Grand(?) Finale! Augusta to Machens and Back to Black Walnut

Made it!

Today was the last day on the trail.  The most popular last stop is St. Charles, mostly since there is an Amtrak station there to take people to Sedalia and back.  That's also where most of the supported ride companies are located.  But we wanted to get the full trail experience, so we went clear to the actual end of the trail in Machens.  It's out in the middle of nowhere, so we then had to go back the 3 miles to Black Walnut where my parents could park and pick us up.  So we went over 43 miles today and 240 miles for the full trip.

"Where the Sidewalk Ends"

Today started out pretty normal.  We actually got out on the trail early and were feeling pretty good.  The trail was the busiest we have ever seen it, from Augusta to St. Charles.  The closer we got to St. Charles, the grumpier people were.  We always say "Hi" "Good morning" or something as we pass people.  Until this point almost every single person at least acknowledged us.  I guess it's the effect city life has on people - grumpiness towards strangers.  This is also where we ran into people who completely ignored trail and cycling etiquette.  Everyone else along the way was super courteous and friendly.

Arriving in St. Charles

Old Caboose in St. Charles

By the time we got to St. Charles, it was noon and the heat and wind were both increasing.  We also saw a notice on the board in that depot that the trail was closed due to flooding damage from mile 35 to 34.  Hmmm - we were trying to get to mile 26.9.  We decided to try it anyway since the notice didn't have any date on it and could have been old.

The trail was decidedly deserted as we got out of St. Charles.  We were riding along the top of earthen levees much of that section.  Then the trail dipped down lower and close to the river.  We passed a "Trail Closed" sign at mile 35 - we're rebels like that - then started noticing that there was a lot of mud scraped off to the edge of the trail.  The trail was pretty rutted, but passable.  We kept carefully plugging on, but that was the worst we saw.  As we got closer to mile 34, we saw heavy equipment, but fortunately they weren't working today.  We had rolled the dice and came out ok.  There wasn't a road on our left we could detour onto and the Missouri river was on our right, so if the trail was actually impassable, we would have had to turn back.

As we came up out of the lowest elevation of the entire trail, we were on flat open land with few trees, but a modest headwind.  Ugh!  It felt like a victory just making it to Black Walnut, but we weren't done yet!  The trail past that depot has been used as a road by the local farmers, which isn't allowed, but had created deep tire tracks across most of the width of the trail.  The washboard effect really made my arms sore for the first time on the whole trip.  When we finally got to Machens, a lovely couple from Ferguson with two kiddos just out for the day offered to take our photo together.

So, would we do it again?  Maybe we would do that trail again.  It is pretty and there are lovely people to meet along the way.  However, another trail we had been considering was highly recommended by several people we met who had done it: the C&O Canal/Great Allegheny Passage.  So, we're tentatively planning to try that next Fall.

When I first came up with this idea to do something for my 50th birthday, Brian started researching the trails and then we narrowed in on the Katy pretty quickly.  He found us great places to stay and we trained since the early Spring for this ride.  It's been a great time for us to work towards an accomplishment together. So, yes, we'll tour again.  Stay tuned for where!

Thanks also to my parents for being our "SAG" team for the week!  They got to do a little nature and history touring, but it was nice knowing that if anything came up they were there.  We got lucky in that we never needed them and the weather was perfect!

Awesome sandstone bluff right along the trail before St. Charles

Shortest Day, Tougher Ride: 35 Miles from McKittrick to Augusta

Today we figured would be a short day, so we took our time leaving McKittrick.  Joey, the owner of the B&B, let us leave our bikes in her barn so we could ride in the car with my parents back over the bridge to Hermann where we ate last night.  It's a town settled by the Germans in the early 1800's.  We visited the old Schoolhouse museum.  It had two floors of great displays, from textiles to toys to riverboat displays.

After we had wandered a bit in Hermann, we headed back to our bikes.  Joey's Birdhouse B&B backs right onto the Katy Trail.  I  highly recommend it for people riding it.  There are a lot more places to stay in Hermann, but you have about a 2 mile ride to get over the river there and the terrain quickly gets quite hilly.

So, we didn't really get started until close to 1pm.  That was no issue, since we had about 3 hours of riding and couldn't check into our B&B in Augusta until 4 anyway.  The problem was that by that time in the day the heat is at its peak, the trail was more out in the open instead of in forested areas, and it gave the wind time to kick it up a notch.  One of the reasons we chose to ride the trail from west to east was that the typical prevailing winds would be at our back...except when they get more unpredictable...like in Autumn!  Today was our shortest day, but one of our toughest because of that.

