Katy is a beauty. Katy is fun. Katy is popular. Katy runs 238 miles across Missouri. Katy is the longest 'Rails to Trails' bicycle path in America (2015)!

Rails to Trails are old, no longer used, railway lines that have had the train rails removed and the path turned into a bicycle trail . The enticing thing about these bike trails are the fact that they are usually flat for most of the route. Trains didn't like to run up hills, so, when possible, railways were built on flat ground.

These 'Rails to Trails' are found around the world. I have wanted to ride the Katy Trail for a long time. As a matter of fact, 3 years ago I had a bike tour planned on the Katy, but that didn't work out in the end.

The U.S. has 22,107 miles of rail trails currently. Michigan has the most of any state (2,381 miles). The Cowboy Trail in Nebraska will be 321 miles long when it is finished.

A Different Kind of Ride
Now, in 2015, I am making plans again to ride from St. Charles, Missouri to Sedalia, Missouri on the Katy Trail.

This bike tour will be different from any other I have done. The main difference is that, for the first time, I will be riding with someone, not solo as before . My nephew, Dewayne, will be riding with me this time.

Another difference is this route is mostly off-road. All my other tours have been on public roads. I won't have to watch for passing motorist on this ride. Only bicycles and people on foot are allowed on the trail, except for a short distance where horses are also allowed.

Besides these differences, another thing different about this ride is that I will mostly be riding on flat surfaces! I won't be riding hills and mountains like on my other tours.

This bike tour will take about 5 days, I think.

The Plan
The planning of these bike tours usually take as long, or longer, than the ride actually does. This time Dewayne and I will both be working out the logistics of the trip.

We both do our research and discuss our findings. I have a lot of great ideas and Dewayne has a couple that aren't bad . So, we bat our ideas back and forth and come out with a workable plan.

We will drive, with our bikes on the car rack, to Sedalia, Mo from Dewayne's home in northeast Arkansas. We will leave the car at the train station in Sedalia. The Katy Trail actually starts in Clinton, Mo., 40 miles west of Sedalia. But, we cannot find a good place to leave the car and catch the train in Clinton, so we will start in Sedalia instead. 

The plan is to load the bikes onto the Amtrak train in Sedalia and go to Machens, Missouri. Then we will start our ride back to the car in Sedalia. Machens is about 3 miles from St Charles, Mo., but, the train does not stop in St Charles, so we have to get off at Machens. 
 
Arkansas to Missouri
We leave the comforts of the bed around 1 or 2 a.m. and arrive in Sedalia around 8 a.m. We park at the Amtrak Station and walk through the downtown Sedalia Historic District. Fascinating facades from the 1800's dominate the streets of this old town .

Do some daydreaming here . . . back to about 1861! There is a small prairie town called Sedalia, consisting of only two blocks. There were 3 or 4 houses here, a small store, a post office and a couple of hotels. Then came the railroad!

The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad began operating in Sedalia in 1873 and by 1881 Sedalia was the intersecting point for 4 rail lines. Thousands of workers were hired to build and maintain the rail lines and staff the depots, offices, railroad hospital and stockyards.

The last passenger boarded the train at the Depot in 1958. Today, the old freight depot is a museum and gift shop and stands as a reminder of the glory days of the railroad. 
 
Dewayne and I visit the old Katy Depot in Sedalia. We walk around and look at the sculptures on the premises. We will park the car here and bike back to it, about 225 miles or so from Machens, Mo.

The "Rag Tag Train" is a metal train sculpture . Also, we see a "Step Up Caboose" scuplture on display. I sit at the  "Syncopated Rhythm Piano" and entertain Dewayne, ready to be mesmerized by my musical talent! 

This old depot is the spot where we will end the ride on our return bike trip.

We go back to the Amtrak Station to wait for the train. Dewayne points out the sign in the train depot that tells us the panniers (bags) on the bikes have to be removed and the bike has to be put in the overhead storage bins on the trains, above the seats! 

I have researched this, though, and found an up-to-date forum online where someone says that is no longer required. Now, you just put your loaded bike on the train, as is. They have removed some seats to make room for 4 bikes per trip. So, you need to make a reservation early enough to get one of the 4 bike spots if you plan to travel by train.

At one point, we planned to park in Machens, ride the train to Sedalia, and bike back to Machens . But, when we tried to book the train, there was only one bike spot left. So, we ended up parking in Sedalia and taking the train to Machens and biking the other direction back to the car in Sedalia.

