Day #1 (April 29, 2025) – The Katy Trail

I had another delay in the delivery of my new van, so on Friday the 25th I was searching my list of planned adventures to decide which to choose for the week. I settled on biking The Katy Trail, because I wanted to be on my bike more than hiking, and the weather in Missouri looked great for the week. The Katy trail is a 240 mile rail trail that crosses the middle of the state of Missouri. It is one of the oldest and longest rail trails in America. I’ve biked some small sections in the past and was looking forward to biking the entire length of the trail.

On Friday, I emailed a bike shop in St Charles (the eastern end of the Katy Trail) and requested a shuttle to Clinton (the western end of the trail), because I just wanted to bike the trail in one direction, as 240 miles was a good amount of riding. Also, the winds that week seemed to be blowing from the west, and I would appreciate a good tailwind.

Sunday came and I had not heard back from the bike shop about the shuttle, so I called them up and they told me that there wasn’t a shuttle on Tuesdays. Best they could do is Thursday, unless I wanted to pay a lot of money for a private shuttle (which I didn’t). They also called another of the shuttle companies for me, and they didn’t have a Tuesday shuttle either. So, I decided to bike the trail from east to west and try to work out a shuttle back to my car when I finished the trail. Lesson learned, don’t rely on email if you can actually talk to a person.

Also, the weather forecast changed a lot in two days. It now called for a 50% chance of rain for each of the first three days of my tour. It’s hard to know how much that will affect my rides, but I decided to do the bike tour anyway. I don’t trust weather forecasts very much, but I do believe in my ability to make the best of it.

On Monday, the 28th, I drove out to St Charles, Missouri. It took me just under 12 hours including stops. It was a beautiful sunny day and I really enjoyed driving through the mountains on I-40. Listened to an audiobook on the way. I got a hotel room next to the trail, so it will be an easier start to riding tomorrow. I arrived in St. Charles by 4:30, and went to the visitor’s center to pick up a good paper trail map (they had an excellent one). I really was looking for the guidebook that was mentioned on the Katy Trail website, but they didn’t have one. So, I went a few blocks down the street to a local bike shop and I was able to purchase the guidebook there. I’m glad that I had it, as it included some good history and stories about all the small towns that I would be passing through as well as some good logistic information. Every night, I read the guidebook about the towns that I was passing through the next day.

Woke up at 6:00 to rain and a brief thunderstorm. I checked the weather radar and it looked like the rain would clear in a little over an hour. So, I did my morning routine and ate some breakfast at the hotel. The rain cleared by 7:30, but the forecast and radar had isolated showers all day. It looked like I was going to be playing the “dodge the rain” game today. But, since it looked clear for a while, I left the hotel and drove to the 100 yards to the trailhead parking lot. I put my bike together and started biking at 8:00.

Because of the recent rain, and potential rain during the day, I biked wearing my Xero sandals. This was my first time wearing these sandals while biking. I bought them because I met a couple in WI on my bike across America who were doing an entire 700 mile bike tour in them. They are very comfortable to walk in, and I think they will be great for the wet conditions today.

I had my normal pre-tour anxiety before starting this tour. I was worried about the trail, as there was trail constructions early on that had the trail kink of beat up, there were several puddles across the trail that I had to ride through, and just a general fear of the unknown. However, once I was on my bike and peddaling, that pre- tour anxiety quickly abated. While I did have to dodge several puddles at first, overall the trail drained very well. When I got down the trail a few miles, the trail was in great shape.

Once the rain stopped, the sun came out and it was a beautiful sunny morning. Temperatures were around 70 degrees, so it was very comfortable. There were very few people on the trail. I saw lots of flowers, cliffs, views of the Missouri river, and woods. There were several historical signs dedicated to Lewis and Clark’s journey up the Missouri in the early 1800’s. There were also historical markers about Daniel Boone who lived the last years of his life here in eastern Missouri. I stopped at all of these markers to read them, which also gave me a chance to rest and get off my saddle. The only negative was a decent headwind which only affected me when I wasn’t in the trees.

The skies started to get cloudy and then dark in the late morning. I stopped in Augusta (27 miles in) and checked the radar. Big storm coming, but a ways off. I talked with a local artist who was working on a painting near the trail. She said that there wasn’t a restaurant in town anymore and that the next town down the trail had a restaurant, but it was 7 miles away. I had to decide if I was going to take shelter there on a covered picnic table, or try for the next town. I decided to try for the next town (Dutzow). I made it about 25 minutes down the trail before the rain started. It was hard enough for me to get out my rain jacket and put it on. There was no place to shelter on the trail, so I just had to keep going. It was raining very hard with thunder and lightning as well. 20 minutes of biking in the rain and I was at the restaurant in Dutzow. Just before noon. I waited out the storm in the restaurant, had a good lunch, and the wait staff was very kind to let me sit there for two hours while the rain passed. I was able to reply to text messages and emails, but didn’t have enough cell service for a phone call. While I was waiting, another cyclist (Pannel) came into the restaurant and I got a chance to talk with him. He was biking the Katy trail in three days to Kansas City by taking the Rock Island Trail after the Katy trail. Those are 100 mile days. Then he was taking the Amtrak train back to St. Louis, which is a good idea for how to get back, as you can just roll your bike onto the train.

Here are a couple of pictures of the rain clouds moving in. You can see that there was little shelter in this section of the trail.

I got back on the bike at 2:00. The restaurant I was in closed at 2:00, but also the rain stopped at the same time. The clouds eventually turned into sunshine by 4:00. This was a desolate but very pretty section of the trail. Impressive cliffs on one side and the Missouri River on the other side. At times I was in farmland as well. The wind died down, but the temperature stayed in the 70s, which was nice. Here are a few more trail pictures;

I saw lots of spring flowers. Some of my pictures didn’t turn out due to my error, but here are a couple of them.

I got to the town of McKittrick just before 5:00. By this time I had biked 62 miles. It was time to make a decision about where to sleep for the night. I checked out the one bunkhouse type place in McKittrick and talked to a group of three cyclists who were staying there. It seemed more like a group place than for a single person. So, I called down the trail to a B&B and decided to stay there. It wasn’t that expensive, and I like to support the local places. The Doll House B&B was four more miles down the trail in Rhineland. Since the only restaurant in town burnt down and hasn’t reopened, I had to stop at a market in McKittrick just off the trail and pick up a sandwich and a salad for dinner. I carried it in a bag on my handlebars the four miles.

The Doll House B&B is nice. It was originally build by a Mr. Doll, which is where it gets it’s name. I’m their only guest tonight. Ellis’s & Ken are the owners and are very nice. I took a shower, ate my dinner, cleaned my clothes, read my guidebook, and went to bed.

For the day, I biked 67 miles in 6.5 hours with 211 feet of climbing. It was a slow and flat day. Xero sandals worked well. I would rather bike in tennis shoes, but they were fine and glad I had them for how wet the trail was.