The "Show-Me" Trail

July 20, 2012  PEDALS adventure:  A recent trip to St. Louis to visit family afforded us the opportunity to ride one of the country's premier Rail-To-Trail paths called the Katy Trail.  Long before the superhighway system, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (hence Katy) railroad was a line that connected the east and west side of Missouri along the Missouri River.   The entire  Katy Trail is a Missouri State Park and is considered the largest state park in the country.  While we are not the type to do all 200+ miles of the trail, we made a plan to cover 16 miles of the Katy that is close to St. Louis.  Since Missouri is The Show-Me State, it is fitting that our ride will be told primarily with pictures.

We started at the Weldon Springs Trailhead, a site that served as a munitions area during WW II and "cleaned up" in the 1980s.  We were dropped off by my parents...and hope to see them 17 miles from here!

The path was heavily wooded with a nice canopy of trees to provide shade.

The Missouri River could be seen at times
through the trees on our right....

...while tall walls of limestone
were on the left side of the path.

Because of drought conditions, we walked down
to banks of the Missouri River on dry land.

"Away, I'm bound away, 'cross the wide Missouri"
from the folk song "Shenandoah"

Out of the trees (and the shade)  and into the crop land.

Riding under Highway 70...this is a perspective that is rarely seen. 
Bikes can take you interesting places.

A welcome trailhead rest spot @ Greens Bottom Road.

The map I was looking at showed a road called "Upper Bottom Road"

....yet another oxymoron street (see previous blog "300 Miles").

Great explorers....Tom and Lewis and Clark

End of the line for us at the old  St. Charles Depot.

  The trail is crushed limestone...

not as bad as we feared for riding, but oh so dusty!!!!!!

 This sign for a restaurant in St. Charles sums up my biking philosophy!!!!

 

 We were met in St.Charles by my parents....and more gatorade.  We were lucky because it was the only day of the week with temperatures less than 100 degrees!!!  Lunch (mandatory  of course) was at an Irish pub located in a converted bank in downtown St. Charles...Gourmet grilled cheese with sweet potato puffs and deep fried pickles...YUM!  It was a great day, a great ride....and maybe someday Katy will see us again!!

The Stats:    17.66 miles; Time: 2 hr. 11 min.  ODO: 328.81

Notable Nature Sightings:  A peacock at a pathside farm, a snake in the road, an Indigo Bunting