More About Katy
The Katy Trail is built on what once was the rail lines of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. It stopped operating in 1986 along this route and the biking trail was created as a result. The surface is crushed limestone. Not quite as easy to bike on as pavement is, but, as long as it is dry, it is packed pretty solid in most places. In some places the limestone is soft, but for the most part it is hard. If it rains, though, the limestone gets soft and difficult to bike through. On our trip we were fortunate not to have rain during our ride or before, so the path was in good shape for riding.
 
The Katy Trails follows along beside the pretty Missouri River. There are scenic bluffs and canopy covered trail sections. You ride through forests and wetlands, valleys and rolling farmland . In spite of the different terrain, the Katy trail is, for the most part, very flat riding.  

The section of the trail between St Charles and Boonville, Mo is an official part of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. We stopped at some of the historic markers along the trail, next to the river, and read about the Lewis and Clark adventures.

Starting the Bike Tour
We got off the train about 3 miles before St Charles. The train does not stop in St Charles. The first 20 miles of our ride was through the city. And there were hills! The Katy Trail is mostly flat but we have to ride this 20 mile route through the city to reach the trailhead. The traffic is heavy and the hills are relentless. 

We got a few hours sleep before leaving home around 1 or 2 a.m., rode the train for several hours and then had to ride this 20 mile route to reach the trail! By the time we reached the trail we had already put in an exhausting day . 

Nevertheless, after reaching the trailhead, we still had to ride another 26 miles to reach our first campsite of the trip. We rode into the camp after dark. Exhausted, we set up our tents in the dark and munched on a little bit of the food we carried with us.

The Unwelcome Visitor
Soon as the tents were set up, we were ready to sleep. But, before I fell asleep, we had a visitor in the camp!

"Dewayne", I called in a low voice over to his tent. "There is a skunk in the camp".
"Be quiet" he said. "Don't disturb him". I think Dewayne was so tired after our long day, that he never even looked out at the skunk. 

Using my headlight, I watched this beautiful black and white animal from inside my tent. He prowled around the camp for a long time, looking for morsels of food, then spent time going around the outside of my tent.

For obvious reasons I laid very still as he prowled around my tent . I could hear his movements. Dewayne's tent was a lot bigger than mine, why didn't he go there instead?

After a very long time I heard him moving out away from my tent and away from our campsite. Fortunately, he didn't leave any unwanted scents for us.

How Can This Be?
We broke camp early in the morning, eager to start our first full day of biking! But, there is a problem. My front tire is flat. This is the first flat I have had on any of my 4 long distance tours.
 
I unload the panniers from the bike, turn it upside down, remove the front wheel and fix the tube. It delays us by about half an hour and then we are on our way.

The second night we stay in a cabin right on the trail. It's good to have a bed and not have to set up camp and tear it down the next morning. It's a nice campsite and we enjoyed talking with one of the owners and a few of the other bikers camping here.

Our third day of riding is a short day . Dewayne will leave the trail tonight. His wife will pick him up and I will complete the last half of the trail alone.

Dewayne has ridden over a hundred miles in 3 days. This is his first bicycling tour and that is a great accomplishment. He may return sometime to ride the last half of the trail. A lot of people ride the trail in sections, until they complete it over a period of time. Sometimes they do it over a few years. I hope he enjoyed his first bike tour. It was nice to have someone to ride with a few days.

An Even More Unwelcome Visitor
I spent the night at the Katy Trail Shelter and had another unwanted visitor!

The shelter has maybe 20 bunk beds and a kitchen downstairs and about the same number of beds upstairs. Often groups, like church groups or Boy Scouts stay here. But, tonight I will be the only person here.
 
Dewayne and his wife, Tammy, left me around 6 P.M. or so. A little later a man and his 12 year old son came to the shelter to take a shower . We had a good time talking. They had a cabin in the hills nearby and came for the weekend.

The father and son left and by 10 or so I was ready for bed. I want to be up early to start the ride before the sun gets up very much.

I was just about asleep, probably around 11 P.M. when I heard the doorknob jiggle. I had locked the door before going to bed. 

"Maybe someone biking the trail is arriving late and looking for a place to sleep", I thought. If I hadn't been half asleep maybe I would have rationalized that no one would be coming off the trail this late. It is illegal to be on the trail before daylight or after sunset. You have to ride or run the trail during daylight hours only.

