Katy Trail 2013 Day 5, Marthasville to St Charles.

June 21, 2013

Marthasville to St Charles, 39 miles, no side trips.

Last Day.

Good Morning Sunshine ..... Rise and shine! This morning I woke bright and early, had my stuff packed and on the baggage truck by 5:20am. This morning I had to awaken my travelling companions as they were still sleeping soundly. Their turn to be late. Breakfast was a repeat of the efficiency of dinner last night, breaking us into two groups, one upstairs and they ate inside, and one downstairs, who ate at the picnic area. Again, fast and efficient. Breakfast this morning was probably the best of the trip..... Scrambled eggs (as much as you want), a big slab of ham (left over from last night, but great flavored ham), as well as sausage, biscuits and gravy (fresh biscuits, and great sausage gravy), fresh fruit, coffee, and unfortunately, not juice, but orange punch...... hey can't bat 100% all the time. It was a great breakfast for the shortest day of the tour. Mixed feelings about today, in a way, glad to see it winding down, but sorry to see it end. So, breakfast done, time to get on the trail, morning shadows still long...... I felt GREAT this morning, no sore muscles, no stiffness, and great power. Even ran along in a paceline with some Colorado riders on road bikes, AND I even pulled for a few miles.

This old elevator and homestead is really all that's left of Dutzow.....

Once again, a regular patrol of the Park Rangers was always evident, every day. Loved these guys, and gals. What a great job they do!

I loved this little farmstead with the limestone cliffs around it, so pretty in the morning.

And in a little bit, before we knew it, we were at Augusta.

Always fresh fruit and water and Gatorade mix every ten miles or so. Never had a worry. This is downtown Augusta .....

I had honestly expected a much larger town, but all the towns along the trail were very small, and as I've said before, the businesses keep hours and days convenient to them, not you. We, didn't have any worries about food and drink however, as it was always provided, when we needed it. Really took a load off my mind! Augusta is home to the Augusta Winery.

 However, it doesn't open until 11:00, and we had lunch waiting for us at St Charles, shower to take,  and get ready to depart. It was only 8:30am, it would have been a long wait. Onward to St Charles. On the way, I found another pretty little old farmstead....

As well as a potpourri of wildflowers....

Wild Tiger Lillies were much in evidence along a lot of the trail, and added a lot of color to the ride.

One last chance to pose by the river.... Today was also a day of rough trail conditions, left over debris and mud that had been scraped off and dried on the trail, huge trees that had crashed down on the trail and cut up and moved to the side. Several rough areas where the trail had washed had to be negotiated carefully, as did some of the sandy spots.Most of the bad spots were either coned off, or yellow hazard taped. It was very obvious that a lot of effort and hard work was done by the State Parks Department to clear this trail and get it ready for this ride. I can't say enough good things about them.

A nice limestone formation ...

 For those who might have wanted to go on to the end of the trail at Machens, the trail was still closed due to mud and debris on the trail after St Charles, so everyone had to stop here. So.... here we are ...... The Three Bikesateers .... We Rode!!! AND, We, Got-R-Dun!!!! What a feeling of accomplishment! 272 miles on a mountain bike, almost all off pavement.

Here is a front view of the nicely restored depot at St Charles...Lunch was waiting here for us when we got here. Deli sandwiches, chips, a huge chocolate chip cookie with peanut butter inside.... yum! And ice cold soda to wash it down. Nice lunch.

One last Katy Caboose.....

And a nice view of the river beyond the park ....

And then, it was time to go collect our baggage that was unloaded from the trucks, head to the shower truck for one last shower, and then supervise the bike loading. Today we did things a little different, as the baggage stayed with us, and the bikes were loaded on the trucks.
They even had a statue there to honor those "other explorers" .....Merriwether Lewis and  William Clark.... I'm looking for contracting artists now for mine ......

They took a great deal of care loading and packing the bikes, I was very impressed. Bikes were double stacked with a plywood false floor above the first layer, supported by side tabs. All the bikes were wrapped in moving blankets, and much care was taken to make sure nothing moved or was damaged. Great job, people! Here's my bike at the side door.....You can see the plywood second floor above my bike, plenty of room there. They allowed no bags or speedometers left on the bikes for the trip back, it all had to go in your luggage, all except your helmet. A tight squeeze for some of us!

We chatted away the time while waiting for the buses in the shade of the picnic are, while some of the more energetic ones hiked into town, or at least back to the station to do some last minute shopping. Before you knew it, the buses had arrived, and we were on our way back to Clinton. The buses were first class tour buses, plush seating, and cold, cold, air! Really didn't know how to react after being in the elements for five days. They do it right!

When we arrived back at Clinton, all our bikes were unloaded and sitting there waiting for us in the parking lot, guarded of course by the park personnel. The buses dropped us off right by our cars, and we grabbed our baggage, which the park staff unloaded for us and placed on the ground next to the buses, put it in our vehicles, loaded up our bikes, said our farewell's, and were soon off toward home. No more ride tomorrow..... Although there will be one more post tomorrow about my feelings and observations of this ride in general. I will have to say, the next morning, on my way home, I felt very lonely and rather sad indeed. I missed my companions, and the camaraderie of the ride! All good thing do come to an end, but I'm sure I'll be back for another go at this one.