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After getting cleaned up last night, I had a great night’s sleep in my own bed.  I’m sure everyone can relate to the comfort of climbing in your own bed after a long journey.  It just feels like home.  Throughout our journey, we had very great accommodations from the various churches and Deacon’s houses we visited.  But there is still nothing quite like being at home.

The Katy Trail has a bit of a mystique about it.  Most people who enjoy bike touring have it on their bucket list.  It is kinda like a baseball fan wanting to go to Wrigley or Fenway.  The Katy opened in 1990 and was one of the earliest successful rails-to-trails projects, and arguably one of the most successful in garnering interest.  It is the longest single contiguous rail-trail, although I would say that the combination of the Great Allegheny Passage + C&O Canal makes for a longer continuous off-road ride at about 330 miles.

For me, part of the enjoyment of the tour is the getting ready: the research, reading, watching videos, finding blogs, and talking to people who have already ridden the path.  It was harder than I expected to find out a lot about the towns along the path.  After riding it, I think that is because many are closed up old towns, whose soul lies in the past.  The best book I was able to find was “The Complete Katy Trail Guidebook” (10th ed.) by Brett Dufur.  It was last published in 2013 and could use some minor updates, but overall was a good resource.  I do recommend this book if you’re considering riding the Katy.  Dufur’s book has a small chapter on each of the little towns and areas along the way with history and some details about services.  Some of the services information is no longer up-to-date.

Riding the Katy was a very good experience.  We were able to ride all the way from Machens (the farthest east end) to Clinton (the farthest west end) with only about 3 miles of road riding around the town of Sedalia.  That’s 240 miles with 26 trailheads, wandering through the beautiful prairie and countryside of Missouri.

The scenery along the Katy is pretty.  I expected to see much more of the Missouri River – but we really didn’t see much of it.  The Katy and Missouri are relatively near each other from the Eastern end all the way to Boonville, before parting and going different directions.  But even on the eastern part of the trail, the Missouri was often a few hundred yards or more away.  So when we did get a nice view of the Missouri, it was a welcome sight.

I was a little surprised about how much of the trail was out in the open.  Much of the trail is shaded by a semi-mature canopy of trees.  I’d guess about 50-60% of the total trail has trees lining it.  During the early morning or late afternoon, the trees would do a good job of providing shade, however when the sun was directly over head, most of the canopy wasn’t thick enough to provide much shade.

In the prairie areas, there was little-to-no shade at all.  During mid day, we found ourselves picking the left or right side of the trail depending on if there were any trees at all next to the path, just hoping to get a few seconds of shade here and there.

I found the farm country between St. Charles and Jefferson City to be pretty… but a bit repetitive after a while.  The trail is incredibly flat all the way from Machens to Boonville, which doesn’t allow for you to break the monotony by standing out of the saddle for a climb, or coasting down a grade.  It is just a continuous beat of putting one pedal in front of the other until  you reach your destination.  Personally, I like a little bit of variety in my ride to help make the miles pass.

The prairie between Sedalia and Clinton was my favorite of the farm areas, though.  It was very windy up there, but the wind seemed to make the fields come alive, like watching the ocean on a beach.  The waves of air would ripple across the grain or corn, causing them to dance in rhythm.

The western section between Boonville and Clinton provided the most diverse scenery and riding.  There is very little flat riding, only gentle grades, typically about 1-2%.  There are larger sections of tree canopy and more interesting rock formations along the sides of the trail.  Also, the trail is more compacted and solid here.  The surface was mostly older, so it is less dusty and took less pedal power to keep the wheels moving.

I didn’t see very many remnants of the railroad on the trail.  Very few fixtures from the past are still along the sides.  This is the only one I recall – I may have missed others.

We didn’t really find very many places along the trail we would have liked to explore.  Certainly there were the bigger towns like St. Charles, Jefferson City, Hermann, Sedalia, Boonville, and Clinton.  But one thing Joe and I have enjoyed on other trails is the experience of going into smaller towns along the way and meeting the people there.  There is something quite beautiful about the culture of small town America.  Sadly, most of the little towns we passed through appeared to be closed up – storefronts all vacant and very few people to be seen anywhere.

The one town I would like to go back to is Rocheport.  The area near Rocheport has amazing bluffs next to the trail.  The town itself is well maintained, with many nicely restored older homes.  Sadly, I didn’t get any good pictures of the town to share.

