Katy Trail 2013 Day One, Clinton to Sedalia, MO.

 

 

 

Monday, June 17, 2013

 

 

Clinton to Sedalia, 40 miles give or take; I ended up with a few tenths over.

 

 

Zero dark thirty ......... time to load baggage on the trucks, light rain falling, overcast, and a 10mph wind from the northeast, coincidentally, the same direction we'd be travelling today. Does it get any better than this? Fortunately, YES ...... These people definitely know what they are doing! Time and time again, I was just amazed at the efficiency of the staff and work crew on this ride. Tireless people who were always helpful, courteous, and always got it done right. The organization of this ride was nothing short of amazing!

 

 

 

 

The Community Center in Clinton where the ride began.

 

 

Breakfast was served inside, we had had our riders meeting Sunday night here when they explained what the first day would entail, plus, they handed out these nifty guide books that were a trail riders bible for the rest of the trip.

 

 

Chocked full of useful information, I checked mine frequently throughout the ride. Breakfast is served in the Community Center, sorry about the blurry photo, but the light wasn't the best for pictures, and nobody stood still for me.

 

 

When I had looked at photos like this of previous rides, I thought to myself ..... self.....you are in for some serious line waiting time for everything. Not so!!! They usually had two to four lines when you got to the food tables, all three hundred of us were served quickly and efficiently. Breakfast started at 6am, and no matter where I was in line, I was usually finished with breakfast and getting started on the trail by 6:30am. Breakfast today was biscuits and gravy and fresh fruit. We had fresh fruit every morning, always fresh, and always good. So, breakfast over, out and on the bike to begin my first day's journey. By the time breakfast was over, the rain had stopped and the pavement was drying, plus the clouds were moving on. Here's the Clinton trail head........

 

 

Right behind it was the first of many Katy cabooses.....

 

 

 

And our welcome to the Katy Trail State Park.... the longest and narrowest State Park in the World.

 

 

 

Gettin' goin' down the trail.

 

 

Calhoun, MO. Loved this old vine covered elevator.

 

 

After I took the picture of this, I happened to turn around, and there was an old man sitting on his porch swing behind me, so I waved and he waved, and I asked if I could come and set a spell. He said sure ..... turns out he's 84 years young, and still rides short rides on his bicycle. He lived there when the Katy was running steamers and servicing the elevator there. Interesting old man to talk with. But, time to move on, and so back on the trail. Up the road a bit was our first SAG stop, fruit (bananas and apples), water and/or Gatorade mix. You really only need to carry one water bottle on this ride, as they have a SAG stop every ten miles. Only once did I get into my second bottle during the entire ride. There was a pretty good crowd of bikes at this one, and one of the helpers I noticed was this young gentleman, helping to direct traffic and slow riders down. Wearing his official State Parks uniform shirt too.

 

 

And then it was on to Windsor where they had an open caboose that was fully restored. It was open for entry and close inspection. You don't very often get to see the inside of these things, but on this ride there were several. The best I think at Boonville, but that'll come later.

 

 

 

 

It was here that I met Kathy. I asked her about her unusual crescent saddle, and she said she absolutely loved it. Saddle first........

 

 

 

And the owner...... Kathy lived in Columbia, MO, a fact I was glad I remembered later on. You will read more about that in tomorrows episode. Here's Kathy, and I enjoyed her company off and on for the rest of the ride.

 

 

 

Moving on down the trail, I soon came to the "high point" on the trail .... okay now, I don't want any of my N.M. and CO. friends getting nosebleeds here.......

 

 

 

But this meant that everything from here on was downhill ..... right? Nope ...... theoretically maybe, but it sure wasn't that way on Tuesday. Soon , before you know it, I was in downtown Green Ridge, MO, so typical of so many of the small communities along the trail, this one bigger than a lot of them.

 

 

And then there was this old guy on his single speed Huffy, kept passing me like I was backin' up.....

 

 

And, before you know it ...... Sedalia, MO! The restored depot at Sedalia is a must see along the trail, gift shop, art work, and today ....... the State Parks people arranged to have local restaurant caterers to set up at the depot for our convenience. The ride doesn't supply lunch, but they did arrange food for sale here at the depot for our convenience. I had a burger (so-so) but dinner was coming up. There was much to see around the depot, they even had a bike shop there. You never know what kind of bike you''ll see running the Katy......

 

 

 An interesting Fat Tire bike for sure. While I was there, one of the staff was nice enough to offer to take my picture with my camera, and get the depot in the background.

 

 

 I did really love the old depot.

 

 

 As well as the artwork in front ....

 

 

 If you look closely, you will see it's a train engine and tender negotiating a winding, hilly track .... signs of what's to come, although I didn't know that yet. Then, there was art work within the art work......... truly a unique piece of metal sculpture. 

 

 

 All around the depot, the theme was old player pianos, so it seemed only fitting that they would have one out on the tracks. They left the section of tracks in front of the depot which I thought was a nice touch as well. Loved This player piano.......

 

 

 

And then it was a quick ride down through Sedalia, here's Main Street.

 

 

A lot of the small towns we went through had Churches with the classic old tall steeples like this one.

 

 

This is the entry to Liberty Park.

 

 

 

 

 This proved to be one of the nicer campsites due mainly to the shade available. I was there ahead of most of the riders, so I got one of the nicer shaded sites. Here is home sweet home.

 

 

Later on, everything you see behind me was FULL of tents. Tent city for sure. Back in the back of the photo is the nice covered area that they unloaded our luggage under, and behind that was the shower truck. So nice to have hot water and clean showers every night and hot water for shaving. That afternoon was kind of quiet for me. A lot of the riders had done this ride several times before and joined into little groups for conversation, that I felt reluctant to break in on. There were, however, three nice ladies from Lawrence, Kansas  who set up right next to me, and we eventually got to chatting and the afternoon went fast. We ended up being good friends at the end of the ride. Then there was dinner. Again, a model of efficiency. Fast lines and great food, as well as plenty of it. The logistics involved in putting on a ride like this staggers my mind. Again, these people just take it in stride and it works so well.

Dinner tonight .....Salad (veggie and Mac) pulled pork (plain or BBQ) large dinner roll, (freshly baked) BIG baked potato, green beans, iced tea or water, and dessert. They called out that anyone wanting seconds could come and get 'em. I barely waddled away from there. Ate dinner with my new neighbors, and we chatted away the dinner time. Then it was the nightly riders meeting, where they introduced all our staff and let us know what was in store for us tomorrow. Tomorrow was going to be the longest day of the ride , 70 or so miles. Afterwards, we went back to camp, to hang out and chat. The Park Rangers were a constant presence, patrolling our campgrounds every night, all night long, and on the trails during the day. I made this cute Ranger stop and pose for me. She was also very informative about her duties and riding the trail. Fun talking to her, she was out on the trail the next day as well.

 

 

 

The rest of the evening, I chatted with my neighbors and new friends from dinner, turning in shortly after dark. I was tired! The next day started early again. Nitie nite all!