Not thinking, I opened the door to see who was there. A guy, around 20 or so, pushed his way in. No shirt on. He slurred something about wanting to charge his phone . Apparently he was a local person because he seemed to know where to go to find a plug for his phone, at the other end of the building.

He opened the refrigerator door but didn't find anything he wanted, I guess, because he closed it right away without taking anything.

He wandered back to where I was and mumbled some things. I didn't get too involved trying to talk to him. Then, he fell into an empty bunk and seemed to pass out.

I didn't want to go to sleep with him here in the shelter, though. Anyone thinking straight would figure a long trip biker would carry extra cash and probably credit cards.

I have made it a habit in my travels not to keep all my funds and papers in one place. I keep cash and cards in different places. In case someone finds some, maybe they won't find all I have.

While he was sleeping, I moved most of my cash and cards to places more difficult to find . I left some in a more obvious place just to satisfy him if he demanded it.

I can't stay awake all night, though, and don't want to sleep while he is here. 

Then, after about 30 minutes, he woke up. He rambled down the aisle to where his phone was. The battery seemed to have charged up enough for him to use, but he couldn't get a signal in the building.

He stumbled toward the door, asking if I had a flashlight. "I ride during the day", I told him, insinuating I did not carry a light, although I did.

He went out the door. "I may be back later", he said. I locked the door after him. If he gets back in, it won't be through the front door!

When's Daylight?
I was up and waiting with my loaded bike by 5:30 a.m. But, since it is illegal to be on the trail before daylight, I kept watch through the window for daybreak . It came a little after 6 and I was on the trail immediately. Although technically it was daylight, the trail was still dark. So, I used my headlight for the first hour on the morning ride.

My plan is to ride about 60 miles today and camp. Then I will finish the trail the next day, arriving back at the parked car in Sedalia. From there I will drive the car back to Arkansas.

I pedaled and pedaled, thinking I would stop when I tired out and eat something I carried in the panniers. But, the trail was flat and morning air was comfortable, so I pedaled more.

By noon I stopped at a trailside shelter to relax and eat. I had ridden for 6 hours before stopping and had gone 60 miles from last nights shelter.

Changing Plans
My planned campsite was less than a mile away from the trailside shelter where I had stopped. 

While I ate lunch, I decided it was too early to camp and I was not really very tired . I only had about 40 miles to go to complete the trail!

I could complete the trail today. Camp in Sedalia and drive back to Arkansas the next day.

I biked past the intended campsite and made the final decision to keep riding. Almost immediately after passing the campgrounds, though, I began to run into inclines. 

I rode up the challenging bridge going into the town of Booneville. Then, the trail went through the town, on the streets. It was marked with signs and even on the pavement. Once I rode through town and found the chat trail again, it immediately started a gradual incline. This incline continued all the way (38 miles) into Sedalia.

Normally, the slight incline would hardly have fazed me, but, after already riding 60 miles in the southern heat, it definitely made for a more strenuous ride. (I wondered if Dewayne knew something I didn't when he left the trail?)

Nevertheless, this last 98 miles of the trail I rode today was my favorite . It was scenic and the trail passed through some interesting small towns. Most were right on the trail and you just ride through them, stopping to eat or shop or rest if you like!

I reached the Train Depot in Sedalia and rode up to the car. It was 6:10 P.M. I had been riding since 6:15 A.M.

I sat at a table nearby and went over my options. I could ride around town and find a campsite and set up camp. But, then I would have the chore of breaking camp in the morning and spending the day driving back to Arkansas.

I could load the panniers in the car. Hook the bike to the rack on the back and drive around town to find a motel for the night.

I decided to clean dust off my panniers and load them in the back seat, hook the bike on the rack, and drive to Arkansas tonight!

I rode a total of 98 miles today and 213 total for the tour . I stopped for a hot meal and hot cup of coffee in Sedalia, and drove back to Arkansas. I arrived back at Dewayne's house at 3 a.m.

When I arrived, it was Labor Day in America. If you asked me what I was doing on any Labor Day in any particular year, I would not remember. But . . I will always remember what I was doing on Labor Day 2015. I was driving back to my starting point in Arkansas after biking "The Katy Trail"!

NEXT: "The Longest Flight"