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Katy Trail Completed

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Katy Trail Completed

Old 09-14-21, 02:22 PM
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MidLife50
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Katy Trail Completed

After completing our first ever multi-day tour in late June (see Gap and C&O Complete), my wife and I are just back from our encore tour on the Katy Trail.

We’re credit card tourists, so we don’t pack excessive amounts. Our total weight carried was down to 26 pounds spread over my Ortlieb Back Roller Classics and Mrs MidLife’s trunk bag and handlebar bag.

The Katy Trail measures out at 237 miles and bills itself as the nation’s longest continuous rail trail. It spans most of the State of Missouri from Machens in the East to Clinton in the West. Our Strava mileage was 258.62 miles.

Like the Gap, the surface is crushed limestone and we found it to be well maintained. Unlike the Gap, which rises steadily for about 135 miles out of Pittsburgh before peaking and dropping more sharply into Cumberland, MD, the Katy Trail is flattish with very gently rolling hills.

The total elevation profile of the Katy trail shows a high point of just 955 feet and a low of about 430 feet. But we crammed a lot of fun riding into those 525 feet of ups and downs.

St. Charles R/T to Machens: 25.35 miles

Day 1 (Sunday Sept 5) was a combination travel and ride day. We hit the road early so we could drive to St. Charles and get riding. St. Charles is an attractive historical suburb of St. Louis, containing both Missouri’s first state capitol as well as monuments and museums related to the Lewis & Clark expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase and discover a route to the Pacific Ocean, mostly via the Missouri River.

We started and finished here at Pioneer Park in St. Charles, along with Lewis, Clark, and Lewis' dog Seamen.


Machens is the Eastern Terminus of the Katy Trail but is not reachable by car. Many Katy Trail riders simply end their ride at St. Charles but we wanted to do EFI (Every Freaking Inch) so we rode the 12.6 miles out and back. By riding this section, you get to experience the lowest elevation on the trail, 430 feet. Because it is low, and very near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers it is subject to flooding, which is another reason many trail riders skip this stretch.

Eastern terminus at Machens. All trailheads follow this same basic design with large info boards on both sides.

The info board splits the trailhead right down the middle so you always get some shade. Typical detached outhouse in the background.

We finished our ride, cleaned up and had a celebratory drink and dinner to mark the beginning of our tour. If you haven’t been, we’d recommend St. Charles as a great place to spend a day or 2 around the Katy Trail.

Clinton to Sedalia: 39.47 miles

After conquering the Eastern Terminus at Machens, you might think we then headed west directly out of St. Charles. You would be wrong. Instead, we had a morning shuttle from the Bike Stop Café in St. Charles that delivered us to the Western Terminus in Clinton, MO.

One great thing about the shuttle is that it solved the problem of where to leave our car. Shuttle users can leave their vehicle free of charge at the Bike Stop Café parking lot right on the trail in St. Charles for the duration of their tour.

The shuttle left at 8am Monday Sept 6 and we were at the Clinton trailhead for lunch (we packed wraps/sandwiches) before departing on the day’s ride around 12 noon. From Clinton we then proceeded to ride east back towards St. Charles.

The terrain near Clinton started with slightly rolling forested hills, and then we started climbing through prairie scrub towards the elevation high point of the trail. Yep, that’s right, low elevation yesterday at the very eastern end of the trail and then the highest point today near the western end.

I know I’ve already told you the entire 250 miles only varies about 525 feet, but when you’re at the point of highest elevation (duly commemorated with a signpost and a placard) you can look in every direction and not so much as see a ripple of a hill. It’s like a small pimple on a flat tabletop.

My perspective on the highest elevation. Can you even tell it's higher than what's all around you? I think not.


Trailheads (Calhoun, Windsor, and Green Ridge) were about every 10 miles, and all had both permanent restroom plumbing and drinking water available.

Moving further east towards Sedalia things begin to change noticeably from prairie scrub to farm fields. Most of the way the trail itself has a barrier of trees around it. While the trail itself remained relatively smooth, it was littered with leaves and small branches.

It’s here (approaching Sedalia) that my rear tire first showed a noticeable loss of air. I added air and we pedaled the last few miles into town. I had a problem on our last tour (2 flats), so I’ve been very vigilant about watching it closely. I discussed replacing the tire with my LBS before the trip and they reassured me that it shouldn’t be a problem.

