Riding the Katy Trail

     Small adventures had always been intriguing for John and I, nothing dangerous just bucket list challenges.  I'm sure many people have similar dreams so one of ours was to ride the Katy trail from beginning to end.  At the time the beginning was in St. Charles (Jean Baptist Point DuSable Park) with the end being Clinton, Missouri, which was about 225 miles not including side trips.

    We rode many training rides throughout the summer to prepare for our Fall adventure.  We knew we would be riding about 60 miles a day so we felt it was necessary to practice riding long distances.  One of our practices rides was from St. Charles to McKittrick, a little over 60 miles, which was a good test ride. Mimi dropped us off at he park for our test ride but when we unloaded our bikes I discovered I forgot my helmet (that’s an amateur move), so John and I set off on the ride and met Mimi at Greens Bottom where I picked up my helmet.

     As we pedaled away from Greens Bottom our plan was to have lunch at a deli in Dutzow.  We made it to the deli had a great sandwich then made our way to Marthasville then to our final destination of McKittrick.  It was a long day but Mimi and Cindy met us at the trailhead and drove us to Herman to have a nice dinner.  Of course dressed on biking clothes wasn’t acceptable attire for dinner so we went to a gas station to change.  We both went into the men’s room to change and walking out in our dinner clothes.  We got a few odd looks from strangers when we both walked out of the gas station bathroom, Oh Well.  We had a nice dinner and confirmed our belief that we were up to the challenge.

     It was September 25^th 2002 at 8:45 when we started out on our trip across Missouri via the Katy trail.  We planned for lunch at the deli in Dutzow just as we did on our practice ride.  We rode a steady but leisurely pace stopping to take pictures and talking to other riders along the way.  The busiest part of the trail is between St. Charles and Augusta, which was a very familiar part of the trail that we rode often.  Our lunch stop at Dutzow would be about half way to our 1^st day’s destination to Meyer’s Hilltop Farm B & B in McKittrick.  Unfortunately, the deli was closed, not sure why but we kinda bummed.

     So we left Dutzow and headed to Marthasville about 3.5 miles down the trail.  We’ll find someplace to eat there. As we rolled in to Marthasville we spotted a bar so we parked our bikes and went in to grab some grub.  What a stroke of luck, they had a special all-you-can-eat of some great comfort food for $5.00, sweet.  This was way better than the deli.  After lunch we felt refreshed and ready to ride to the B & B.  We arrived at Meyer’s late afternoon showered before dinner. The Meyer’s were kind enough to drive us into Herman where we had dinner while they went to church. We rested well that night and had an excellent breakfast. This was a great choice for our first night nice couple with a great sense of humor.

     The next day we rode out of McKittrick headed for our next B & B in Hartsburg at the Globe Hotel. We rode through nine small towns some so small if you missed the sign you wouldn’t have noticed the town.  When we rode in to Mokane we stopped at Mokane Bar and Grill for lunch a very bike friendly bar that had good food. The traffic on the trail almost non-existent once we left Marthasville but the ride was pleasant and relaxing stopping to snap a few pictures when we saw something interesting.  We arrived at the Globe Hotel in Hartsburg after a 53-mile ride to what I would describe as Cowboy hotel right out of an old John Wayne movie. The place was clean but the owner had an odd some may say bizarre personality.  For more info on our night at the Globe Hotel read my post from 11/14/13 titled Katy Trail Ride (2nd Night) Globe Cowboy Hotel and learn about the greatest prank ever. 

     The next morning after a hearty breakfast of a hardboiled egg and spinach muffin, yeah not so much, we headed out toward Pilot Grove (our next B & B).  It was a little chilly when we started out but it warmed up quickly.  Today we would stop at Rocheport for lunch.  This is a bike town everything is geared toward the cyclist.  Friendly people, many B & B’s and restaurants, since this would be the shortest ride of the trip we decided to splurge and eat at Les Bourgeois Winery & Bistro. Rocheport is a great day trip for anyone and it’s very close to Columbia Missouri.  After lunch we pedaled west passing through Boonvillle, stopping to see the western murial on a building next to the trail we headed toward the trailhead.  The Boonville trailhead is near the Isle of Capri Casino, which is where we ran in a very fit older couple (mid-70’s).  They were biking the trail and heading home to Minot North Dakota camping along the way.  They would take the trail to Clinton, Missouri then head north weaving their way home. They decided they needed a nice comfy night and rented a room at the casino for that night, pansies.  They were in training to ride across the country the following spring, ok not pansies, show-offs but quite impressive. We left Boonville to ride the last 12 miles to Pilot Grove, easy peasy, well it turned out to be a long uphill not super steep but very long and tiring, pansies.  We arrived the Pilot Grove Flower Shop and B & B met the owners, got the keys, cleaned up then went to eat at the local bar.  We had burgers and a six-pack of wine coolers.  Real men drink wine coolers with their burgers, LOL.  The room was nice but we were abruptly awoken at 3am when the next-door tenants came barging in not attempting to be the least bit quite, dingbats. 

     We left the next morning after a nice breakfast making as much noise as possible hoping to wake the sleeping beauties next door. Clinton Missouri was a 61-mile ride passing through Sedalia and stopping for lunch in Green Ridge at the bar and grill.  We arrived in Clinton tired but excited that we rode the trail and had some fun experiences meeting many friendly people.  There were some property owners that were not supportive of the trail or cyclist with signs in their yard claiming the Katy trail stole their land. We were cautious when we crossed dirt roads since some yahoo punched the gas as we were crossing the road either to scare us or hit us, we didn’t stick around to find out.

     We counted over 200 people cycling along the trail and talked to many, saw lots of wild life, stay dogs and even passed a ranch with some buffalos roaming the range, Hmm! that sounds like it could be a song. All in all it was a great and memorable trip that I would recommend for anyone that doesn’t mind riding about 240-mile over 4 days.