I promised myself this would be an abbreviated version of this trail ride as last year's was very comprehensive with six separate posts. If you are planning a ride on the Katy for the first time, take the time to use the archive on the right and look up under 2013, June ... you will see the six Katy Trail posts. It seems as though I always promise myself a short version, and it never turns out that way.
The Katy Trail was made possible by a grant from Ted Jones and his wife Pat, without which, the trail probably would never have come to be. The trail started out in 1990 with the first section opening in Rocheport. I have had several people ask me who Katy was, so I thought I'd include that here as well. Katy was not a person, but rather a further shortening of the railroads abbreviated "handle". The Missouri, Kansas, Texas railroad at first used the "handle" the "MKT Line", but eventually the "M" was dropped and it became simply the "KT" which if pronounced phonetically becomes "Katy". The railroad began in 1870 and ceased operations in 1988, and had extensive trackage through Missouri, eastern Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Now, however, the Katy Trail has an altogether different meaning. The longest continual rail trail in the U.S. it runs for approximately 240 miles across Missouri and has become a must-do right of passage for bicyclists all over the country. This particular ride is put on by the Missouri State Parks Department, and I think they mentioned that there was 337 riders this year from 37 states. After riding it last year, and again this year, I can see why it's such a popular ride.
Enough history already, lets get on with the ride! This year, my friend Jim from Estes Park, Colorado and I decided to do the ride together, and we arrived in Clinton, Missouri Saturday evening. Sunday dawned with thunder, lightning and rain at 6am for an ominous beginning, and then another round of heavy rain started just as we were loading. The ride this year went from St Charles Missouri and returned to Clinton. We began our ride on Sunday with a bus ride from Clinton to St Charles while our bikes rode comfortably wrapped up in movers blankets tightly packed in the luggage trucks. Arriving in St Charles at around 3:30 in the afternoon gave some of us the opportunity to round trip the St Charles to Machens section of the trail. Jim and I were already a bit trail weary after having spent the prior two days on the Prairie Spirit Trail in Kansas, so we decided set up camp, and see then what we'd do. Our campsite was overlooking the Missouri River in Frontier Park, and what a pretty camping area it was.
What a pretty view from our campsite, the mighty Missouri, in all it's glory.
After we got our camp set up, we went over to the information booth to check in and pick up our packets.
After we got checked in, settled in and relaxed for a bit, we decided to head downtown and find something to eat. The first place we found was Lewellens Pub, a busy, delightful Irish style pub with good food and Guinness on tap.
Looked good to us. Dinner was great, the beer was great, and afterwards we decided to explore the historic downtown area of St Charles on our bikes. Usually a rather busy suburb of St Louis, on Sunday afternoon, it was very kicked back. We rode our bikes right down Main Street, gawking like the tourists we were, amid very cautious and patient car drivers. So much fun exploring such a beautiful, and historical downtown area. So typical of the Main Street U.S.A. look of Midwest towns of the era.
Sitting on the benches and watching traffic go by .....it's what to do on Sunday evening. Gotta love the kicked back people, and the wonderful old time look with the old style street lamps. Like a bygone era, a lifestyle people just have no time for anymore.
Any place this busy has to be a great place to be. Jim is already headed for the front door.
Inside, there were all manner of goodies, from homemade fudge,
to literally walls of homemade candies.
We, however were on a mission! This place also had the best ice cream in St Charles. It was a warm evening, we had a big riding day tomorrow, and carb loading is necessary ....so .... ice cream it was! While we were sitting out on a bench under the store canopy, I chatted with this dapper gentleman all dressed up in his Sunday finest, including the matching shoes, who allowed me to take his photo. Most certainly a colorful local character.
After we finished off our ice cream, we rode off in front of vine covered stores and headed back to camp.
We spent the rest of the evening talking about the trails we had already ridden on this trip, those to come, and what the weather might bring. The evening time was also a time for getting reacquainted with old friends and fellow riders from last year. It was so much fun! For me, anyway, it's not the bike riding that makes this ride so wonderful, it's all the friends you make along the way. Spending a week riding, living, eating, and just being with the same people doing the same thing every day makes for some long time friendships. Soon it was time to crawl into my tent and dream happy dreams of what was to come. Here we are at the end of my first Katy Trail post and we haven't even ridden any trail yet ..... ah, yes, a shortened version .....well, be sure and read the next installment.
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