Jefferson City (aka “Jeff City”) was a very developed town, as you would probably have assumed.  Since it is the state capitol, there is a decent economy, lots of restaurants, three bike shops, and so on.  If you’re going to ride the Katy, I recommend an over-night in Jeff City.

 

Overall, the trail did provide some really nice scenery, and it was really nice to get away from busy roads.

As usual, however, it is the many people we meet along the way that really makes bike touring so memorable.  So many people took such good care of us.  Before this trip, we knew none of them.  For the most part, we just called them a few weeks ago and asked if they’d help us find a place to rest – and remarkably, we were able to find housing at every stop.  At every stop, no exceptions, we found friendly people who went out of their way to get to know us and help us out.  We shared meals, prayer time, and stories with total strangers, and by the end of our short visits, we have new friends.

We certainly had our share of challenges along the way.  Joe had a series of flats, most probably caused by having lighter-weight tires.  I had one flat as well, caused by a very sharp pebble on the path.  Then there was the heat, very strong and continuous headwinds from Sedalia to Clinton, and one day for each of us where our bodies just didn’t feel up to the challenge.  But Joe and I helped each other through,  My advice: be well prepared for basic repairs and carry a couple of extra tubes.  It’s much better to be putting your tube patches on in the evening after the ride than taking the time out in the hot sun to set a patch.

As I’ve noted a few times, this is the dustiest trail I’ve ever ridden anywhere.  The eastern half had a lot of fresh gravel on it, and I could see a ‘rooster tail’ of dust kicking off of Joe’s tires whenever he was in front of me.  The dust is so fine that it gets on everything and inside your bags.  If you are carrying clothes, food, or electronics, I strongly recommend putting them inside plastic bags, inside your panniers.

Before and after pictures of rinsing my bike off in St. Charles at the end of the ride:

 

I really enjoyed seeing another state by bike.  The Katy gives a really nice way to enjoy Missouri.  I’ve driven across a few times, but the bike takes you through parts of the country that most people would not see unless they were local residents.

And that’s what bike touring is all about for me: seeing the country at a slower pace, meeting great people, and enjoying the time away.

 

Here are a few tidbits of advice if you’re contemplating a ride on the Katy:

• Use the widest tires your frame can fit.  You won’t likely need any aggressive tread, but you will want thick rubber.  The extra weight will be worth it in flat protection.
• Carry 2 extra tubes and a patch kit.  You’ll likely need it.
• Take 3-4 water bottles, especially if it will be hot.  There are very few opportunities to get water on the eastern half of the trail.  The western half seemed much better for water.
• Carry one meal worth of food and if you’re traveling on a Monday, check for restaurants ahead of time.  There are long stretches without any opportunity for food.
• Pick your milage carefully.  We pushed 70+ mile days for some segments.  That’s probably a bit too much for most riders.  The surface is pretty slow, so I would probably recommend 45-55 mile days, if possible.
• Take lots of sunscreen.  Use it.

 

Overall, the Katy was a very nice ride.  I’ve checked it off my bucket list.  I’m not necessarily feeling like I will want to repeat the Katy unless there was a group of friends or some special event to draw me.  The Katy is definitely nice, but not at the top of my list of favorite trails.  It needs more small-town charm along the way, and a few more opportunities to explore.  If I were to recommend a part of the Katy, I think my favorite part is the area between Boonville and Clinton.  A nice 2-3 day ride out/back along that section would be a great long-weekend ride.

 

Here are some interesting statistics about our adventure.  Remember that we cut off part of the round-trip by hopping from Sedalia to Hermann by Amtrak during our return:

• Total Miles by bike: 384
• Total Calories burned: 13,400 (approximately)
• Number of full pedal rotations: 156,968 (or 313,936 left + right strokes)
• 30 Hours, 52 Minutes of time in the saddle.
• Gallons of water/tea/gatorade consumed: I have no idea.  Lots and lots.
• Flat Tires: Joe 4, Matt 1
• Number of Honey Stinger waffles consumed by me: 11.  Yum.
• Number of meals that included french fries: zero (but don’t ask about bacon, I lost track)
• Number of days of rain: zero

 

 

With that, this brings to an end the 2017 Katy Trail tour for Joe and me.  I have appreciated the prayers, texts, messages, and emails of support while we were gone.  Thank you.

