Katy Trail: Riding Part One

(I am embarrassed to admit how long this took to finally write and post. I started writing it right after the trip, which was mid-May. I then had issues with uploading all the pictures onto the computer to get on the blog. And then I just...didn't write. So with much delay, I am posting this)

I am pleased to announce that my friend, Q and I survived the Katy Trail. 

Which, honestly, I am shocked. The trip almost didn't happen. This just goes to show that it does not matter how much you plan something out, sometimes life has other ideas.

My last post had our official plan. See it here if you would like. However, this plan ended up completely changing. Here's what went down.

Q's parents were nice enough to drive us to Columbia where Patty was meeting us with the RV. We were then to drive that evening to Clinton so we could start biking Monday morning. Patty made it to Columbia shortly after we did...aaand the RV died. Seriously. All the planning, all the training, all the anticipation, and the one thing we did not even consider could happen, happened.

The RV!

So we ended up staying the evening in Columbia, unsure if we would be able to get to do any of the trail and we were all in rather foul moods. What do I do when I am frustrated/angry/sad/stressed? Go to a park, of course. So Q showed me around and we walked around two nearby parks. One had cool exercise machines around a trail and I am pretty stoked to say I finally did my first ever unassisted pull up and chin up. 

Anyway, the RV got fixed Monday morning and we were able to get on the road to Clinton. Instead of getting to bike early in the morning, we did not get to bike until about 2:30 PM. Needless to say, our 70 mile day did not occur. We ended up only doing 37 miles, making it to Sedalia. 

We had to take before pictures!

I wish I could say that 37 miles was easy for me, but that would be a giant lie. I completely struggled with day one. Which freaked me out. If I struggled with just doing 37 miles, how the heck did I expect to do the up coming longer days?! I was also worried that Q, who spent more time on a bike than I did regularly would get super sick of my slow pace.

This stretch of the trail was sort of boring in comparison to other stretches. However, you do get to get to the "High Point" of the trail. Despite the Katy being more or less a flat trail (since it used to be a rail road track), there is some change in elevation. And when you are in the areas of just open land and fields and there is no shade in sight, you can feel that ever so slight up-hill feeling.

The very sunny high point of the trail

We did not know where we were going to stay the first night since our plan was not being followed anymore. We realized that Sedalia was as far as we would make it, so we started searching for RV options. We rolled into the Sedalia train depot (which was super adorable, by the way) and Patty was waiting for us. We saw a couple sitting outside their RV in the parking lot so Patty went over to them to ask where they were staying for the night. They said they got permission from the depot to just park there for the night, so we did the same. 

Tired. Worn Out. Happy to be off the bike. 

We Made it to Sedalia!

Despite day one being much shorter than we had originally planned, I was just excited we were even on the trail. I forgot how much harder the Katy Trail was compared to paved bike trails. I don't even know how many times we looked at each other the first few miles and just exclaimed our excitement and disbelief that we were actually on the Katy.

Our accidental matching outfits for day two

Day two we took off from Sedalia and made it to Hartsburg, making that day 72.5 miles. We ended up rolling into the last stop a few minutes past Sunset. The last few miles were awfully miserable; I was tired and sore (especially my thighs and bum) and the bugs were just ridiculous as the day went on. We did get to go through some tunnels and over many bridges that day, which meant some neat pictures. 

Q in a Tunnel

Resting on a Bridge

We rested at every trailhead, which ranged between 5 miles to 16 miles. The trailheads are located in the towns that the MKT Railroad had stopped in. Each trailhead looked like a mini train stop. I really enjoyed all the train details throughout the entire trip. Each rest time was about 10-20 minutes, depending on how long we had biked to get there. Sometimes on the longer legs we stopped after X amount of biking just to rest our bodies or hydrate. We also took about an hour break each day for lunch where we could eat, stretch, and rest in the shade. Lunch breaks were a God send, seriously. I think letting your body rest up and power up is insanely important in order to do the long days. And we had some 10-12 hour days of biking. 

And, let's face it. I was not in as good of shape as Q. He was so patient with me and we balanced each other nicely. I tried to bike quicker for his sake, and he slowed down for me. 

Once we made it to the first stop after Sedalia (Clifton City) we kept running into the same little groups of cyclists along the way. We would all end up meeting at each rest place around the same time. It was fun getting to talk to other riders along the way and hear their experience levels and advice. Some of them were doing it for the first time, like us, and were taking much more time to do it. Others had done this ten plus times before. But when we hit about 50 miles for the day, we lost all the people we had been meeting up with, because they stopped. We pushed on another 20+ miles.

Standing in the Rocheport Tunnel

Day two had the most beautiful stretch of the trail in my opinion, especially the Rocheport area. The above picture is me inside the Rocheport tunnel, which is one of the iconic stops along the Katy Trail. It is a beautiful tunnel. I loved all the aspects along the trail that made you think about the history of the trail and the importance of the railroad, and this tunnel just embodies that. 

Q decided we needed to go off the trail and go to the Big Tree which can be found just near McBaine, MO. This tree is 350-400 years old and is 90 feet tall. Talk about feeling tiny and insignificant. This is a sight that is definitely worth seeing and is just a quick ride away from the trail.

I just needed to hug it

Q snuggled up to it, too.

Needless to say, I am very happy we took the time to go look at The Big Tree. If/when I ride the Katy again, I will give myself more days to do it so I can do more exploring like this along the way. There is just so much to see!

Like I mentioned, we rolled into the last stop of day two as the sun was setting. That night we camped where we originally planned, a camp ground in Jefferson City called Binder Park. We stopped in Hartsburg, which meant the drive to Jeff City was a bit longer than we had planned, but we ran out of daylight hours to bike any more. We decided backtracking the next morning would be easier. We insisted in getting all the miles on the trail and not skipping any sections. 

Last Stop of day two

By the time we got to the campground, it was completely dark and we could not find the campground host. So, we just grabbed a nearby spot and got situated for the night. A shower had not felt that wonderful since I went 5 days without a shower when camping at Yellowstone National Park. Well, we found out in the daylight the next morning that we picked the handicap camp spot. And we apparently did not register correctly. Two strikes against us by the campground host. Luckily, Patty was able to get on his good side by talking to him about the movie RV and we told him we were mid riding the entire Katy and rolled in super late last night. He softened and ended up joking around with us...whew...

Okay this post just got super long so that is all for now and I will continue on in the next post with days 3 and 4 of our epic Katy trip!