As you enter Sedalia you have more street crossings, but we never felt the crossings presented any problems or danger. Of course, we arrived late afternoon on the Labor Day holiday so maybe it’s busier on a normal weekday.

Sedalia to Boonville: 38.09 miles

As we awoke, I immediately noticed my rear tire was completely flat, so the 1st order of business was fixing the flat. Being paranoid, I insisted on carrying 4 spare tubes (both our bikes use 700x35 so that’s 1 tube for every wheel). And changing a flat in a hotel room is definitely easier than doing so on the trail.

Getting my money's worth from the RoadMorph G. It takes more than a few pumps to get up to 90 psi.


I carefully examined both the tube and tire, found the leak, and replaced the tube. Unfortunately, I’m getting plenty of practice changing flats. Flat fixed, we made our way out of town.

Note to future riders: Katy Trail and MO State Park info show a road detour leading out of Sedalia. That info is old and outdated. The new trail is well marked leaving the Sedalia trailhead so don’t worry about following a road detour. Just ride the trail.

Today’s trailheads (Clifton City and Pilot Grove) were about 12 miles apart, but Clifton City had no drinkable water so be sure to pack enough water for 25 miles of riding between water stops.

The trail dips out of Sedalia and bottoms out around the Shaver Creek bridge. Then it rises up and rolls back down several times until you reach Pilot Grove. The railbed cut through rock walls, and the streams flowing made this a scenic highlight of the trip.

Bridge over Shaver Creek is the low spot between Sedalia and Pilot Grove.


We stopped for lunch at the Pilot Grove trailhead as it had a Casey’s store. On the bike, give me a good wrap or sandwich, some salty chips, and a diet coke for lunch and I’m a happy man.

The info posted at the Pilot Grove trailhead claimed that the Pilot Grove to Boonville segment was the toughest on the entire Katy Trail. We didn’t find that to be the case, although it might be tougher going westward from Boonville to Pilot Grove.

While it was mostly flat to gently rolling the last few miles into Boonville we descended Lard Hill.

Lard Hill was so-named because an MKT train ran over a farmer’s pig, but only offered minimal compensation. Unsatisfied, the farmer and her children boiled the pig carcass down into lard and used it to grease the hilly tracks every day causing the trains to slip and slide on the long steeper-than-average slope climbing out of Boonville. In short order the railroad settled her claim.

For us, heading into Boonville, Lard Hill was a relaxing downhill glide to finish the day. Or so we thought.

Turns out Mrs MidLife had a flat on her rear tire. In fact of the 6 other riders we chatted with that day, all had flats on the Sedalia to Boonville stretch. Turns out that much of the trail litter we saw earlier were really the thorny seed pods from the locust trees along the trail.

Animal of the Day

Mrs MidLife and I play a game while riding called “Animal of the Day”. Whoever spots the most unique, interesting or unusual animal is that day’s winner. Mrs MidLife took the prize during our Machens ride spying a random squirrel (not much wildlife visible in the afternoon near the city).

I got on the scoreboard nearer to Sedalia when I spotted a flock of turkeys in a farm field we rode by. Indeed, we saw several more flocks of turkeys as we rolled closer to Boonville. But that’s not what claimed the “winner” on this day.

Snakes... We saw snakes of every size, shape, color, and variety on our ride into Boonville. We saw snakes that were blue, green, brown, gray, and black. We saw solid colors, striped, and patterned snakes. We saw 9 snakes this day, and several more over the next few days.

The good news is that seeing snakes while riding your bikes is not very threatening. You often don’t see them until you’re almost on top of them, and then you ride by quickly before you (or the snake) can react. Still, we learned that it is advantageous (at least mentally) to be the 1st bike past the snake.

Boonville to Hartsburg: 39.04 miles

Leaving Boonville we crossed the highway bridge over the Missouri River (it has a protected bike/pedestrian lane) and dipped down into the flood plain. Off to your left as you cross the river you can see the old MKT lift bridge. The goal is to ultimately repair the lift bridge and route Katy Trail traffic over it.

For the remainder of the trip the trail generally follows along the north bank of the Missouri River between the rocky bluffs and the river. As you might expect, given our proximity to wetlands todays animal was the turtle.

Riding between bluffs and the river was very nice. We noticed very little river traffic on the Missouri River.