Peace!
– Deacon Matt

We set out early again today, getting a quick breakfast before hitting the road.  We expected the ride to be 65-70 miles , so it was going to be a long day.  Since it was going to be a hot day, we wanted to get as many miles in as possible early in the day.

Before leaving the rectory of the Church of the Risen Savior in Rhineland, this picture caught my eye.  I’m assuming it was put together by one of their quilters.  “Along the way take time to smell the flowers”.  Pretty good advice.

Setting out, it was already a bit warm and humid at 6:45AM.  As we got onto our bikes, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

We made pretty good progress, but the Katy trail is really bumpy through this section.  There have been a lot of trail repairs due to recent washouts.  The new gravel is very soft, with lots of hard bumps.

The Missouri is still running high and fast.  We got close to the river on a few occasions today.

After slogging through miles of rough patches and loose gravel, I was getting a bit tired of the bumping and high-resistance of this section of the trail.  The trail crossed MO route 95 and we took that opportunity to depart from the trail and ride about 13 miles on route 95.  Being on the surface street allowed us to ride a little faster, and definitely much more smoothly.  When we approached Marthaville, we stopped at a gas station to get some gatorade and rejoin the Katy.

Our first destination today was Dutzow, about 30 miles into the ride, and only about 3 miles past Marthasville.  On Mondays, many restaurants on the trail are closed, but the Dutzow Cafe was open for breakfast hours, and we knew we would need a real meal to fuel our ride.

The Cafe has good food and is located right on the trail.  Inside, we ran into a group of cyclists from the Chicago area.  I talked with them and found out that they all lived in the northwest suburbs very close to where I used to live in Algonquin, Il.

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The next several miles were mostly in the open, going through farm land.  We still didn’t have any cloud cover and the sun was starting to bring on the heat.

The Katy is, by far, the dustiest trail I have ever ridden.  The western half was fairly dusty, but the eastern end is over-the-top dusty.  My bike, water bottles, panniers, and my body were all coated in a fine layer of limestone dust.  You could feel the grit between your teeth.  There was really no escaping the dust.

A few more miles brought us to St. Charles, our destination.  We took a picture by the Louis & Clark monument.

By the time we finished today you couldn’t even read the bike decals on my bike, not to mention that I was covered from head-to-toe in grit, especially my legs.

Right behind the monument was a water fountain that also had a spigot attached.  The spigot had really strong water pressure, which was fantastic for washing ourselves and our bikes.  The cool water felt amazing, and so did getting rid of the bugs, dust, and sunblock.  Here’s the “after” picture of rinsing the Katy off of my bike:

Joe was really tired today.  He decided that if he could power though, he’d get some ice cream when we got to St. Charles.  I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that the ice cream shop had some non-dairy frozen treats that I could eat!  Yum.

Before leaving St. Charles, Joe wanted to find a book for each of his kids.  We rode up into town, bouncing along the brick-paved street, looking for a book store.  We found it easily and I waited outside while Joe shopped for his kids.

With books in hand, we pushed up the hill to St. Peter Catholic Church, where we had parked our car last week.  We changed out of our biking gear, loaded up our bikes, and got on the road.  We had a very easy, albeit long, ride back home.

Tomorrow I’ll assemble some final thoughts about riding the Katy.  But for now, my own bed awaits.

Peace!

– Deacon Matt

Today we started our journey back towards our car, which is about 240 miles away. Originally we had intended to ride back the entire way by bike, with a side trip into Columbia MO.  After looking at the high temps for the next few days, we elected to use Amtrak to cut about 110 miles out of the middle of the return trip.

Step one of our journey is to get from Clinton to Sedalia, about 40 miles by bike.  Step two is to take the train from Sedalia to Hermann, plus cycle a few miles to Rhineland for our overnight tonight.  Step three will be tomorrow, to ride the remaining 65-70 miles back to St. Charles, where we left our car.

Step one: complete. We had an uneventful and pleasant ride back to Sedalia, arriving before lunch.

Since we are backtracking over familiar territory, I did not take many new pictures of today’s ride.

We took a little more leisurely pace today since we only had around 40 miles to go.  We ate first breakfast before leaving Clinton, and making our way to Pilot Grove.

I was able to stop and soak up the scenery today. Yesterday, we had such strong headwinds that I had to keep my head down and tucked, concentrating on keeping my pedals going forward.  Today, since we came back the opposite direction, the winds helped us out and I could actually look up and enjoy the prairie and forest canopied areas.

