Katy Trail 2020 – Columbia to Sedalia
Well now we can officially say we’ve ridden the entire Katy Trail! This past week Andrew’s parents came into town to ride a large portion of the Katy Trail from Washington to Sedalia, MO, and because we couldn’t let them have all the fun alone we joined them on their third day in Columbia and rode with them to Sedalia.
Andrew and I have recently gotten into watching a bike tourer and youtuber – Ryan Van Duzer. Every ride he goes on he always starts off by staying “No crashies, no whammies, no flatties”. I’m thinking we need to work on this mantra, because this trip saw all three. We experienced our whammie before we even made it to the trailhead. Recently Andrew and I had invested in a roof rack so it would be easier to take our tandem places. We’ve used it a few times to date without any issues, but I guess this drive to Columbia was just too much. About 5 miles outside of Columbia, one of the bars on our roof rack slipped which caused the front foot to separate from the car which in turn made the tandem and rack to lean back and hit our car. It was very scary in the moment, but luckily we didn’t have any damage to the bike or car. Andrew did end up having to hold the rack against the car roof with one hand while driving the last bit. I’m not really sure how to solve the problem to keep it from slipping again, but I’m hoping we’ll figure something out.
Once unloaded in Columbia, we met up with Andrew’s parents, Sally and Ramon, and made our way over to the Main Squeeze (a vegetarian restaurant) so we could get some food to-go and eat socially distanced in a nearby park. With our bellies full we zoomed along the 8.9 MKT trail connector to make our way to the Katy Trail. Our ride was pleasant and mostly tree covered, although the feels like 96 degree weather was nothing to joke about. Once we made it to Rocheport we stopped and rested at the Meriwether Café for some iced coffees (and a beer for Ramon). We were all mentally preparing ourselves for the hilly highway detour around the washed out bridge just west of Rocheport, but luckily we had run into another biker who was riding the other way and he mentioned how there was a little bit of a land bridge right next to the washed out bridge that you could take instead. Excited for an adventure (and not wanting to do any hilly highway riding) we decided to risk it and follow his advice – and it turned out to be an excellent idea! We rode through the tunnel and the 3 miles to the washed out bridge, and saw that there was a large path cleared to the left that led to a bit of a shallow spot in the creek leaving a flat enough place to cross. Sure our feet got a little wet as we walked the bikes across, but really it wasn’t hard at all. After making it across we just had to push our bikes up the levy and rejoin the trail – easy peasy – and it put us in a great adventure high. For those of you who decide to try fording the river instead of taking the posted detour, going east bound the bridge is just past the detour signs but west bound has about a 3 mile ride before you even know if the water will be low enough for you to use the land bridge – so adventure at your own risk! Also, to make sure you don’t get lost – just locate the original trail/bridge and imagine it going straight, there are a couple farm roads in the area, and we wouldn’t want you following the wrong trail!
The heat started to get to us as we continued to ride into the hotter part of the day so we were taking more and more breaks – but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We found a friendly ‘silo cat’ just outside the colorful clay tile mill. Around 4 pm we finished our day in New Franklin at the Katy Round House campgrounds. Since we finished our 28 mile day relatively early we had plenty of time to set up camp, cook, eat and relax. Although it was so hot out it took us a while to eat our dinner and all of us ended up taking two cold showers in an attempt to keep our body temperatures down.
Day 2 was Andrew and I’s first real time riding in the rain long distance. Flashing back to our first time staying at this campground, we woke up that morning just as it started to rain. Luckily we were able to pack up camp and eat breakfast mostly dry, but unlike the last time we made this route, as we set off down the trail the rain began to get heavier. It rained on us for the first hour and a half of riding from New Franklin to Pilot Grove. The going was slow, and there wasn’t as much chit chat. At first we were thankful for the cooler weather compared to the day before, but it really didn’t take long for us to get over the whole ‘being wet’ thing. We stopped at the Pilot Grove trailhead for about 45 min, snacking, warming up and just taking turns trying to dry clothes/pruney fingers with the restroom air dryers.
Luckily by the time we left Pilot Grove the rain did stop, and with the remainder of the trail being tree covered, we didn’t have any more heat issues either. We stopped for lunch at the next trail head in Clifton City where we had some rehydrated vegetarian tamales Andrew’s mom had dehydrated for us. They were delicious! About 30 seconds after leaving the trail head our tandem had its customary rear wheel flat tire. “No crashies, no whammies, no flatties”. We had recently decided to try using slime in the tube to see if it would help, but sadly it didn’t quite seem to hold air in it, so we still had to change the tire. If anyone has suggestions as to how we can avoid all these flat tires we seem to get we would gladly take the advice! (our next thoughts is to try and get a little less weight on the back tire, as well as investing in some nicer tires instead of just nicer “puncture resistant” tubes.)
With our tire fixed we were on our way again, ready to finish the 40 mile ride to Sedalia. The going was great but we got too confident and too close, and bumped bags knocking Sally off her bike. So much for “no crashies”. She was a champ and got up immediately like it was nothing, so we carried on. Once we made it to the Sedalia Depot after hitting up the gift shop, we were in much better shape than the first time A&I had made this ride so we decided to go the extra 6 miles round trip out to the Sedalia Fairgrounds, so that Andrew and I could officially say we’ve ridden the entire Katy Trail! Overall it was a good trip, and a great chance to get out of the house. We were hoping to go on another ride next weekend but with our roof rack woes and the hot forecast, we’ll be pushing it off a little longer. Luckily the tandem fit in the back of Andrew’s parent’s truck bed, because we would not have been happy campers if we would have had to fold that muddy bike into our car.
One Comment
Alissa
Hi there, love your tandem touring setup! I run a side project with the goal of collecting and organizing bike touring blogs on personal websites to make them more accessible to other cyclists as resources. I hope it’s ok with you that I’ve added a link to this post in our directory. The Katy Trail is really popular and your writeup is a great resource. You can find the project at bikesleepbike.com, if you have any questions. Thanks and happy riding!