thevcblog: KATY Ride Day 5 - Boonville to Jefferson City

It was super flat today, with beautiful weather. The trail goes along the Missouri River floodplain. The biggest hills are the 60 foot climbs going over the bridges to cross the Missouri. And then you get to Jefferson City, where there are steep climbs in and out of ravines! Surprise!

We rode 54 miles today, which is the longest ride of the trip.

Here I am in Jefferson City. You can see the dome on the state capitol in the background.

We started the day by riding over the Missouri RIver from Boonville. The gross casino hotel is on the left.

The old MKT railroad bridge is in the background. When you are on the trail, it looks like the trail might cross the river on the railroad bridge, but Strava does not show that happening. And you can see why in this picture - the bridge has a center span that lifts up to allow ships to pass. Nobody is going to be raising and lowering that span for people on bikes.

Halfway across the bridge, we entered Howard County.

This is at least the third time I've visited a Howard County on my bike. I've also been to Howard County, Indiana, and I live in Howard County, Maryland.

One time some confused person who had just moved to Kokomo, Indiana (in Howard County) asked the Howard County, Maryland Facebook group for suggestions on fun things to do in Howard County. So I answered her, accurately, with fun things to do in Howard County, Indiana, based on my bike ride through it a year before, without mentioning that she was asking a group in Maryland. Sadly, the moderator deleted the thread because she has no sense of humor.

There's a campground called the KATY Roundhouse just across the river. There's no sign of a Roundhouse, but the ruins of the turntable are still there.

The KATY has periodic trailheads, every 15 or 20 miles, more or less, where people can park their car and access the trail. Each trailhead has water and bathrooms, and a shelter with maps and information about the town. Many of them have bike pumps and repair stations with tools. Here's the trailhead at Rochefort.

You can see the only tunnel on the KATY trail in the background.

There is not much in this section of the trail. In 40 miles there was only one, very small, town. The natural scenery is terrific, the trail runs along the edge of the flood plan up against bluffs. The Lewis and Clark expedition traveled along here, and there are markers where they stopped that tell what they did that day. (Broke one of the boars, caught some deer to eat, etc.) The displays at the trailheads mention that there were once Native American petroglyphs on the bluffs, but they were destroyed when the railroad was constructed. Apparently the quarried the stone on the bluffs to make the roadbed for the railroad. How aggravating.

But basically, after a couple hours of riding on the beautiful trail with few towns, your threshold for what is fun and exciting gets pretty darn low, which brings us to "Boathenge".

I have no idea if there is some meaningful lunar or solar alignment on the solstice or anything like that. But I can see how some guy found a clever way to save himself a few trips to the landfill.

Nothing is open on Tuesday in Hartsburg, the one town that had potential as a lunch stop. We were expecting to survive 50 miles on a hearty breakfast and snacks from the handlebar bag, But just after Boathenge, there was food after all!

There is a marina, and they sell prepackaged sandwiches and drinks from a little shop run from a shipping container. Nothing is happening at the marina now in mid-October, but it could be that this is a big party spot in the summer. You can camp here.

The trail runs along the river for a few miles after the marina.

Most of the time, though, you are riding along the floodplain and the river is far away. There are lots of horsetails.

Horsetails are living fossils that are older than flower plants and conifers. Dinosaurs ate horsetails. I like to imagine that this patch of horsetails has been right here since the era of the dinosaurs. (I checked the maps from ancient geologic eras - it is possible!)

Here's the trailhead at Hartsburg. There are lots of people riding the trail today. Most of them are with organized tours from distant places like Washington or Oregon. This trailhead was a popular place to stop and eat the food you brought with you. Hartsburg is so small, it doesn't even have a Casey's.

There is no lodging near the trail in this part. You have to ride three miles to Jefferson City and cross the river to find a hotel. There is this crazy bike and pedestrian structure to get up to the bridge.

It's a giant cube with ramps in the sides. You have to go around the square four times to get to the top, where there is a bike path next to the bridge.