The picture below doesn’t really do this view justice. To my left, there are waves of green corn growing and blowing in the wind. To the right is a huge field of golden wheat, blowing like waves on the ocean.  The wind was very strong and gusty, and the fields danced like a melody.  It really is a beauty to behold.  Notice also – no clouds to be found anywhere, nor any shade.

Our next stop was second breakfast.  We had spotted this restaurant in Green Ridge yesterday.  There were quite a few trucks parked outside – that said to me that the locals must approve.  It did not disappoint.  I had a simple breakfast of eggs, toast, and hashbrowns.  Well prepared and the service was so friendly.  I would absolutely come back here again.

We finally arrived in Sedalia around lunch time with plenty of time to spare for our 5:20PM train.  We spent a little time riding around Sedalia, making sure we knew where the Amtrak station was for later.  We ran into this nice lady and her daughter.  She is an organic farmer nearby and her daughter was heading back to Kansas City for college.  We had a very nice conversation for a few minutes before departing and looking for a little bit of lunch.

Most of Sedalia was closed up for Sunday, but Joe did find this sports bar that was open, so we went by to have a beer and some snacks to tide us over for a while.  We had about 5 hours to kill, so we decided a little time in an air conditioned restaurant was a good start.

We were pretty sure we would not have any opportunity to grab dinner tonight since the only restaruant in Rhineland is not open on Sunday late evening.  So we cycled into downtown Sedalia and went to Subway to get a couple of sandwiches to eat later on the train.  We killed a little more time at Subway while I tried to teach Joe a little about how to play cribbage.

The tiny Amtrak terminal has a cooled waiting area, so we pedaled back there to wait for the train.  Joe tried to nap, unsuccessfully.

It may be hard to see in the pictures, but my bike is completely covered in limestone dust.  Every nook and cranny, every chain link, and even every smooth surface has a fine grey powder stuck to it.  It is amazing how much dust comes off of this trail.  I try to clean the chain each day, but I am quite certain that the oil and limestone dust is making a very nice abrasive that is going all around the drivetrain each pedal stroke.

As we were waiting for the train, I received a text that the train was delayed.  Then a little while later, another delay.  Suddenly, our step two plan needed some tweaking.  We did eventually get on the train, however instead of having an hour of sunlight to ride back to Rhineland from the Hermann Amtrak drop-off, we would not have any sunlight left.  Our arrival time was just about sun-down.  I did not bring my bike headlight with me on this trip because I didn’t think I would need it.  Note to self – always bring the headlight, even though it is heavy.

Dial back a few days ago when we were in Rhineland…  We had an enjoyable evening with Deacon Joe and his wife Elaine.  When they dropped us off that evening, Elaine handed me a piece of paper with her number on it and said that if we ever needed anything to give her a call.  Why did she do that – what were the chances we would ever cross paths again?  God moment.

This evening, I used her number and asked Elaine if they would be able to give us a ride from Hermann to Rhineland.  They graciously said yes and picked us up right at the train.  A few minutes later, they dropped us off at Risen Savior church in Rhineland.

We quickly set about getting showered (yay, really needed it!), laundry done (yay, also really needed it!), and then updating the blog.
Tomorrow, we have about 65 +/- miles to go to get back to our car in St. Charles.  It is supposed to be a hot day, so we will be getting out early to beat as much of the heat as possible.  Tomorrow’s miles are very open in the sun, so we are hoping to cover a lot of path as quickly as we can.

Next Stop: St. Charles, then to home!  I’m really looking forward to hopefully sleeping in my own bed tomorrow.  We’ve gotten used to lots of unexpected surprises on this trip, but with God’s grace, we’ve managed pretty well.  Thank you for all of the prayers and support!

Peace,

Dcn. Matt

We knew that today was going to be a long ride, so we got up early and had a quick breakfast at the rectory before hitting the trail.  We said goodbye to Fr. Basil before leaving.  I truly hope to cross his path again soon – he is the kind of priest that exudes joy.  I am certain that if more of our priests were like him, we would have many more young men discerning vocations.

Up to this point, the Katy has been meandering through the flood plains of the Missouri River.    From Boonville on, the Katy runs in a different direction.  The first 165 miles have been very flat, you could even say monotonous.  Today’s ride was not flat – these last 78 miles were nearly all up or down hill with very little flat.  The Katy is still a railroad grade, so the hills and climbs were all less than 3%, but there sure was a lot of gentle climbing, starting immediately as we left Boonville.  For anyone who has ridden the Great Allegheny Passage’s climb from Cumberland to Frostburg, today reminded me of that kind of climb all day.

