Katy Trail Trip Wrap-up

Now that I am once again one with my PC and can download some photos, I have gone back and added some pictures to some previous posts that I made along the trial. I also made some technical and factual corrections to some trail side posts.

We were asked a lot of questions by the people we met on the trail. Following is a sampling.

FAQs

Question: How long y'all out for?
Answer: We put in on May 27 and finished on June 8, 13 days and 12 nights on the trail.

Question: How far y'all going (been)?
Answer: We'll never know exactly. It turns out that of the three odometers that were installed at the beginning of the trip, all three crapped out and failed to give a good cumulative reading. Dorcas' computer was not installed until we reached Rhineland MO. The milepost mileage from St. Charles to Clinton and return is 450.2 miles, but that is based on the original historical railroad mileposts, which were probably not very accurate, and does not account for detours and trail re-locations. It also does not account for trips into towns to scout for diners and bars and for doubling back on the trail to see what happened to Dorcas. I figure my actual mileage was close to 500 miles. The others' was probably slightly less.

Question: Y'all sure are carrying a lot of gear!
Answer: OK, technically this is not a question, but it did beg a response. We carried way too much. Everyone carried rear panniers, a rear center bag and a handlebar bag. Additionally, I carried front panniers. I didn't weigh my gear before leaving home, but, based on the weight of what I carried on the C&O trip last year, I figure the weight of the gear on my bike totaled about 80 pounds. It turns out we ate out almost every meal, and we could have done without a lot of food and cooking gear. I also carried a lot of clothes I didn't use.

Question: Are you staying in B&Bs along the way?
Answer: Are you kidding me? Do you see all this s**t we're carrying? We camped every night, mostly in public parks.

Question: Y'all had any breakdowns?
Answer: Incredibly no. Not even a flat tire. The only thing even close were the three broken computers. I did lube our chains a few times during the trip.

Question: How was the weather?
Answer: The first part of the trip was hot, muggy and rainy/stormy, although we never actually got wet. Every time it rained we were in our tents or some other shelter where we could wait it out. The latter part of the trip was sunny and cooler. While not perfect weather, it was better than we expected.

Question: Did you see any wildlife?
Answer: No, most of the Missourians (sp?) were at work. Just kidding!!! We saw tons of reptiles, particularly turtles and snakes. The snakes included copperheads, black snakes and garter snakes. We once even saw a snake crawl over a turtle! It's true! Dorcas got a picture. The trail was an excellent bird habitat, being at the edge of wetlands, crop fields, open prairie and woodlands. Sightings included, redwing blackbirds, eastern bluebirds (the MO state bird), indigo buntings, gold finches, Baltimore orioles, red tailed hawks, various woodpeckers, turkey vultures, turkeys, scissor tail flycatchers, St. Louis Cardinals and peacocks (domestic). Mammals included numerous squirrels and bunnies, a few deer, raccoons and a groundhog.

Question: What was the best part of your trip?
Answer: It's a toss-up between the super-friendly Missouri folks we met along the way and the local bar and grills. We also enjoyed the ragtime festival in Sedalia.

Question: Would you do it again?
Answer: Probably not. It was a great trip, but there are too many other things we want to do. If I am able to get back to the area I would certainly do some day trips and more thoroughly explore some of the towns, particularly Sedalia and Jefferson City.

Question: Did you use a guidebook?
Answer: Yes. There is an excellent book: The Complete Katy Trail Guidebook by Brett Dufur, Pebble Publishing, Inc., Rocheport MO.