Just 10 miles into our ride today we came upon a trail detour heading into Rocheport. It seems that a wooden bridge over a small wet weather creek washed out about a quarter mile down the trail. Here’s the official MO State Park info:

“WEST TO EAST: At approximately MP 181.4, there is a narrow metal pedestrian bridge on the right that connects the Katy Trail to the Davisdale Conservation Area parking lot. Exit the parking lot onto Highway 40, taking a left onto Highway 40. Take Highway 40 to the Highway 240 Spur (3.0 miles) (not Hwy 240 Alt.). Take a right onto the Highway 240 Spur (not Hwy 240 Alt.). Continue approximately 1 mile; Highway 240 Spur turns into Central Street. Continue three blocks on Central Street to the Katy Trail. Take a left onto the Katy Trail to get to the Rocheport Trailhead”

Below is a picture of the trail signage.

5 mile detour over what I consider to be dangerous roads versus a 15 foot walk over to undamaged trail?


I understand that if you were to go around the “Trail Closed” marker and continue towards the downed bridge that you could readily and easily walk your loaded bike over the 10 feet or so of actual closed trail, around the blockage, avoiding the small amounts of barbed wire fencing, and then continue riding on the Katy Trail as if nothing ever happened.

Of course, that would require you to ignore the official detour guidance and avoid riding about 5 miles on the small-to-no-shoulder high traffic rural 2 lane road detour.

Rocheport is home to the only tunnel the railroad bored through the bluffs and has developed nicely into a well-traveled and attractive trail town. It also starts about 8 miles of riding directly next to the Missouri River and is chock full of Lewis & Clark history.

This is the downstream (eastern) end of the Rocheport tunnel. The upstream (western) end was very nicely finished in brick. At some point I guess they decided that it cost too much to make it look pretty.


Along this stretch we came across Katfish Katy’s and used our good fortune to augment our packed trail lunch with chips and a couple cold diet cokes. We lunched at the McBaine trailhead, which was the last drinking water stop for 16 miles before our destination at Hartsburg.

Hartsburg to McKittrick: 53.40 miles

When we planned our trip, we laid it out a bit differently than many others do, particularly in this stretch of the trail. We wanted to mostly ride shorter days, stay as close to the actual trail as possible, and plan our water stops conservatively.

The option we had was to ride 10 miles further beyond Hartsburg into North Jefferson (extending yesterday to 49 miles and cutting today to 43 miles). But North Jefferson didn’t have appealing options for lodging and would have likely required us to cross the river into Jefferson City (another 6 miles R/T) for both lodging and dining.

Also, this part of the trail is where water availability and trailhead porta potty options are scarce. Hartsburg has water, as does North Jefferson (10 miles downstream), Tebbets (another 12 miles), Mokane (6 more miles) and then McKittrick (25 more miles but no official water, only at our lodging).

By staying in McKittrick we could load up on water before the next day’s trip which offered no water until Marthasville (23 more miles).

We planned and executed an early departure from Hartsburg.

We were rewarded with a small herd of deer on the trail (todays’ Animal of the Day) as we biked through wet bottom forests up against limited gaps in the bluffs. We could also see the State Capitol across the river in Jefferson City.

We had a spartan trail lunch of ham/cheese with a few remaining snack items from our bag in Mokane and pedaled on towards McKittrick. About 10 miles before we arrived, we passed through Bluffton, with very high, steep bluffs up against the Missouri River. Very nice scenery.

Standing Rock didn't fall from the bluffs. It was a bluff that eroded over time until this is all that remains.


We rewarded ourselves with dinner in Hermann (across the river, but we got a shuttle R/T from our lodging hosts) at the Concert Hall and Barrel Tavern. They had a 50% off special on their ribeye so we dined like royalty and had a few cold ones to help rehydrate.

McKittrick to Augusta: 34.91 miles

The ride to Augusta was about 10 miles along the river and roughly 25 miles through forests, fields, and pastures. We again had an early departure as we had big plans for our Friday evening in Augusta and wanted to get there and relax.

Our animal encounter today was a frisky groundhog that charged across the trail in front of us. This well-fed guy was really moving, and was good sized.

It seems that Augusta is in Missouri’s wine country, and we planned an evening at the vineyard. So we threw caution to the wind and buckled in for a lunchless ride, subsisting on our energy bars and on-bike snacks.

We made good time, with a slight but steady downhill ride dropping about 50 feet over the distance. Unfortunately we had to face up to a rail trail truism…If you get off the trail you either have to go up or down.