The cool temperatures were really comfortable for the first 40 miles of today’s ride.  The afternoon was a bit toasty, but the beginning of the ride was really great.  All-in-all, very good weather today.

The Katy passes through a few small farming communities and small farm towns in this section.  Unlike the eastern end, I found this last 80 miles to be more varied and interesting scenery.  We rode long grades up into forested sections, took a few downhillls among interesting rock formations, and had a lot of canopied path.

We made pretty good time to Sedalia, although we didn’t really set any speed records.  We took a fairly relaxed pace going up the hills, opting for low gears.

On a couple of my past bike adventures, I’ve had to “face the demons” as I say. There are some days that your body decides that it does not want to undertake the challenge that lies ahead. You start to doubt your ability and training and wonder if you will be able to make it to the end of the day’s ride. I faced a little of that on day 2 of this ride – and during that day, Joe pulled me along. Today was Joe’s turn to face the demons.

Some place around Pilot Grove, Joe began having a little difficulty keeping up on the hills. By the time we reached the outskirts of Sedalia, I knew he was probably “bonking” – a problem where your blood sugar and/or water are out of balance from not drinking or eating enough. I gave him some nuts and made him drink a bunch of water. We arrived at the old Sedalia train station and he was a little better.

We went to Subway for lunch and we each ate a large sandwich and a couple of large cups of drinks.  That did the trick.  Joe came back to life!  Although his muscles were a little tired, his mental state improved 100%.  From Sedalia on, we were having a lot more fun.  And that’s a good thing because from there on, we encountered very stiff and relentless headwinds on top of the constant climbing!  We had nearly 45 miles of headwinds today.  We just geared down a click and took it one pedal stroke at a time.

The highest point of the Katy reaches 955 feet.  It was very hot and windy up there.  You can see that the trail seems to go on forever up there in the open!

Shortly after taking these pictures, we resumed our trip towards the end at Clinton.  However, after we had gotten back on our bikes and put our cameras away, a couple of A10  Warthog airplanes came swooping over our heads and turned back to where they came from.  The sound was amazing.  I did catch some footage with my sport camera on video, but I can’t upload it here until I get to a computer back home.

The next town we arrived at was Windsor, Mo.  This town purchased a caboose to put at their trailhead.  As they were restoring the car by stripping the paint, they discovered that under the outer layer, there was a paint job from the Spirit of 76 train that was used during the Bicentennial of 1976.  They then restored it to that condition.  Neat story!

We met this nice couple from Ithaca NY as they were making their way east on the Katy.  They had parked their car in St. Charles and had a shuttle service drop them off on the west side to pedal back east.  Her name was Elaine, I think.  I don’t remember his name – he hardly said a word.

We kept pedaling on to get to Clinton.  We had arranged to get to 5PM mass there.

We eventually arrived at Clinton!  This is the Western end of the Katy, so we can now say we’ve gone the whole length of the trail.

We had just a couple of miles of surface streets to get to the church.  We made it with about 40 minutes to spare.  We were introduced to Father Jim and Deacon Steve.  Deacon Steve and his wife, and another Deacon took us out for dinner after mass.  We had a nice conversation and got to know each other a bit.  It was a nice way to see downtown Clinton, too.

Clinton has a really  classic town square with the courthouse in the middle and shops all around it.  I love these kinds of towns!

As I write, I’m waiting for our laundry to dry, then it is time for bed.

Tomorrow is a 45-50 mile day, starting by riding back to Sedalia, catching the 5:20PM train to Hermann, then a few more miles from Hermann to Rhineland to stay for the night.  Looking forward to a more relaxed day.  We should have some time to explore Sedalia a little, take our time, and enjoy the scenery.  I’m also really hoping that those crazy winds from the west that pushed against us today keep up again so that we will have tailwinds on our way back tomorrow!

Until Tomorrow, Peace!

This morning we bid a farewell to St. Joseph Catheral in Jefferson City.  We left around morning rush hour, but the traffic was pretty well behaved around cyclists.  After stopping for a quick breakfast, we were back underway.

