Thursday, July 09, 2009
Day 24: Hermann, MO to Boonville, MO
Ok, really, honestly, yesterday was probably the most boring day of riding we had all trip. Nothing extraordinary happened, we just pedaled along the Missouri with regular stops and no mechanical failures.
Our day started today with a pretty ride across the very awesome bridge between the Katy and Hermann. I wish we'd had more time to spend in the area, but we're still hoping to make it to Denver within another two weeks.
We discovered a problem this morning that would come to plague us on the Katy Trail. In the mornings, before many riders have been out, all of the spiders have built webs across the trail. Since we're the first ones on the trail, most of the webs wind up in our faces. So though we look happy in this picture, it's only because Jillian is taking photos until I've actually smiled.
One of the areas we rode through was called Rhineland. Apparently German settlers gave it this name because it reminded them of home. To us, it just looked like Missouri - large, flat, and with a big river in the middle. We enjoyed the the small park in Rhineland though, which gave us bathrooms and a break from the sun.
At our next stop in Portland a couple came over to visit us. Dan was an engineer who loved the bridges (and was as fascinated as I was by the non riveted, pin bridge downstream a way), and his wife Lou was kind enough to offer us some apples. They were on a bit of a trip themselves, and had driven through much of the country.
From Portland the trail deteriorated drastically. Riding became a chore, and I had to spend most of my time looking down and trying to keep the bike far enough to the side of the trail to avoid problems, while keeping it on the trail to avoid punctured tires from thorns.
One of the fun things we rode past was called Standing Rock, which recorded historic flood levels. By looking very carefully we were able to see a few marks scratched into the side.
Notice that in this picture you can see the year.
As the trail went on, we started seeing our least favorite signs:
Though the damage was often short, it was enough to slow us down and make us consider following the road nearby.
Unfortunately the road had a good bit of traffic on it, most of which was upset to see cyclists on the road. We decided that we were better odds to wining a fight with a rough trail then we did winning a fight with a large truck.
When we got to Tebbetts we passed the Turner Katy Trail Shelter.
For $5/person/night you got a place to sleep, a shower, and air conditioning. Unfortunately, we passed it too early in the morning for it to be any good to us. We only allocated three days to do the entire trail, stopping now would add a whole extra day to our trip.
Our next stop was right outside Jefferson City, MO, the capital. I had hoped we could find lunch here, but unfortunately there were no businesses by the trail head. However, there were a number of very enticing deals on Hotels. For about $75 the Truman Hotel and Conference Center would shuttle us back and forth from the trail and give us movie tickets. The thought of doing something "normal" got to me and I was suddenly very ready to stop. We phoned Jillian's mother, who checked out reviews for us online. After hearing about the reviews we decided to refill our water bottles and get moving.
The drinking fountain had enough water pressure that when I first tried to take a drink it shot me in the face. But we quickly found ways to have fun.
Sad as I was to be going on, we were soon back on the road with a new sense of purpose. There is nothing between Jefferson City and Boone, and in order to make Boone in a reasonable period of time we needed to move quickly, especially since the trail closed at dark.
A few miles down the trail we stopped to watch some dredging of the river take place. This was a tremendous ship.
We stayed to watch and eat a few energy bars, since we were both starving.
We reached Hartsburg around 5, and once again I was starving. Conveniently there was a slightly overpriced winery where we could get some food. Overpriced, maybe, but it was real solid food, with healthy breads and real fruits and vegetables. The downside was that good food takes time to make, and I was starving.
The minute I walked out of the winery I knew we'd made a mistake. We wouldn't make it to Boone until dark. Both of us rode as hard as we could, barely pausing for anything. At a couple of different points we saw other riders on the trail and would try as hard as possible to pass them and then prevent them from passing us. We made it to Franklin as the sun set. In Franklin we left the trail and crossed into Boone on the US-40 bridge, hoping to find a motel quickly. We hadn't made a reservation, since we weren't sure we'd be able to make it to Boone.
Perhaps because of the Casino there was actually quite a bit going on downtown.
After stopping at a Bank of America (these were impressively hard to find) to withdraw some cash, we called my parents who looked into the hotel we'd passed right at the river crossing. Unfortunately it was much too expensive for us, so we set about riding past town. Using our Garmin, we rode way out of town to a Comfort Inn at the intersection of US-40 and I-70.Although Comfort Inns are usually a little too high priced for us, this one had excellent service. The manager found us a room on the ground floor large enough to hold our bike, then wrote us careful directions on how to find our way back to the trail in the morning. It seems that we could have avoided a rather unpleasent ride through Boone in the dark by just staying on the trail for one more rest stop, where we could have exited and found ourselves right behind the hotel.
Dinner was at a Wendys, where service was incredibly slow because the exit off 70 was closed. Still, it felt so nice to stop for the night. Day 2 of riding the Katy trail was hard and annoying. Bad road surfaces, cobwebs, and dust everywhere made us want to get off the trail and onto the road. But the one time we did try it we got right back on the trail to avoid cars.
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| posted at: 10:25 |
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