It was a lovely day in Missouri, perfect temperatures and a
light wind forecast. I decided to go
east to St. Charles and see how the construction on the east end of the Katy
Trail was progressing. I rode the entire
trail in the spring of 2007. At that time
the trail ended officially a few miles east of St. Charles. You could go a few more miles riding the
levy, but that was not recommended or encouraged. I had checked back a couple of times, the
last in fall 2011 and little progress had been made. I kept hearing of that progress had been
made, so it was time to check back in.
I wanted to ride to Machens mile marker (mm) 26.9. While it is mm26.9 it is mile 0 on the trail.
I am not sure if they plan to take the trail on further to the river, but I
hope they do.
It was an interesting ride.
St. Charles is such a lovely town! Tourist yes, but well designed with
ample parking and a culture that accepts bicyclists. Many of the Bicycle Across Missouri rides
that were sponsored by the Division of Natural Resources (DNR) started or ended
in St. Charles. I expect similar tours
still do.
If you ride the entire trail you find that you ride through
fields and bluffs and trees and flowers…nature.
It is in only a couple of places that the trail approaches an industrial
tableau. I mean, for much of the trail
you are riding along a river, a major artery for commerce and only in a couple
of places do you see evidence of that commerce.
You see it in Sedalia….you see it in St. Charles, you ride by numerous MFA
farm supply operations. You see also see the evidence of the commerce
when the tug boats pass.
But the river use to be lined with factories and
storage buildings that took advantage of the river. In St. Charles you get to see a few of those buildings. This
is not the grimy industry of the 1800’s this is the ever so clean industry of
today. In St. Charles you see the casino next to the old factories, next to the
auto recycle yard.
It is interesting because you are riding with other riders
as well as walkers and school groups.
So
many times I ride the trail virtually by myself. In St. Charles I know that others will be on
the trail.
It was interesting to see how the trail was extended. In many places it left the old rail bed to
forge a new path. Not sure why it needed
to leave the old rail bed. Some of the
comments talked about frequent flats from thorns in this area of the trail, but
neither my wife or I had any problems.
The new path allows the rider to continue a few short feet
from the river for much of this stretch of the trail.
This is a pretty time of year, with many wild flowers in
bloom.
And the chance to see the fields recently planted.
I kept hearing a model plane, and then I saw why they have a
flight club located just off the trail in the river bottom. I don’t know if they are called “model”
planes anymore in this era of drones….
I
like to pay attention to the benches along the trail. They are often situated with a very pleasant
view, and the plaque notes a person or sentiment that should be
remembered. This stretch had five
interesting benches…in fact at this time they are the only benches along this
stretch. At first I thought there were
two benches in placed in memory of the same person, then I realized a much
sadder fact, all five benches were from the same family. All five plaques had the same date. There must have been a serious accident, probably involving a car. I feel for the parents that had to face such a devastating loss.
While the St. Charles stretch of the trail is not as scenic
as other stretches, it does rank in the top ten that I enjoy riding….if for no
other reason that at the conclusion of the ride there are multiple BBQ restaurants
to choose from!
