Woke up to the sound of rain in the morning. Checked the weather and radar and it looked like there was a break starting at 8:00. Had a great breakfast. 4 fried eggs, lots of bacon and sausage, fresh berries and yogurt. I’m stuffed. I definately recommend the Doll House B&B in Rhineland if you are ever in the area.
My bike had collected a lot of mud from the previous day, but I didn’t clean it because if was going to be more of the same today. I also wore my sandals again today, becausse the trail was wet and there was a good chance of rain again.
Got on the trail at 9:00. Took forever for the rain to clear. Rode with my rain jacket at first because of the rain coming off the trees and it was only 56 degrees out. But after 30 minutes, I got too hot and took the jacket off.
The trail was in great shape and drained the water very well. The surface was a little soft and slow, but dried up by noon when the sun came out. Here are some pictures of my morning ride.
There was a 40 mile gap in services on the trail. Seemed like a lot of things were closed. Not sure if it is too early in the season or that they are only open on the weekends. I came upon this sign, which confused me…
What I thought it meant was, “there’s construction on the trail, but no need to detour onto the road you see to the left of the trail. Just come on through.” But, when I biked up to the construction, it was a bridge out and there was no way through. So, what the sign actually meant was, “The bridge is out and you can’t bike the trail. We are not recommending a detour, because our lawyers don’t want us to be liable if something happens to you. Even though there is a quiet country road just ten yards to the left and you would only have to bike on it for 100 yards.” Thanks!
I got some great views of the capitol building in Jefferson City from the trail. It is amazing how much in the country I am, but can still see the capitol so well.
At 1:00 I made it to Northwestern Jefferson. It was a couple of miles off the trail to get to a restaurant. Since I was still okay from my large breakfast, I decided to push on 10 miles to Hartsville where there were two restaurants on the trail. But, when I got to Hartsville at 2:00, they were both closed and didn’t open until 4:00. So, I sat there and ate some of my snacks for lunch. I texted the shuttle company while eating my snacks to ask about a shuttle from Clinton on Friday, but they said that they weren’t going to Clinton on Friday. So, tomorrow I need to work on a plan to get back to St Charles. While I was doing that, I also decided that I would try to go another 25 miles to Rocheport and I booked a room in a shared house there for the night. I made it to Rocheport at 5:00.
I texted the shuttle company at Hartsville to ask about a shuttle from Clinton on Friday, but they said that they aren’t going to Clinton on Friday. So, tomorrow I need to work on a plan to get back to St Charles.
I’m sharing the house with a couple of other cyclists. Ron & George at the Katy Trail B&B. We talked a lot in the living room of the house. I shared my business card with my website info. Ron shared about his career in the Navy and the arts festival that he is involved with in southern Utah (Escalante Canyon Arts Festival). George saw my business card and asked me about my Christian faith. He was a Prespatetian minister for 38 years. Good discussion. I had the upstairs bedroom which had a door in the floor. Never saw one of these before.
I ate dinner at the only restaurant in town – pizza / flatbread. It was okay. Continued to talk with Ron and George at night while reading my guidebook for the next day’s towns. The house has free laundry and a stocked kitchen, which is nice. So, I was able to give my clothes a proper wash.
For the day, I biked 74 miles over seven hours with only 160 feet of elevation gain. It was a very flat day. The temperature never reached 70, which made for a comfortable day. But it stayed cloudy most of the day.