For the first time, I actually had to give myself a little pep talk when we were about 10 miles from the end.  There was nothing in particular wrong, but my energy just wasn't where it usually is.  By the time we got to Augusta, though, I had enough left in me to actually ride up a very steep hill into town.  It was steeper than any hill I've ridden before and ran over a block long.  I almost couldn't control my bike at the top because I was going so slow, but I made it!  I had already resigned myself to having to walk my bike up it when we read about it.  After all, it wasn't actually part of the trail, so there would be no shame in that.  My stubbornness kicked in when I saw it, though, and I did it anyway.

Sightings today included many more lunatic (suicidal?) red fox squirrels - the gray ones are quite sensible - a snake Brian tried really hard to not run over, but it blended into the trail too well, and I had a beaver staring at me from the edge of the trail as I went by.

The Mercantile next to Joey's
Birdhouse B&B, for breakfast

We go to the schoolhouse museum
in time to help wind the clock!

Old sign at the Mercantile

At many intersections, you can still see
the old abandoned rails

The Augusta trailhead

Second Longest Day: Jefferson City to McKittrick

Today was our second longest day, but we spent the day thinking tomorrow was!  We covered 43 mostly flat miles with a light headwind.  We have settled into a pace that's slower than our normal training rides and making sure we stop at every depot to just stretch and sit down a bit.   Well, I stretch and Brian sits down :)

The trickiest part of this section of the trail was the rough surfaces.  They are all well marked, but where water has washed over the trail and left rivulettes or washed parts out, you can be on washboards or on super soft gravel sand that they have filled it in with.  Our rides on the beach a couple months ago turned out to be really good training for handling a bike through those conditions!

We've also learned to really love the sight of moss on the trail.  Seems weird, right?  But moss means A) we're in the shade and B) the trail is so compacted there that it's more like concrete and doesn't drain as quickly as the looser parts do, leaving enough moisture for the moss to grow.

Today we were again between the dolomite bluffs and the Missouri River.  Sometimes there was

Bluffs right at the edge of the trail.  Those lines of missing rock
are where the chunks that fall onto the trail come from.
They are made of whiter, and presumably softer, rock

more space between them than others.  At times, the trail was really the majority of the land between the two!  The bluffs are amazing, if a little terrifying.  There were many large rocks, even boulders on the ground between them and the trail.  At one point, Brian nearly hit one that blended into the trail, so we turned around so he could go back and remove it so the next person to go by didn't risk getting thrown over their handlebars.  We imagine this will get more dangerous as the leaves start covering the trail so you can't see what you're riding over.  Right now, there are some early leaves on the trail, but no real color unless you count the red poison ivy!

Cotes Sans Dessein across a soybean
field 

We started in French settler territory in the Cotes Sans Dessein area (hills formed by being cut off from the bluffs by erosion over millennia) this morning and ended firmly in German settler territory here in McKittrick.  Yes, this village isn't really German sounding, but we came through Rhineland and ate across the river in Hermann tonight.


Hermann is so charming!  The Vintage Restaurant at Stone Hill

winery had amazing sauerbraten, red cabbage and warm german potato salad!  The apple strudel was amazing, too.  Of course we had to try the wines.  I got a 3-wine flight of their reds.  My favorite was the Chambourcin - not unusual for me.  Hermann is worth a trip if you enjoy wineries, antiques and German charm.  In fact, since we discovered tomorrow is a short ride, we're now planning to go back into town in the morning for a walk around before we hit the trail.

I really never imagined I'd be saying this, but I'm a little sad we only have 2 days left!  Yes, I'm tired, but I get up every morning ready to go again.  There may be a couple teansy parts of me that are ready be done - those parts that are sore - but in terms of fitness, I'm not struggling at all. It helps that I have great company on the ride!  We talk some, then just enjoy the scenery, then talk some more.  Also, there is another gentleman about our age on the trail that we keep catching up with or he catches up with us.  He's going across both ways and carrying all his camping gear with him! We've been comparing notes and learning a lot from him for future rides.

The various flood
levels dating back
from 1913 to 1993
are marked

As the sign explains, it's not a fallen rock
but one that is left after the dolomite was
eroded away.

Hole-in-the-wall bar with good food in
in Portland, MO for lunch

More bluffs over
our heads!

You can just see a bluff sticking out
on the left in the distance

Fun bicycle art

Snakes!  Why did it have to be snakes?!
Actually, this was the first live we saw
and it was tiny.  Brian says it had just
eaten, but I didn't look closely enough to tell

Love the color and windows on this church!

Another church - Catholic - with a
cemetery behind it up the hill

The Missouri River at our lunch stop in Portland

Arrival at the McKittrick Trailhead!

"Recovery Ride" From Rocheport to Jefferson City

A lot of the trail looked like this today.

