Friday, July 10, 2009
Day 25: Boonville, MO to Clinton, MO
Today started early. There was a good chance we'd be finishing the Katy Trail and maybe getting back onto some solid pavement today. But we didn't want it to start early at all. We were hurting. After last night's push to finish before dark (When the trail closed), plus the hill to climb out of Boonville to the hotel our legs just didn't want to move. I started the day Captaining, but after spending two or three miles trying to find the entrance to the trail, Jillian and I switched.
But, even tired, neither one of us can resist a good competition. Boonville is the last stop along the river on the Katy Trail. The trail climbs a fairly steady grade out of Boonville, but is never very steep and because you're not along the river anymore, the trail starts to straighten out significantly. It wasn't long before we spotted three cyclists behind us. Naturally, we had to do everything we could to stay ahead of them. Unfortunately, trail maintenance got in our way.
We ended up leapfrogging with the group for a little while, before stopping at the rest area in Clifton City to chat with a local cyclist. We learned about the local efforts to expand the Katy trail and add water at more stops. He was rather surprised that we were trying to complete the entire trail in three days, rather than the five which was normal. We also heard about how fortunate we were that the weather wasn't that bad, as it was often well over 100. But soon we were on the road again.
Beyond Pilot Grove was more beautiful trail. Flat, with a perfect tree arch canopy above us. There were even rather nice views to our sides. It wasn't too long before we reached Sedalia, by far the largest city on the Katy Trail.
It was a little weird riding through city streets again (there's a few miles of the Katy where there is no trail, just the local roads). We found our way to the Katy Trail visitors center, in an awesome train station, full of awesome bicycle art.
We also started looking for a bike shop. All of the foam padding in my helmet was falling apart, and we wanted to pick up some other tubes and such. Unfortunately, the only shop in town was closed for the day. Although the other three cyclists we'd seen were spending the night here, we needed to press on to Clinton. We spent a little bit more time exploring the train station, as well as making use of a clean bathroom, and then got back on the trail.
Once again, the trail was gorgeous.
But unfortunately, by the time we made it to Green Ridge the weather was starting to look bad again. On the horizon we could see storm clouds, and every moment it felt like a thunderstorm was going to rain all over us. There wasn't any shelter anywhere on the trail, if it started to rain we'd need to ride at least as far as the next rest stop - which could be as far as ten miles. Even then, shelter might amount to a very thin roof with no walls. We rode even harder, passing over the highest point on the trail (we needed to reference a photo to make sure we were in the right spot, since it was so flat).
When we got to Windsor we quickly determined there were no hotels we could stay at and rode on. We weren't more than a few miles out of town when we heard a distinctive "yip".
The Katy trail has a sign approximately every other mile reminding dog owners to leash and clean up after their dogs. Unfortunately, these rules do not appear to apply to 14 year old girls. Unfortunately, 14 year old girls appear unable to hold even a small dog in their arms. The chase was on.
Who knew a dog with legs no longer than a new pencil could run 28 miles an hour?
Past Windsor there weren't many reasons to stop. We were never sure the storms weren't going to get us, and now dark was closing in. Once again, we spent our entire evening riding as hard as we could.
We reached Clinton at dark, but only barely. We found our way to a Best Western, which like most hotels in this lakeside town, was rather overpriced. We found our way to a family style restaurant, ate all together too much, and returned to our room to crash, happy to be getting back on pavement.
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| posted at: 01:09 |
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