
so St. Charles for now the East trailhead of the Katy Trail is Trail Mile
39.5 we caught the Katy at the Page Bridge crossing at about Trail Mile 43
and backtracked into St. Charles for Lunch and to refill our water supply
because the next water was not for more than 30 Miles. |
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The first thing we noticed when we got to St. Charles was that the whole
town looked like something out of an old western. Brick Streets and well
cared for old style buildings were the bases of the town and we could have
easily spent the whole weekend there and not seen all that there was to see.
(picture taken from
www.historicstcharles.com) |
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The Touring Cyclist Bike Shop in St. Charles was quite nice. They rent bikes and helmets and
are quite well stocked with most anything you might need. When John and I
said we were looking for a place to grab a bite to eat and fill our water
bottles etc. They were quick to point us to St. Louis Bread Company (A
Panera Bread Co)
where they said the ice and water are free and the food is great. |
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So, after stopping to take a picture of the
First
Missouri State Capital building (1821-1826) |
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John and I headed off to St. Louis Bread Company for Lunch where we had a
Portabella Mushroom and Mozzarella Sandwich on Sourdough bread. It was
quite good. then we refilled our water containers, and it was down the Katy
Trail we
went. |
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Our next stop was Katy Bike Rental and Ice Cream Shop in
Defiance Mo.
We had a Fruit
Bar at the ice cream shop, and then filled our water bottles with ice
at the tavern across the street. (The ice cream shop doesn't have an ice
machine yet.) We bought a couple new Polar Freeze water bottles at
Katy Bike
Rentals. (They had the best price for the 24 oz. Polar bottle I had seen
in a retail store.)
We transferred the contents of our old water bottle to the new polar bottle and filled
the old bottle with cherry slush to drink on the trail and we were off
again. The cherry slush turned out to be a bad idea in the old water
bottle. The part I got to drink really hit the spot but most of it leaked all over me and we had to stop in Matson so I could
wash off the sticky goo that had developed when the drying sugary slushy
mixed with trail dust.
During our quick stop in Matson we sampled some home made lemonade at Matson
Station. The folks at Matson Station are normally only around on
weekends but we caught them stocking up for the holiday and they were only
to pleased to cater to us. Beware the white Chow dog at the house next
door to Matson Station. He is somewhat aggressive and I didn't
get the impression he likes bicyclists except maybe as a snack. |
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Our Goal for today had been Hartsburg at Trail Mile 153.6 but since it was
already 3:30PM by the time we left St. Charles 114 Miles away and with the
additional unplanned stop in Matson an adjustment
would have to be made. We would ride hard till 6 and then check the trail guide for the nearest camping. By 6 we
had made it to Augusta (26 miles West of St.
Charles) and we figured we could make Marthasville (another 12 Miles) before
dark so off we went. |
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We made Marthasville in plenty of time. Unfortunately the only thing
in town open was Choo Choo's Ice cream store housed in a caboose on
the far side of town. It also happened to be the camping spot for
Marthasville. We bought a couple cones a piece and rented our camping
spot and settled in for the night. The totals for the first days
ride..82.77 Miles, 7 Hrs and 32 Minutes in the saddle, 13.5 Hours since we
left the hotel. We resolved we would ride more and lollygag less
tomorrow. We like to froze overnight. We were able to see our breath
in the air as dawn broke and neither of us slept worth a hoot. We had washed
out our clothes the night before and hung them to dry. They were still
soaked. |
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The next morning we took a couple pictures of Choo Choo's Ice Cream Shop and
got back on the trail early. leaving at 5:45 AM. We knew we would have
to ride to get to someplace open for breakfast and we were already
contemplating a hotel room for tonight. |
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We met up with some of the locals as we made our way up the trail to
breakfast. |
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The trail to breakfast was quite long. We finally made it to the city of
Rhineland where we had a very good breakfast at
Trailside Bar and
Grill. They open at 6:30 M-F and 8 on Sat and Sun. 27.3 Miles of riding before
coffee was just unacceptable but I think it made the coffee taste better
cause it was very good too. No Cell service here so I could not
call home and let them know we had made it through the night. So we had our
breakfast and moved on. |
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Here are a few Misc.pictures. |
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Standing Rock |
Boathenge |
More Trail |
Bluff looking up from trail |
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Our next trail stop was Dotty's Cafe in Hartsburg. WOW! is the best
description of Dotty's. Lunch was amazing, the service was incredible,
The people were genuinely interested in our ride and making sure we had
everything we needed including a great lunch and the best cobbler on the
trail. Hats off to Dotty's Cafe. If you only make one food stop on the
trail. This is the place. The Bike shop in Hartsburg is great too.
The young man running the thing has a bit of a British type accent and was
very eager to help with anything we needed. We were just browsing but
there was plenty to see. We got a good laugh at some of the biking bumper
stickers. |
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Old Railroad Tunnel in Rocheport Mo. |
Stone Bluff Near Columbia |
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We finally made the hotel in Boonville about 9:00PM We were ready. It had
been a 16 hour day with 10 hours 7 min of saddle time and we had covered
121.6 miles. I now had almost 1750 Miles on my odometer since I bought the
bike in August 2004. At the hotel we had to take the bikes up 2
flights of stairs. I started laundry in the guest Laundry facility of the
hotel and then walked to McDonalds to get us a bite to eat. When I came back
I had to wake John up so he could eat. It was 2 hours after that
before the laundry was done and I could hit the hay. |
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Today would be rather uneventful photo wise which turned out to be a good
thing. The GPS said we were 106 Miles from home. Actual mileage
would vary some but we thought we could do it in a day no sweat. We didn't
know the actual mileage would be closer to 150 Mile by the time we were
through or that we would hit a major thunder storm on the way home. So
we slept a little late and messed around a bit longer than we should
and finally left the hotel a little before 8 AM . That would turn out to be
a major mistake. We had determined a route that was about a straight
shot home saving us the 40 miles or so out of the way to Sedalia and back.
We took Highway 5 to Highway 41 to Highway 65 stopped for a subway for a sandwich
then took Highway 65 to Highway 24 and Highway 24 then Highway 24 to Highway 24 to
Highway H at Henrietta and H to Highway T then Highway T to Highway 210 and on into
North Kansas City, then we took Highway 9 out of North Kansas City to the
Argosy Parkway and Highway 69 and the State line. Then on home. We got
caught in a major storm 2 miles east of Orrick Mo. and had to wait for a
half hour under a deck then headed out in the rain to finish the last 40 or
so miles. At one point the head wind gusted so hard it lifted our front
tires off the ground. We finally arrived home at 1:45 AM Monday Morning
Tired, Wet, Sore and Hungry but finally home.
The totals for the
day were:
18 Hours since we left the hotel in Boonville.
12 Hours 49 min of saddle time
141.6 Miles for the day.
and a total of 1888.8 Miles on my odometer since August 21, 2004
One Heck of ride completed in grand fashion. It was one of the
highlights of my life and Johns too.
For Interesting Facts and Statistics including
total mileage click here
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