Katy Trail Forum

Is the entire trail crushed limestone, or is it paved in parts?

The only paved spots are while going through small sections in the cities of Sedalia and Boonville.

Is the limestone packed down? I can imagine it being loose and hard to ride on, or packed and easy.

Here a copy and paste from the FAQ on this site:

"What is the trail's surface like?
It is covered in crushed limestone, which packs hard and is suitable for running, hiking, or any kind of bike (though mountain bikes and hybrids might be more comfortable than road bikes). For runners, the surface absorbs impact well, and is much easier on runners' legs than cement or asphalt. The crushed limestone can be dusty; you and your bike will get dusty. For multi-day bike rides, you may want to bring along something to clean your chain.

The trail can get a little soft during extended rainy periods. After a rainy period, some horses may leave light hoofprints on the equestrian part of the trail. The trail surface is not suitable for inline skating."

Crushed is the key here...and that it is crushed to small, chat size. With that small size there is dust, which when wet acts as a binding agent like cement. It is usually spread down and rolled making a semi-hard packed surface. With that though there is some loose "chat" on the surface that usually is pushed to the side by bike tires leaving a nice smooth track in most places on each side of the trail. There may be places that the loose stuff can cause an issue if for some reason there's too much of it. Most riders ride in the track which leaves room for others to pass and for the oncoming traffic.

My wife, Nancy Grant, and I attended an all day meeting,today,in Augusta, of the merchants who have business along the KATY Trail, KTMAC, and we wanted eveyone to know that DNR is furiously working to clear storm debris from the trail. The storm last week destroyed many trees and even blew some roofs off local winerys and barns etc. Congrats to
DNR for this quick response.

Where can you get the Amtrack along the trail? We are starting in McKittrick and riding to Rocheport. I would like to train back to McKittrick from there??

From the Home page here.....scroll down to the Train icon and click on the link there to find some real good Amtrak information. Also the Amtrak website is a good source.

You would need to ride on to station at Sedalia from Rocheport or ride back to the station at Jefferson City. Those are the two stations closest to Rocheport.

From Augusta to McKittrick and McKittrick to No. Jefferson, is the trail as scenic as perhaps other parts? We have choosen those sections in part of the wineries?

Bluffton to Augusta is a good ride. Augusta winery is a good one to visit.....great Ice Wine. Montelle just outside of town has a nice deck with sunset dinners and a great view.

Hermann of course is wine central. Loutres Market just south of McKittrick is a good place to buy that is less expensive than the wineries. Hermann Hill and Hermanoff are both great places to stay if you are into the B&B's. Oak Glenn east of town has good view of the river below.

The ride from Rocheport to McBaine is very pretty too.....right along the massive bluffs on one side and the river on the other. There are good B&B's in Rocheport and a very good winery and Bistro also. Boonville is very bike friendly if Rocheport is full. The Hotel Frederick gives a biker discount and is a nicely done restored historic hotel.

Had a confrontation with a bull on the trail yesterday...guess the tornado tore apart somebody's fence b/c several livestock were loose and meandering on the trail. Thankfully nothing happened but as I slowly approached the bull started sprinting at me! Just FYI to have owners check their fences...the tornado did a lot of damage just west of Augusta.

Hello,.I have a quick question.If i decide to do the entire trail to clinton and back,i would like to bring my trailer to do some camping.Is the trail ok for trailers.Thank you,Robert

We did the trail with a trailer last June. Trailers such as a BOB or Burley work just fine. Just remember, you can't camp on the trail, only in designated Conservation Areas and commercial campgrounds.

I've used a BOB trailer many times on the trail with no problems. Have some type of encloser for your belongings on the trailer so they don't get covered in trail dust. \
You can also camp in some city parks in communities on the trail.

I have no experience pulling a trailer on the trail, but have seen many of them being used. The riders looked like they were doing fine with it. One exception that I remember; I spoke with a fellow that had the Bike Friday setup, bike and trailer/travel case, it was a struggle for him. He said the setup worked very well on roads but on the softer crushed limestone it was tough going, especially when he hit the more sandy softer spots.

He was headed to Clinton, I was headed to St. Charles, after we parted, I could see his tracks searching for the most solid part of the trail. I'm no engineer, but my guess is, that it had two wheels of a smaller diameter as opposed to the larger wheels and single wheeled trailers. That is assuming he wasn’t hauling a gold bar or two.

He had flown into St. Louis with bike in case, to ride the Katy. He said he really liked the Bike Friday and trailer, normally. It was a really nice looking setup, I must say!

thank you

how much does it cost to camp here? I am thinking about a ride and need to know how much money to bring

Knowing Pilot Grove, my guess is it will be free (and very basic). Choice of meals will be limited. If Becky's is open you can enjoy some good homemade pies.

Would like to ask any experienced riders how much training they did

before they completed the length of the trail. I am a frequent rider

but the max distance I ever covered in one day was 50 miles which nearly

killed me. I plan on riding the length of the trail later this year and

would appreciate any comments from experienced cyclists. Note I am a 50

something man in fairly good condition.

Much of what you will need for a training plan will revolve around how many days you want to take to get the whole trail done. Most go 30-50 miles per day for about 5-6 days, if that helps you on that question.



Other than that, all I can say is that training amount and so on revolves around what your goals are and how disciplined you are. You state that your "max distance was 50 miles and it nearly killed me". That might be a good start to determine what you need to work on. How long did it take you? How long did it take before you had problems? What kind of problems? What kind of nutritional concerns did you address during the ride (water, how often, how much? food, how often, what was it)? Speaking of the latter, nothing will kill your effort on a long ride faster than not fulfilling your nutritional needs.



