Biking the Katy Trail

I have always wanted to bike the Katy trail - at least as long as I can remember! When I got my new bike, I mentioned it to my friend, Rich, and he informed me that he also wanted to bike the trail - and for the next six weeks, we kept saying, "yea, we need to do that." When the weather started to turn cooler, I knew if we didn't do it soon, it would be too late - so we picked Saturday, October 25 for the great bike ride across Missouri. :) It turned out to be a GORGEOUS day!
We started out at 9am and drove to Rocheport, MO where we unloaded the bikes and hit the trail. We started out going east and it was a beautiful ride. The trail followed the river with plenty of scenic places to stop and rest. We went as far as Katfish Katy's Campground Store in Huntsdale, MO (6.6 miles) before we turned around and headed back to Rocheport.
On the way back we noticed a sign we had missed the first time. It was the Lewis & Clark campsite from June 6, 1804. I have become intriqued with Lewis & Clark since my sabbatical journey in the northwest in August so I was excited to stand in the very place they camped 204 years ago!! After I complete the entire Katy Trail, my next adventure will be to follow the Lewis & Clark route from start to finish! Now THAT would be fun!

We made it back to Rocheport still feeling good so we headed the other direction. The route going west was not as scenic - we were surrounded by farmland! However, the sun was shining and I was about as happy as I think I could be. The trail going west was obviously less appealing because we only saw a handful of other bikers. It was a little eerie! At one point, Rich turned around to look back and lost control of his bike so instead of running into me, he took a dive into the ditch. He's so thoughtful! I was just grateful he wasn't hurt - I'm not sure my car would fit on the Katy Trail but I would have tried. :) We stopped at an old silo for a bit of a rest and then continued on to Franklin where I have never been so happy to find a restroom in my life! It was only three more miles to Booneville and Rich really wanted to ride over the old train bridge - so we pushed ourselves a little further than we should have. Much to our disappointment, the trail actually joins the highway to go over the bridge so we turned around and headed back. The last 7 miles of our ride were pretty tough - but we made it. Our muscles were sore and we were quite exhausted but it was a fabulous ride!! It was about 6pm so we stopped for some supper on the way home. We decided we could eat anything we wanted after the day we'd had! With the exception of sore muscles, it was a perfect day.