Katy Trail 2013 Day Three, Columbia to Mokane

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Columbia to Mokane, 66 miles with my side trips.

Good Morning! It's the start of the third day on the trail, I slept so well, I actually overslept, didn't wake up until 5:30. Rob and Kelley had already finished putting away their tent and gear, and they waited for me while I hurried up and got mine ready to go. We Had The Pancake Man, but we had to ride to breakfast, as there were still no facilities there big enough to host our crowd. Nobody built anything overnight....  So, after I got my bags on the truck, we took off to Shakespeare's Pizza .....

Wait a minute....pizza for breakfast..... I guess.... Ah, but by the time we got there, late, thanks to me, the line was out in the parking lot. Like most all the lines for food, it moved very fast, however, and it turned out that we had "The Pancake Man" today. Not only are his breakfasts delicious .... best pancakes anywhere ...... also best sausage as well, and fresh fruit with cut melons, huge fresh strawberries ...... but the man is a delightful entertainer as well.

This is his set-up..... thirty pancakes at a time. The big metal box at the end is full of pancake batter, and he just slides it across the griddle, and the pancakes all drop uniformly onto the hot griddle. His artistry in flipping the things is unsurpassed! But the best is yet to come. He selects people and asks them if they are a good catcher...... then he flips them a cake..... then he has them move back, and flips them another, then Wayyyy back and flips them a third. I only saw one miss. Because I didn't get the camera's flash on in time, the pancake is invisible, but it's there.....it mid air between him and the lady in the foreground doing the catching. She did too....all three. Lots of fun.

Breakfast was really delicious. Not stuffy as his ads say, and it's true. The sausage was to die for! And the fun made the wait even enjoyable. By the time we got out, a lot of the riders were already on the road, but here is what they missed....... up, up and awaaayyy......

I guess, maybe I got a reward for sleeping in today! So....off we went, it's about ten miles back to the Katy trail, over the same loose surface as we came in on, but this time..... down the hill, instead of up! This is taken just above the last switchback .... you can see the riders coming across the picture at the bottom. There was a pull-out there that I could get safely out of the way of other riders coming down. The hill is steep, and the switchbacks are sharp.

Continued on and I was able to get a shot of Kelley and Rob coming on down the trail together. On the State Park's website is a picture of Kelley and I riding side by side, and Rob nowhere in sight, but for a while that day, he got quite a bit ahead of us, and I think that is how it came about. It's a bit blurry, but it's a nice picture of them anyway, so here it is.

A little later down the trail, I found this boat ramp down to the river, and wanted to christen my bike in the waters of the mighty Missouri!

So, Kelley and Rob did also......

A fun time, but my mountain bike has tasted the Missouri River! It'll never be the same now! There was a pretty view of the river here, looking upstream, it's a lot of water, and moving along very swiftly, as we rode alongside, pacing a log, it seemed the current was about ten mph. Lots of force there.

We crossed another bridge, and we were getting into the area now that was impacted by some of the Spring flooding. It's log jams like this under bridges that cause so many problems, we had the same sort of thing at home.

They tell you in the guide not to stand up while riding across the bridges, as the guard railings are not tall enough to stop a standing rider from going over......

Do you see the helmet? We couldn't see any hands, so we went on .....hoping there wasn't a bicyclist under that helmet.
All along this part of the trail were these pretty farms like this one.

I wanted to stop and photograph every one! But lucky you, I didn't. On down the trail, I turned off on the Jefferson City Spur because I had heard about the new dedicated bike lane into Jeff City and wanted to see it and cross over. Here is the bike path headed up to the bridge. It was almost suicide to take a bike across that bridge before the new bike lane.

And, as you get closer, you can see the winding bicycle approach structure that takes you round and round up to the bridge. There was an awful lot of money spent here for bicyclists.

Riding up that was one of the fun parts of the ride.
As I got up near the top, you can look up and see how the bike lane is tacked onto the side of the bridge rails.

Finally done going around in circles, and up onto the bike lane. Completely separated from all car traffic, it looks like this.....

And the view downstream is this.....

Here's a closer view of the Missouri State Capital.

They have these little pullouts, just for stopping and looking and photography.

across the bridge, the path dumped me out into an old neighborhood, I saw no restaurants, and nothing really that made me want to go any further, so, I backtracked back to the trail again. Rob and Kelley waited on me, I saw them back at the North Jefferson rest stop. How nice! So, the three of us again went up the trail together. Coming into the little town of Tebbetts, there was a rest stop, with shade, and a picnic table, so we stopped for a bit. I wanted to check out the Tebbetts hostel as well. Free lodging for bicyclists on the trail.

The inside was clean and nice..... showers, a kitchenette, and a comfy appearance. It was even sort of cool inside. They did have a window air conditioner, but not sure if it was on.

A few of us coming into Tebbetts on the trail

There was a store there, but it wasn't open the day we came through. And, the shelter was empty. After a decent rest, we headed on down the trail for Mokane. This was turning out to be another long, hot day. We got into Mokane at around 1:30pm, after looking and not finding anywhere to eat prior to Mokane. We were hungry and thirsty. Mokane Bar and Grill served the purpose. Just before the bar and grill, however was a reminder not to imbibe too much..... the Mokane jail. You know how in all the western movies, how jails are so roomy and actually comfy looking? Well, in reality, a lot more of the old west jails looked much like this one.....

I would think one night, or day in this one would probably be a good lesson to obey the law. After this quick stop, we headed over to the bar, and barely found a place to park our bikes.... the place was packed! Went in, and sat down and ordered a couple of colds ones each, then finally he got our order for hamburgers. There was only the overworked bartender working the front, and his (wife?) in the kitchen doing the cooking. It took a LONG time. I think it was a ploy to sell more beer, if so, it worked. The beer wasn't particularly cheap either. The nice part..... Kelley and Rob bought most of the beer, and Fred bought the burgers. Hurrah Rob and Kelley and Fred!!!  The trail ride amounts to  Mokane business district's harvest! Finally, when the burgers came, they were HUGE..... and very good! Worth the wait? No..... but we had a fun time anyway. We were joined by Fred .... a guy who reminded me so much of Eddie Haskell on Leave it to Beaver, but he was so funny, and made the time disappear. We really didn't want to head up the hill to the school too early because we thought there would be little shade. There was a little shade however, and we should have gone up, set up our tents, and then came down and ate and drank. But, we didn't, we left the town of Mokane around 4:30, and immediately started uphill. The park service supplied a shuttle for those who didn't want to ride up, but it really wasn't that bad, so we all rode it. Got to the school, and the camping area, not only had little shade, it was ALL gone, and what was left wasn't very level.

 We found a spot, then went into the (maybe) gymnasium where we could get out of the sun, and relaxed. Tonight was a cold shower night, felt good while it lasted. I'll bless the man who ever invented the portable shower truck, there is no way we could have done this ride without it. After dinner, we sat up on the hillside in the shade of a tree, and enjoyed the light breeze. Dinner in Mokane.... Oh yes, before I forget,..... today was a poker run..... I got absolutely nothing, except five cards, all different! Rob got two pair, but even that didn't put him in the money. Dinner tonight was, I think there was a salad, and roast chicken and roast pork chops..... both were quite dry, veggie, roast new potatoes, which was the best part of the dinner, fresh baked roll and fresh fruit. Dessert was a soggy pineapple upside down cake. Not the best dinner on the trip, but still edible. All in all, it turned out to be a more comfortable camp than most of us thought. Stayed up and chatted after dinner, until bedtime. I was very tired again, turned in a bit after 9pm. Tomorrow We Ride......