The KATY trail in Missouri is reportedly the oldest and longest "Rail to Trail" system in the US and has been a riding goal of mine for many years. It starts near Clinton in western Missouri and ends in Machens in eastern Missouri and covers about 240 miles. It is named after the former rail line, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (MKT or KATY) and is a state park. I first heard about it from the guys that I rode RAGBRAI with back in 2015 and they ride sections of it on a routine basis. It is considered to be one of the "Crown Jewels" of touring cycling and so I figured I needed to add it to my list of places I have ridden.
After a driving / recovery day after BAK we set out on the Katy on a nice, sunny day and instantly found the trail to be very easy to ride and navigate, once you got to the 'start' that is! It is essentially a well maintained 'dirt road' (as we would say in South Carolina) covered by a layer of well compacted, very small crushed limestone that snapped, crackled and popped as you rode along it. Every few miles the trail passes by small towns that are designated by a small depot looking structure. The town businesses put flyers up on a bulletin board that tell you what is available and going on in each town. These were a big help when we were trying to find lunch or snacks each day and also provided a short history lesson of the towns. Most of the towns were very small, 'one stoplight' small as a matter of fact and as we were riding early in the week, many businesses were closed. One such business was nice enough to post of list of local businesses and their operating days on their front door and that was a big help in knowing where to go to find food and water. On the other hand, some of the towns; Jefferson City for example, were large and had a wide variety of businesses that could help with any issue that might arise. We stayed in a variety of places along the way, from a quintessential 'Bed & Breakfast' (complete with a way too intrusive 'hostess') to a large, chain hotel in Jefferson City. All were good and very amenable to cyclists as were the rest of the businesses we encountered. The majority of them provided very nice and secure bike storage and facilities to help take care of bikes and had bike themed decorations in their businesses. Everyone along the trail obviously recognized the commerce that the trail brought to them and as such were happy to see us. Everyone that is, except this cat that is the lobby of an old hotel we stayed at one night. He walked right up to me and starting meowing very loudly and directly at me. After a few seconds of that the bartender told me that I was in 'his chair' and that I should move or else the cat would continue to fuss at me. I moved, he jumped up in 'his' chair, and promptly began a very uncomfortable looking nap on his back. At no point did he thank me for relinquishing his chair to him, he just went on about his cat business as if no one else in the world even existed.
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Sometimes it crosses farm land. |
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Sometimes it is in the woods. |
We rarely saw other riders on the first many days and when we encountered any at a stopping place we would have brief conversations about the condition of the trail and what businesses were open/closed along the way. If the riders were going in the same direction we would often ride with them for a short period of time and chat about other rides we have done. Sometimes we would overlap with those same people on the next day or two and they grew to be 'KATY Friends'. Once we got closer to St Charles and the weekend we encountered all sorts of people on the trail and riding it got a little more tedious than the previous many days, but still fun nonetheless. A really fun couple we encountered were "Larry and Diane". They have many years of riding together under their belts and were great fun to talk to and learn from. One particularly rough event with them was when one of them turned onto a short cut and the other didn't. It took a small village to get them back together but when they were reunited they were very grateful to everyone that helped out. We also got a chance to meet up with an old friend from my early cycling days. Bill rode out on the trail from his home near St Charles on our last day and rode back into St Charles with us. It was good to see him again and hear about all the rides he, and his cycling buddies, have been doing lately. I also benefited from the goodwill of random cyclists after my shoes fell off of my bike rack one day. I did not notice they were gone for hours, so there was no turning back to get them as that would have screwed up our timing for our next overnight stop. So I posted a photo of them onto the KATY Trail page in Facebook and asked if anyone had seen them. Several posts about them followed and our shuttle driver reached out to tell me that she would go get them if someone would just put them in a place where she could reach them in the van. Another cyclist saw my post, then saw my shoes and picked them up, and to make a long story short he carried them for about 80 miles to bring them to a bike store in St Charles where we met up and he returned my shoes to me! Pretty darn cool if you ask me!
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Me, Wendy, Trail Buddy Sarah and Old Buddy Bill at the end. |
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| Getting my shoes back ! |
All in all, the KATY Trail is a great experience with lots of fun places and things to see and do. It's an easy ride that can be done on almost any road bike as long as it has tires that are sized well for the trail conditions. IT IS FULL OF SNAKES though and they were quite frightening to me, who is a snake-phob from way back :) I am quite confident they were all the very rare Missouri Pit Viper Cobra Diamondback Rattler variety and all lethal to my heart had I inadvertently encountered one in close proximity. Other wildlife we encountered included squirrels, turtles, deer, and various scurrying woodlands creatures - none of which made me fear for my life !
PS: My phone crashed in early July and I lost all the photos I had taken between early April and early July, consequently I am lacking a good number of photos from any of my trips, including this one. Such a sad lesson I've learned !