 To say that today was easy would be a lie, but it wasn't awful, either. I'm definitely glad it was one of our shorter days (about 36 miles).  From Rocheport to around Easley was the prettiest scenery so far: Missouri River to the right and massive limestone bluffs to the left.  This runs along part of the Lewis and Clark Trail, with markers for their campsites on specific dates. One of them was at a cave, where there are pictographs high up on the bluff walls from the Manitou tribe.  They are very faded now, but impressive when you try to imagine how they got there. If you think about it, it makes sense that it would eventually become a rail line and now the bike trail.  It was already mapped out and follows a river, making it an obvious choice for wagons going west.  Because it was already used as a route, that the rail lines would use it follows logically.  It was very flat - which was welcome today!

Glad we're past the halfway point, both in days and miles.  We had our own little celebration (high fives) when we hit 100 miles total.  Whew!

We found a brew pub for dinner in the old jail downtown, Prison Brew.  There was good food, a fun atmosphere, excellent service and good beer.  As an added bonus, the bocce ball league was meeting on the patio tonight.  Who knew it was so popular in the middle of Missouri?  Favorite team name spotted was "Orange is the New Bocce."

We're staying in a hotel tonight in Jefferson City, then on to the last half (I like how that sounds!) of the ride.

Large Snapping Turtle in the center of the photo

If you look carefully just to the left of the center of the photo, there is a red character that looks a bit like a Nike swoosh with a red dot.  That's the clearest remnant of the Manitou pictographs.

Lewis and Clark cave

Another image of the bluff with the pictograph

And another

Over halfway!

Coming into Jefferson City.  We could see the Capitol dome

Meeting our "SAG" team

My parents should have known that if they hang out with us too long, they would end up in trouble! ;)

Longest Day: Sedalia to Rocheport (edited with photos)

I will post photos tomorrow since we don't have wifi at this location. I will highly recommend it, though: Katy Trail B&B. It's owned by the author of the book we used to plan our trip,  The Complete Katy Trail Guide Book, Brett Dufur. It's adorable and comfy.  

Today was another beautiful day, a little warmer, but dry air and clear.  This section of the trail is supposed to have the most "rollers" but the grades are all gradual, if long. We have much steeper grades at home. Remember this is an old rail line, so it doesn't have grades trains can't handle.  As soon as we left Booneville, where we stopped for lunch, it was flat as a board.

The most treacherous dangers on this trail so far are walnuts and squirrels. I can't understand what they must be thinking, "Hmmm, something is coming towards me.  Do I jump into the tree, or do I run out in front of that thing coming at me?"

When we got to a part of the trail that was between farm fields and in the sun, we found a grasshopper plague. They seemed to fly right at us, too.  

Best wildlife moment of the day was a Coopers Hawk grabbing a large vole not 5 feet in front of us and flying up to a tree branch. We were glad we didn't scare him badly enough to drop his lunch!

For me, the hardest part today was the bridge over the Missouri River. As I've already established, I hate heights.  I've been ok with the trail bridges because they are pretty enclosed. This bridge was a pedestrian bridge alongside a highway. The problem for me was that the roadbed and the wall were not connected, so there was a sizeable gap. For some reason, that FREAKS me right the heck out. No idea why, but it does. But I made it! (did I mention The Missouri is really, really wide?)

Limestone Bluffs

The original rail tunnel
into Rocheport

Coming into Rocheport was beautiful! The city is aptly named after the rocks here ("roche" is French for rock). We started seeing rock cliffs to our left, or north, about 10 miles out. There were amazing formations, with visible grottos.  A lot of today's trail left me daydreaming about what it must have been like back at the turn of the last century. This is also Daniel Boone country. It's some pretty rugged country and tough to imagine what it must have taken to cut through it without trails or reliable maps.

We had our parents drive to Les Bourgeois Vineyards for dinner. What an amazing place! Gorgeous terraced patios overlooking The Missouri River.  It wasn't that far away, but very steep up to a high point on the cliffs, so driving was a good choice.  We decided it's probably good we don't live nearby or we would be here waaayyy too often!

The spectacular view at dinner

Tomorrow is a shorter day, but kind of the test, since we've not done this much distance more than 2 days in a row before. We're definitely tired, but nothing is bad. I'm glad I spent time really making sure my equipment is all set up right. I changed my seat back to my old one after the trip from Richmond to Muncie and back, which was a good move. The last thing you want on a tour is seat trouble, because once it starts, the only real solution to heal it is time off. The only thing we're both contemplating is new, more upright handlebars. Shoulder fatigue is our biggest problem, so far. 

"Pony Truss" style bridge

"Through Truss" style bridge

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Booneville Depot/Chamber of Commerce

Lunch!!!

Old Katy Roundhouse (remnants)

Daniel Boone Commemoration

Plaque at Daniel
Boone site

Sitting room in the B&B

The awesome Katy Trail B&B - kitchen
perfectly stocked for a cyclist's breakfast