Day 5: Sedalia to Harrisonville, goodbye trail

Breakfast at Sedalia started at 6:30, so it was on the trail by 7:15 at least. Today's run of the Katy was smoother than yesterday in my opinion, but Mike said it was equally rough, so maybe I just got more comfortable with the gravel? My Salsa Vaya was meant to ride on these roads, it handles amazingly, and any challenges I had were strictly because of me learning to ride a new terrain, not the bike. Mike's Surly is not designed to be off pavement for long, so he was at that disadvantage, but made it through.

This may alter my route for Kansas- I was looking forward to riding more rail trails on the Flint Hills nature trail, but we may default to more on-road riding.

At Windsor, we took the Rock Island spur to head more of an true east direction. There's grand plans to develop more of the Rock Island spur to make a big loop with the St. Charles end of the Katy, which could be very cool. Logistically, a loop could solve some problems for a lot of people who travel to get to the trail.

We saw one person jogging on the Rock Island spur for all of our 40 miles. It could be because the trail is relatively new- the "towns" kiosks were still under construction, or it could be that today had a heat index of 103 and it's Monday. And the towns on the spur are not much at all. We had a good lunch at Chilhowee, but we probably lingered a little too long in the air conditioning. We had 30 more miles to go after lunch.

Once we left the trail, the roads themselves were fine, not a lot of cars the first two hours, but large, rolling hills to get into Harrisonville via the cemetery road. Long climbs in the late afternoon heat after 70 miles was not fun. The "going home from work" traffic started to build, and the asphalt baked. But we got into town safely, and did a load of laundry. Now it's off to find some dinner.

Tomorrow will be Kansas, the weather should be cooler, the miles will be shorter, and we'll get an early start.

Reflections on the Katy trail:
1. There's no wrong way to do it. We saw people of every age, size, and bike type, going various distances and lengths of time.

2. Assume there's no water. This is kind of a good rule regardless of where you're riding, but some "stations" just had pit toilets without drinking fountains, or we'd arrive before the store or restaurant was open.

3. Trail bathrooms are amazing. I have no problems using a bush in the middle of Nevada, but I'm getting to the point where I'd just rather not. And, there's poison ivy everywhere in the bushes.

4. The main trail is very social. People coming the opposite direction will always say hi or good morning and wave. People want to chat at the kiosks. Sometimes I'd prefer to take a break at the shady benches  so I didn't have to socialize as much.

5. The kiosk information is good! The history was fun to read and really well put together.

6. The scenery did eventually change a bit. Once we got away from the river, the cliffs and different trees, today was more prarie flowers.

7. Watch for box turtles, and snakes that look like sticks. Squirrels dart in front of you, one deer ran across the trail pretty close (this is why headphones while riding is a bad idea!), and today I saw 4 woodchucks.

Day 3, 4 of the Katy Trail

So, the Katy trail gets a slight upgrade from adventure level 0.5 to a 2.3 with today's gravel roads. I'll even call it mountain bike ultra-lite. You don't need a mountain bike to ride the Katy, but big tires make a difference. I try to reframe this as skill-building- I'm just adding to my repertoire of things I've accomplished on a bike. A kiddie roller coaster is still a roller coaster.

We left Jefferson City and headed to Colombia for another short day of 45 miles. My favorite stretch of trail wasn't the Katy trail at all, it was the MKT spur that went into Colombia. 8.8 miles of hard pack, with a few more twists and turns to make the road exciting. Being a Saturday, there was a bit more local traffic of dog walkers, day cyclists, and joggers.

There are so many unknowns in the decisions that we make. Would the extra 17 miles off trail into Colombia be a good decision? The driving factor was having a place to stay there- a friend of mine has an adorable basement suite that she rents out on Air B&B that she offered us, and another friend was willing to drive down from Kansas City to meet us. Even if we didn't have people to see in Colombia, I enjoyed the spur trail so much, that I'd recommend the detour into town for others.

We had a great dinner with my friends at Flat Branch, right next to the Mizzou campus, and then went back to the same area for breakfast on our way out to eat at Broadway Diner. Heading back to the Katy trail was all downhill on the MKT, so we flew, finishing the first 20 miles in under an hour and a half.

Our second stop of the day was Booneville at a small diner right on the corner of the Katy trail as you cross the bridge over the Missouri River. We thought about just getting some ice cold lemonade, but opted for pie at 10am. It was a perfect snack, and we still topped off the camelbaks with ice water.

