Hitting the Dusty Trail, MO

Monday, July 17. St. Charles, MO to McKettrick, MO.

Today is a rest day for the Tour de France, but not for us. We finally found a hotel yesterday that has the OLN channel in its cable lineup, and enjoyed watching the tour coverage of Stage 14. Hated to see the big crash that took out half the breakaway group, though. Don't know if we'll be able to see Stage 15, tomorrow. Go Floyd!

We got up early, knowing that the day was going to be another hot one. This is our first day on the Katy Trail, and we've been anticipating this ride for a long time. The Katy Trail is the country's longest rails-to-trails project, turning the railroad bed of the former Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MK&T) Railroad into a 225-mile-long bicyle trail. In 1986, the railroad ceased operations on the railroad, and in 1999, the Katy Trail was officially opened. Many of the towns that had depended on the railroad are now seeing new commercial traffic from the many cyclists who ride the trail every year.

After breakfast we found that the St. Charles trailhead was about a half-mile from the hotel We got to the trail just before 8:00am, and as our tires touched the dusty trail, we heard the crunch of the crushed limestone underneath our wheels. This surface is similar to that on the Erie Canal towpath trail, and in no time at all, everything from our knees down was soon covered in a fine white powder. On this type of surface our speed is reduced, but riding in the cool shade was worth the tradeoff. (Matthew's original plan had been to cross Missouri by going through the Ozarks, so a flat, shady path by the river makes him look like a super-genius). There was some local trail traffic on the trail for the first hour or so, but once the heat of the day started to rise, trail traffic became very sparse.

The trail winds past the Missouri River, in the same places where Lewis and Clark's Discovery Corps traveled the river. From our perch on the railbed, it's very easy to imagine their 3 boats sailing this waterway, past Daniel Boone's family land. By the time the Discovery Corps sailed the river, this area was already being farmed. The rich bottomland here still supports crops such as--you guesed it--corn.

Wildlife invetory on the trail today is big: several turtles, including one who was playing Katy Trail's version of Frogger, numerous snakes, a handful of bunnies, one deer, a rasher of lizards, an assortment of squirrels and dozens of indigo buntings, cardinals and one wooly mammoth.

At the trail head in Defiance, I saw a sign for Ted Drewes' Frozen Custard. Even though it was only 10:30am, I was stopping for custard. According to our friends in the know, (5, hollz) Ted Drewe's is the best custard in the country, made In St. Louis and coveted by St. Louis-ans. Since St. Louis isn't on our triptik, I took this chance as a sign from God, and immediately got off the trail.

Once we had our snacks in hand (custard, Grafton peach, Gatorade, Twix), we stepped out of the store and met Larry and Andy. Andy is turning around at this point on the trail to return to St. Charles, while Larry is continuing on to Hermann, which is across the river from our intended stopping place in McKettrick. They met last year on a cross-country bicycle trip, and have remained friends since, getting together to ride in different parts of the country.

Right after we got back on the trail, my BOB trailer tire went flat. We found a shady place to stop, and then changed the tube. Neither of us could see or feel anything on the tire that might have caused the flat, though, so we continued on with fingers crossed (mentally).

The route continued to meander between the Missouri river and fields of corn. We passed a tall bluff with a number of farm buildings at the top of the bluff. Each of them was meticulously maintained, but the one closest to the trail side had been painted to make the windows look like eyes, and a corncob pipe protruding from the "mouth" of the barn. I think I got a pretty good picture of it; I'll post it when I get the chance.

The natural features of the trail don't need any artificial enhancements. We came upon a gorgeous dolomite bluff on the side of the trail, and without a word, we both immediately stopped. The white-ish bluff was about 75 feet tall, supporting a prairie meadow and several trees on top. Again, I think I got a good picture of it to post here.

We stopped for lunch in Augusta, at the Augusta Microbrewery. Judging from the newspaper accounts that had been framed, gifted to and are hanging on the brewery wall, there has always been a brewery in Augusta. A German brewery, with a very good reputation. Matthew had one of their Tannhouser Pale Ales and enjoyed it a lot. But also decided against having beer at lunch anymore, particularly when it's this hot.

As we left the brewery, we stopped to talk with a couple of men and their kids, out on the trail for a ride today. The conversation was the usual "where'd you start, where're you going", followed by "that's quite a trip" and "I'd love to be able to do something like that when the kids get a little older". Seems like the Katy Trail provides a lot of people with a lot of opportunity for touring with kids.

As we were getting back on the trail, a van pulled up and the driver called out that my trailer tire was flat again. John, from Tulsa, pulled in and immediately offered us his tire pump. We pulled the tire off again, and this time Matthew found the hidden piece of glass that was causing the flats. While we changed the tire, we chatted with John. He'd done several cross-country bicycle tours, and one US-perimeter ride before he was 24. Then life intervened, in the form of marriage and family. But he's never lost the desire to tour, and now he's getting back into riding with his wife and 12-year-old son. He was driving the SAG wagon for them today as they rode the Katy Trail, as an introduction to touring. We thanked him for his help, and got back on the trail, where we soon met his wife and son taking a break in the shade. The heat was getting to them, it seemed; they were not too talkative. We wished them good luck and pedaled off.

Just a short time later, we met Greg Long and his son, Tim. They're from Kankakee, IL, where Greg is a Biology professor at a college in Kankakee. They're on an 8-day tour of the Katy trail, riding from one end to the other and then back to the beginning. They looked like they were enduring the heat pretty well, even camping out (without A/C!) while on their trip. Matthew asked how the dust was affecting their drivetrains; seems they had not had any difficulties. Greg had figured out a very clever, but simple mudflap for their fenders, and it was really doing the job keeping their chains clean. We wished them happy trails and headed on down the route.

The heat index today was 106, and we felt it. But we still had about 20 miles to go, and the shade was getting more and more scarce. The trail had shifted inland a little, too, so any breeze we might have had off the river had disappeared.

As we got closer to a bridge, we could make out two more touring cyclists, so we had to stop. Claudia and Rick are on the last few days of riding the entire Lewis and Clark trail. Claudia, Rick, and another couple had started together in Astoria, OR. After two weeks, the men had to return to their jobs, but the women continued on. A few days ago, Rick was able to rejoin Claudia when her girlfriend left the trail. They'll finish up this weekend, and head back to Indianapolis. We enjoyed hearing about the L&C trail, and I asked Claudia to put up her notes on a blog so that I could read the whole journey.

After that, we slogged our way thru the last 20 miles in scorching heat, stopping at Treloar for a quick break. Treloar, unfortunately, is closed on Monday, but thanks to Rick, we knew where to find the water pump and refilled our Camelbacks for the last leg of the trip. We finally reached McKettrick, and asked for directions to Penrod's View, where we were to spend the night. We had to push our bikes up a rutted gravel driveway, but once there we found Sherry and Ray to be very accommodating hosts. We are staying the night in the "guesthouse", a 2-bedroom house complete with kitchen and living room. We took showers, and then Ray was back to pick up our laundry(!) and leave us a plate of cheese, crackers, summer sausage and fruit. Then he drove us to Hermann to a Mexican restaurant, where we had the best Mexican food I've had since Rachel Q's kitchen. Our driver picked us up, and by the time we got back to the guesthouse, Sherry had delivered fresh-baked muffins for the morning--and our clean laundry.

Tomorrow's ride will continue on the Katy Trail. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the flat (and hopefully shady) parts of Missouri.