The Katy is on the other side of the Missouri River from Jefferson City, so we had to cross back over the bridge.  There is a square spiral ramp that takes you back down from the bridge deck to the ground below where the spur trail joins to take you back to the Katy.  That’s Joe on his bike in the picture below.  What I didn’t realize is that the reason he was going so low down the ramp is that he had yet another flat tire, a mere 3 miles from our start, and only 5 miles from getting brand new tires.

As he patiently took his wheel apart, Joe discovered that this flat was not a puncture like his previous ones, but was caused by the rim-tape of his wheel being shifted off its intended place and exposing the sharp edges of the holes where the spokes are.  So as he was riding, the sharp edge of the wheel cut into his tube.  Joe painstakingly removed the tape, put it back into in the right place, and put a new tube in.  About 35 minutes later we were back underway.  I could empathize with Joe’s frustration as he was putting everything back together.  We said a prayer for a smoother day and began plugging along.

Much like yesterday, much of the trail is along farm lands.  I am a little surprised at how infrequently we are close to the Missouri River.  We are definitely in the flood plain, but the river is far away to the south for much of the ride.  In the picture below, the river is far beyond the trees on the left side of the picture.  Being in the flood plain is what has made this such fertile farmland.  Over the millennia, the various floods of the river have left behind silt and organic material that has made this soil so rich.

We’ve seen some wildlife on the trail.  Not nearly as much as I had expected, but a few critters have shared our ride.  Yesterday, we saw several deer.  Today, I think I ran over a medium sized black snake that darted out as we were cruising along.  We’ve also seen a few turtles.  I stopped to get a picture of this cute little guy.  He’s a bit camera shy.

As we got closer to Hartsburg, you begin to see bluffs: cliffs of rock that are nearly straight up and fairly tall.  It is really hard to take a picture of them to give you any idea of scale.

The Katy shares its route with part of the Lewis and Clark expedition’s route.  At many of the trailheads you can find tidbits about their journey.

Around lunch time, we finally reached Rocheport.  This is probably the nicest small town we have seen along the entire Katy.  There are lots of nicely restored old homes, a quaint small shopping area, and a couple of places to eat.  We decided to stop for lunch at the General Store. 

The General Store isn’t really much of a store, but had a nice menu of sandwiches and such.  I decided that a PB&J sandwich was really a good idea, with a slice of apple pie.  You can tell from the picture which item was the main course.

After lunch we had about 12 more miles to go to get to Boonville and the temperatures were getting pretty hot.  We pressed on, but stopped at this iconic caboose not too far from Boonville.  When I was a kid, we used to see trains come through a town near where we lived and they’d stop traffic to let the train pass.  I remember always watching for the cabooses.  It was like the train wasn’t complete without a caboose.  That would be like a dog without a tail.  Eventually the cabooses stopped being part of the trains, but I still really enjoy seeing them – it reminds me of that time of being a kid.

Less than a mile after seeing the caboose, I heard a strange ticking and hissing noise coming from my front tire.  I knew what it was and quickly found one of the few precious patches of shade under a tree adjacent to the trail.  There was a sharp stone sticking out of the bottom of my tire.  When I pulled it out, the tire quickly hissed out all of the air.  The Katy trail had finally claimed one of my tires as its victim.  I decided to save that pesky little stone as a souvenir.  We had the tube changed in record time, after all, we’ve had lots of practice lately.

Getting into Boonville requires crossing a tall bridge over the Missouri.  From this point forward, the Katy and the Missouri diverge to go their own separate ways.  We put it into low gear and ground the pedals to climb up and over the long bridge into town.

Before heading to our home for the night, we decided to swing by the Boonville station.  They have a caboose out front that you can look in the windows of.

The station was a bit underwhelming.  There is a small bike shop inside, but not much else that would be interesting to a touring cyclist.

Next priority was to find Sts. Peter and Paul church.  A few short blocks from the trailhead, we arrived and took our things to our rooms.  Father Basil welcomed us to his home.  After a much needed shower, we settled in and did some work to prepare our return trip once we reach the trail end at Clinton.

The weather forecast continues to show very hot temperatures, so we will be picking up an Amtrak train to cut off about 110 miles and 1.5 days of cycling on the return.  Once we get to Clinton, we will cycle back to Sedalia, catch the train to Hermann, and then cycle to St. Charles from there.  We’ll still have about 108 miles of the return trip to cycle back to our car, but we will have one less day of scorching 96-97° heat.