After Booneville the trail started to get some elevation. Now, when people say the trail is flat, I'm sure they're refering to "flat" as a relative term. Off the trail, Missouri is very hilly. Going into town, especially Jefferson City, everything is built on the highest ridge. (And, given the marks of the '93 flood when the river came up 37 feet, I can see why). But, when I think of flat, I think in absolute terms, as in 0% grade. A ball won't roll one direction or the other. That's flat. Today was gradual uphill pretty much the entire day- 2nd ring on the bike gears for most of the day. (3rd ring is small gears for steep climbing, and the big ring is for flat and fast, more power.)

The second challenge of the day was the perfectly clear, blue skies. This might be desirable at home in San Diego, but not here in Missouri. On the shaded trail, the dappling of the light through the tree leaves made it hard for our eyes to adjust- it was an extra level of concentration to move at 13 miles and hour from sun to shade to sun, and watch for road hazards that hide in the shady pockets. It brought back riding in Oregon in similar conditions, but the pavement wasn't maintained and the potholes were camouflaged by the dappled sunlight.

The roads turned into the soft, sandy type of gravel roads in the second half of the afternoon. Once in a while it was more of taking a mental break than a physical break.

We had a high goal of 90 miles for the day, taking us to Windsor, but settled with a 70 mile day in Sedalia. Several people who shared their local knowledge wisdom recommended Sedalia as just the more populated, interesting town, with better restaurants and a cool old hotel. This will set us up better for a day into Harrisonville tomorrow anyway.

I had the Kansas Department of Transportation cycling maps shipped to my friend's house, so doing a whole new level of map routing. We're not using the ACA route exclusively this time, although we may connect with the TransAmerica trail as a way to get to Pueblo, Colorado. This "on-the-fly" routing isn't ideal, but that's what happens when you join a trip because the navigation was somewhat iffy already... (day 3 into the trip and I learn Mike has ripped out atlas pages, the one thing I needed a few days ago!) West Kansas is looking empty.

Critter count:
Dead:
- mole
- shrew
-armadillo
- squirrels that look like they fell from trees
Live:
- Copperhead snake
- garter snake
-mystery snake (2)
- box turtle (4)
- woodchuck
-cat on the trail
-goat on the trail
- deer (3)
- gray and red squirrels

Roadside treasure count: basically nothing. There was a whole banana but didn't go back for it. The trail is extremely clean, I think the trash count is 2 water bottles.

Day 1 and 2 on the Katy Trail, another ride.

This trip started with Mike leaving from Washington DC on the Trans-America route and me not going. The story of what it took to get me to join is another post coming, but long story short, as soon as school was out for summer I was on a plane to St. Louis, Missouri with my bike. 

We started out on the Katy Trail on Thursday morning, after a 12 mile ride through the city close to the airport side. We started at the St. Charles trailhead and rode a total of 80 miles the first day to Hermann. 

I tend to downplay my achievements, but this was remarkable for a few reasons- I had a total of 4 miles of training, and that was basically testing out my new fork. 30 minutes of seat time on a bike in a year. And then riding 80 miles. That's more than the bike portion of a half-ironman race. I don't recommend it, but it can be done. The second thing is that the Katy trail is all crushed limestone. It's not what I'd call gravel, but some people might. It's not smooth, and it provides some resistance compared to pavement. The third thing is that the Katy trail is flat, possibly with a very slight incline because we're going up river towards Kansas City. Flat means no coasting. Flat means constant pedaling. 

Given all of our incredible, technical, challenging rides, the Katy trail feels like riding on a kiddie roller-coaster even though you're tall enough to ride the Big Stuff. It's fun for sure, but it's not a challenge. It's relaxing to not have a challenge right now. It's rewarding to just ride. You can't really get lost, it's remarkably well signed, and the shade from the trees is amazing. There's water and ice and restrooms all throughout the 80 miles we did yesterday. Very different from the 83 mile run in Nevada between towns with nothing but high desert. Or Washington state's complete lack of road signs. No cars and few other cyclists allow Mike and I to ride side by side and talk, something we haven't done since a long stretch in Texas, back on the first ride. 

This route is not adventurous for us, but it's a ride. The adventure may be in parts of Kansas when we're charting our own map, or Colorado by riding the Rockies, so it's a start to that adventure. I wanted to ride the Katy as a preview for something I could bring the kids to do, if I ever wanted to bring them out to Missouri somehow. 

Today was a choice between an 85 mile day or two days of 45/40 miles. We chose the 45 mile day and ended in Jefferson City. Tomorrow will be Colombia. 

And then, hopefully, some big miles, to reach Colorado within our time limit. We'll see where we end up. 

(All photos are being posted on Instagram)