I woke up at 6:00 and did some of my morning routine before heading downstairs and making some scrambled eggs for me, Ron , and George. Talked with them some more and was glad to share the house with them. The best part of these bike tours is the people you meet along the way. I was on the trail a little after 7:30. It was 60 degrees with a slight chance of rain today. I was wearing tennis shoes for the first time this tour, mostly because my left achilles felt sore and I was hoping that the extra support from the tennis shoe would help it. My bike had a second layer of mud caked to it, but I only cleaned the belt drive mechanism. This was just to keep the noise down. It was sure to be another sloppy day on the trail.
Started out the day going through the only tunnel on the Katy Trail
I was happy about getting an earlier start, but spent alot of time in the first 12 miles of the day reading all the historical information along the trail. There were the final historical markers for the Lewis & Clark expedition, and the town of Franklin (11 miles in) is the start of the old Santa Fe Trail and there was some good history about it.
Stopped in Booneville (13 miles in) for a second breakfast at 9:30. While I was in town, I met Pannel again on the trail. He fought mechanical issues yesterday and got behind me when he had to Uber back to Jefferson City to get to a bike shop. We talked for a while especially about the logistics of getting back to St Charles. Pannel and I also discussed how it’s freeing to not be to invested in a structured plan when on a bike tour and to roll with the punches.
The trail scenery changed after Booneville. The trail left the Missouri River and began travelling through the Missouri countryside. So, there were more and steeper hills. It was still a rail trail, so the hills were longer and a shallow grade. Instead of just using my 7 & 8 gears, I had to use 6 through 9.
Just outside of Booneville, I started feeling water on my right leg even though the trail was relatively dry. Not a good sign. I stopped and checked my tires. My rear tire had a good sized puncture and was spraying out the sealant. (I ride with tubeless tires, so the tires have sealant in them to seal any punctures and I don’t use inner tubes). I guess the hole was too big for the sealant to close it up on its own. So, I held my finger over the hole for a minute, and the leak stopped. Panel biked up to me to check on me, but there was nothing for him to do, so I told him to keep on going. I added more air to the rear tire and said a prayer that it would hold.
I caught up with Pannel a few miles down the road. I guess I’m faster than him, but its not a race. There was a dark cloud in front of us, so we both stopped to check the radar. It showed nothing, so we kept biking and we promptly got rained on. Fortunately we were only a quarter mile from the trailhead at Pilot Grove. We took shelter for only 10 minutes before the rain stopped. Against my better judgement, I did not visit the bike shop in Pilot Grove to replace my rear tire. I just prayed that it would hold through the day.
I took off and Pannel left after me. While we talked about seeing each other down the trail, or even in Clinton, we didn’t exchange contact info and I never saw Pannel again that day. Another learning is to share contact info with people you want to talk more with later in the tour – if you’re travelling the same direction and distance.
I hit another brief rain shower about five miles down the trail and had to put my rain jacket on for a while. It didn’t last long. That was the last rain I saw, as the skies cleared throughout the rest of the day and it was full sun by 3:00.
The toughest climb of the day was the climb into the wind going into Sedalia. I was down to my 5th gear for this stretch.
At 1:30 I stopped for lunch in Sedalia after having biked 50 miles so far. I received a recommendation from the woman at the visitor’s center and it was a good place. Fitters Brew Pub. While at lunch I arranged a shuttle for tomorrow from Clinton back to St Charles. $100, which wasn’t too bad. I’ll be joining the group of three cyclists that I passed about four miles out of town. I talked to them as we rode and they said they had a shuttle tomorrow back to St Charles and the name of the guy. So, I was able to join them.
The shuttle tomorrow doesn’t leave until 2:00 pm. So, as I was finishing my lunch, I had a decision to make. It’s 35 miles from Sedalia to Clinton. I could do it this afternoon, do it tomorrow morning, or break it up across the two days. My preference is to do it this afternoon, but I’m just going to bike the next 20 miles to Windsor and make a final decision there. There are hotels in Windsor and Clinton.
I was back on the bike at 2:30. While I hadn’t had a tree down across the trail, yet. All of my bike tours include a tree across the trail at some point. Outside of Sedalia I had one.
It was another tough uphill and headwind out of Sedalia. Especially up to the high point of the trail where there was no trees to block the wind and the surface was torn up by tractor tires.
I biked the 20 miles to Windsor by 4:45. Talked to a nice lady at the trailhead while I took a break. I was still feeling good, so I pushed on to Clinton and the end of the trail.
The final 16 miles had some good downhill stretches and was mostly tree lined, which cut down on the headwinds. I made it to Clinton by 6:15.
I booked a cheap motel and biked the two miles to get to it. Took a shower, walked to a Mexican restaurant that was close to the hotel, talked with Elizabeth and went to bed. My shuttle time got moved up to 1:00, so I have plenty of time in the morning to get stuff done.
The temperature only got up to 74 degrees and once the sun came out it was a great day to be biking. I felt very good physically all day. I rode 92 miles over almost nine hours with 1,600 feet of climbing (a lot more than the previous two days).
So for the entire three-day tour, I biked 232 miles over 22 hours with 2,000 feet of elevation.
I didn’t talk much about the wildlife I saw on the trail, but I did see two snakes. It freaks you out when you are riding up to a stick and it starts to move right before you get there!! I also saw some turtles on the trail, rabbits, and deer.
The next morning I had to clean my bike. I didn’t want the shuttle guy to end up with a bunch of dirt in his trailer, and I didn’t want the dirt in my car. So, I rolled it out into the hotel parking lot and used a shop towel that I was carrying to scrape off the mud. I then sprayed it down with water from my water bottle. Here is what my bike looked like before and after cleaning it.
The shuttle ended up picking me up at noon from the Clinton trailhead. I arrived at 11:00 and talked with some of the people who were using the trail. I met a 77 year old gentleman who was riding an e-bike on the trail. He thought I was younger than his 51 year old son!!
The shuttle showed up at 11:30 and unloaded four cyclists. One had a recumbent trike, and it was interesting to talk to him about his equipment. Turned out that the three other cyclists that I thought I was riding with weren’t going to be on the shuttle, so it was just me and the driver, Ron. We were on the road by noon. We had to stop in Sedilia and Booneville to drop off and pick up luggage. I guess it is a big thing for these shuttles to haul a person’s luggage between hotel stops. Who knew? I thought you just carried your stuff.
We arrived at St Charles at 4:30. I hit the road and drove until 9:00. I stopped in Clarksville, TN for the night. I got up at 5:00 the next morning and made it the rest of the way home by 1:15.
Thanks for the blog Jim!!!