That’s exactly what happened to us in Augusta. We arrived at the Augusta trailhead and then faced an immediate steep uphill climb to get to our B&B. But it was worth it as we had a great evening dining outside, listening to live music, and pretty much pretending that we weren’t in the middle of a pandemic.

Augusta to St. Charles: 28.36 miles

Our shortest day, designed to get us back to the starting line in time to refresh, eat lunch, do a little sightseeing, and then drive home.

As you might expect, Saturday morning on the trail heading into St. Louis meant we ran into crowded biking conditions, and no real animal encounters…except for a 4 ft long black racer that was right across the trail near the Weldon Spring trailhead. Aside from the snake (our 12th snake seen overall on the trip) we had one more surprise awaiting us.

Barely 2 miles from the finish line, Mrs Midlife has yet another flat on her rear tire. And it was a doozy. Not only did we find a nearby bench to use as a changing station, but we replaced the tube and booted her tire with some self-adhesive Tyvek strips we cut from a FedEx envelope.

There's something incredibly frustrating about getting a flat tire 2 miles from the finish of your 250 mile ride, but there's also something very satisfying in fixing it and completing the ride.


If you’ve been keeping track (I was) that’s 3 of our 4 spare tubes used (1 for me, 2 for Mrs MidLife). I’ll being having a patching party at home with all these damaged tubes.

Odds and Ends

Here are a few thoughts that didn’t really fir into the narrative, but that we found interesting or helpful.

Trailheads: The State Parks folks in MO should be commended for their trailheads. They’re consistent in shape/design so you know for sure when you see them.

They generally have a long, 2-part vertical info board on each side. That gives you 4 distinct areas of info, typically 1) Description of trail to/from immediately adjacent eastern trailhead, 2) Description of trail to/from immediately adjacent western trailhead, 3) History of community and/or area pointing out notable structures, events, etc., and 4) Data/distance chart plus community information board for local postings.

These info boards divide the trailhead and they have benches on each side. The genius here is that one side of the trailhead is pretty much always in the shade or out of the wind.

Maps and Guides: We had a difficult time finding what we thought were the best maps of the Katy Trail. While not faultless, once more the MO State Parks maps were the best, most detailed that we found.

The map has a grid of trailheads in order from west to east, showing available features at each trailhead using an orange or blue dot. What we didn’t understand at first was that only the orange dots (services provided by Katy Trail State Park) were dependable.

The blue dots represent services provided “in the community” and were most often NOT open or available. That’s okay for shops or lodging, but if you rely on them for restrooms or water you will be disappointed. At best, blue dots were a hunting license to look for services. Don’t count on them being available.

Trail Surface: As noted earlier, the surface is crushed limestone and is generally very smooth and dependable. That’s especially true on the eastern end of the trail. We rode Trek FX2s with 35mm tires and that was more than enough. We also noted several rollers positioned to help smooth the trail.

In the interior parts of the trail, especially between Sedalia and Boonville, it seems a somewhat bigger and looser gravel is often used to make trail repairs and it’s just not as good. Also, even on the most well-groomed sections of the trail, numerous farm roads and driveways bisect the trail. These intersections often have rutted areas so pay attention.

Restrooms: Restrooms on either end of the trail are often (not always) permanently plumbed with water taps available. Outhouse configurations are often better-than-usual as well. Of course, this is dependent on the volume and cleanliness of the users, but a good job is mostly done here.

Restrooms on the interior portions of the trail, on the other hand, are more likely to be outhouses, suffer from a lack of attention, maintenance, and are simply just not as nice. I understand it’s 2 parts of the same problem but having plumbed in water (or at least a well) would really help.

All things considered, we had a great time riding the Katy Trail and look forward to doing it again someday.

Last edited by MidLife50; 09-14-21 at 02:49 PM.
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Old 09-21-21, 04:55 PM
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Quite an enjoyable read! Chock full of useful info too! My first goal is to ride the Gap and C&O but the Katy is on my radar as well.
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Old 09-21-21, 05:18 PM
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Do you really need 90 psi in a 35mm tire? On my 37mm tires, I usually use 50 in the front, 70 in the rear, but with two rear panniers I might pump my rear up to 80.

Glad you had a good trip, other than a lot of exercise pumping up tires.
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Old 09-22-21, 05:58 AM
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My tires are rated as 75 psi minimum. Once above 75 it's not too far to 90 with me and the bags onboard. I must admit that the idea of less pumping on the trail is appealing.
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