Father Basil is from Nigeria and a wonderful young priest.  He also is a very good cook, apparently.  He was at the beginning stages of making tomato sauce (he said stew) from raw fresh tomatoes.  It smelled awfully good!

Smelling Father’s sauce cooking made us hungry, so we set out for some dinner.  We decided that Mexican food sounded good.  And it tasted good, too!

Boonville has some really nice older homes, so we grabbed a couple of pictures as we walked to dinner.

Tomorrow is our longest day of the tour at 73 miles.  On paved surface, this wouldn’t be too bad, but this surface is slow and the temps are supposed to be high.  So we’ll be up and out early, chugging along down the trail.  Assuming all goes well, we will complete the full length and reach the end of the Katy by late afternoon tomorrow!

Peace!

Today started with a nice breakfast send off from Deacon Larry and his wife Mary.  They were amazingly wonderful hosts.  Dcn. Larry likes to come out to Kentucky to Gethsemane Abbey for retreats – so maybe we can convince him to head our way before/after so that we can return the hospitality.

The weather for today looked to be a great forecast.  Doesn’t get much nicer than a cool start and highs in the upper 70s or lower 80s.  (But note the forecast for later in the week when we are making our way back – 95 degrees.)

At the St. Charles trailhead, they have a couple of cabooses, so it seemed like a good place to get our start-of-day obligatory picture.

Today’s trip was about 68 miles.  We had originally planned a few extra miles of side-trip into Hermann, but decided later to hold off on the extra trip.

Throughout the 68 miles, the entire trail is very flat.  The Katy is a crushed limestone surface and pretty well maintained.  We rode over a few minor washout repairs, but no major trail ruts or problems.  The trail is fairly smooth, but the buzz of the gravel is a constant companion, and the surface doesn’t allow you to coast much.  So although it is very flat, you are constantly working to keep the pedals turning.

We were told to expect nearly all shaded area today.  I would say we were about 70% shaded and 30% very direct sun.  Parts of the trail are canopied with trees, but there are very long stretches where you are adjacent to, or down the middle of farm land with absolutely no cover at all.

On the east end of the Katy, most of the trail is close to the Missouri River.  Sometimes, it is only a few feet, and other times you are a few hundred yards.

We saw several places where these murals up to draw attention to the construction of the Katy through the land trust.

Throughout nearly our entire ride today we kept crossing paths with a guy named Doug.  He is in the green shirt blow.  He is from Juno Alaska and flew in with his bike to ride the Katy.  We talked a bit and he seemed pretty nice.  We didn’t get a chance to exchange contact info.

Today did bring a few challenges, too.  Yesterday, Joe had a flat on his rear tire.  Today he had a flat on the rear tire, and another on the front.  The second flat happened less than a mile from our destination.  It looks like the tires he chose just aren’t up to the challenge of the tiny and jagged rocks of the Katy.  His first flat today took a little time to repair, and by the second one, we decided that we need to find him some new tires.  So when we get to Jefferson City tomorrow, we will be heading to the bike shop to find something that is a little more suited to the trail.

After the second flat repair today, we finally arrived at our home for tonight: Church of the Risen Savior in Rhineland.  It is right across the street from a huge corn field.

We were greeted by the parish secretary who showed us around and got us situated.  One neat thing that I’ve not seen at a parish before: a quilting ministry.  As we arrived, the quilters were just wrapping up.  They meet and work on hand-crafted and pieced quilts that are then auctioned off as fundraisers for various ministries and needs.

One of the quilters, Maxine, came out and talked to us about the Katy.  She is a trail volunteer who used to like to ride the trail.

After getting cleaned up, we went to 6PM mass.  Right after mass, the assisting deacon and his wife offered to take us over to the (as in the only) restaurant in Rhineland: the Trailside.  Jerry and Elaine grew up in this area and have lived here for many years.   Over dinner, they told us a bit about themselves, their grown kids and their families.

For me, dinner consisted of fried chicken.  Yum.        It was pretty tasty!

After dinner, they offered to drive us around a bit, including taking us to Hermann – the town we elected not to ride into.  It was a wonderful tour and great dinner.

While in Hermann, they took us by St. George’s.  It is a really beautiful church with great stained glass depicting the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

So now our laundry is washed and we’re about ready to call it a night.  Tomorrow will be shorter day – probably around 40-45 miles into Jefferson City.  We are hoping for a respite from the flat tires, too.

Until tomorrow, good night!

Peace.