See this thread, a lot was said on the topic of preparing to tour the Katy (or any other similar situation):

http://www.bikekatytrail.com/talk.aspx?thid=3647&fmt=1&sortby=0&pg=1

It just takes saddle time. When fifty miles doesn't nearly kill ya, you're ready. The trail is mostly flat, not very taxing really but it is a steady pedal for as far as you want to go. If you are in fairly good shape forty or fifty miles a day shouldn't be a problem. Saddle time is the key for multi days on the Katy, get comfortable on your bike, get used to riding 30, 40 miles at a time with rest stops and you'll do fine. Hopefully you'll be able to build in enough time to enjoy the scenery and the people along the way. Good luck.

As a reference point, in a few months it will be forty years since I was a teenager. Ah, I've always been forgetful.

My wife and I had not cycled for 30 years or so and started back about 6 months before our June 2010 trip of the KATY. When we started 5 or 6 miles was a work out. We are only able to ride about one day a week, but trained on the Frisco Trail for about 3 months until we could do the entire trail (36 miles) in one day. We scheduled our itinerary to be about 35-40 miles per day on the KATY and it worked out great. The riding was not hard, but the heat and humidity were a big factor. We did all of our pedaling early in the day. We are both in our late 50's. I can now do 70 miles fairly easy and plan to ride the whole KATY out and back (550 miles) in four days late this spring. Mostly just takes getting comfortable on your bike. We went through about 5 different saddles on my wifes bike before she found one that would allow her to ride more than about 20 miles.

I'm curious to know what saddle your wife found that works well for her. Or which ones were tried. It seems to be a dilemma here at times.

Make that 450 in 4 days, not 550! Trek, I will look when I get home tonight, is is a Selle, but not sure which on. We started with the stock seat that came on her Scott P4 hybrid, then she tried a Bontragger off of her TREK Navigator comfort bike, then she tried the Selle Anatomica all leather, like the one on my bike. She ended up with the Selle something or other, which has some gel padding.

I think any kind of regular riding will put you in good enough shape for the Katy. I'm a middle aged guy who bikes to work 4 miles each way. This was all the physical preparation I did. And other than the first couple of days on the Katy, my backside did just fine.

Trek, the saddle the wife is currently using and happy with is a Selle Royal Ellipse Women's Moderate.

I posted to this thread about 2 or 3 days ago and it got set aside for review because I hyper-linked to another thread on here. That might show up, but anyway, I wanted to make sure I at least got this through in a timely way.



CMJ, what went on with your 50 mile ride that "nearly killed" you? How long did you get to go before you felt this way? How did it do this? What kind of things did you eat and drink and when did you do it? Hopefully some help can be found.



BTW, the hyperlink related to a bigger text I posted on the issue of long distance training.

Skyguy, sorry for the delay on reviewing your post - was out of town since the middle of last week and did not keep up with things.



Skyguy's original post is now included in this thread (second from top).

Thank you.

I did the entire trail about a year ago. I am in my mid 20's. We did

76.6 the first day, then 56.8, 64.8, and 26.9. To train, I would ride

15-20 mile rides 4-5 days a week. The key is saddle time. That first

day, we were on our bikes for 7 plus hours. That is hard to get ready

for without being on a bike for many hours a week. Regardless of how

you break up the ride, you need to make sure you are on a bike quite a

bit. Get your seat used to being on a bike seat.

Here is the itinerary that we used last year. Not very experienced cyclist and our first week long trip. Worked out great.



Day 0 – Overnight in Clinton

Day 1 – Sedalia (35.6mi) – Camp MO State Fairgrounds

Day 2 – Boonville (37.2mi) – Hotel Frederick

Day 3 – Easley (29.3mi) – Camp Cooper’s Landing

Day 4 – Tebbetts (31.3mi) – Turner Katy Trail Shelter

Day 5 – Hermann (30.4mi) – Bed & Breakfast

Day 6 – Rest day in Hermann – Bed & Breakfast

Day 7 – Augusta (34.4mi) – Camp Klondike Park

Day 8 – St. Charles (26.9mi) – End of the ride.

I am 61, rode the trail east to west against headwinds the whole route, in three days, so average about 75 miles a day. I rode some in the spring, the cut back in the heat of summer, did not really start thinking of doing the full trail until September. Then I started riding short 15 mile or so rides a couple evenings a week, and a longer 40 - 50 mile ride on weekend. By mid October I celebrated my 61st birthday by riding 61 miles, then did the full trail the first weekend in November. There are some gentle grades between Sedalia and Boonville, but after that the trail is mostly level. I find just setting a steady pace, eating nutritional snacks and keeping hydrated helps a lot.

I am planning on running the trail this summer. I am looking to take it relatively slow (20-30 miles per day.) Has anyone done this before? I know this is a bicycling website but could not find any other resources about running the trail.

I am also looking to spend as little money as possible. My brother is going to ride a bike next to me and carry supplies. We are going to try to camp out as often as possible. I was wondering if the campgrounds have showers available. Thanks for the advice.

FWIW, someone mentioned doing just that in the near future.



http://www.bikekatytrail.com/talk.aspx?thid=3656¬efmt=1&sortby=0&pg=2

You can click on 'Plan a Ride' above and then select 'Campgrounds'. That will give you a list of all the camping areas along the trail. You can select them one by one and read what other have had to say about them. I believe most of the campgrounds have shower facilities other than the conservation areas and city parks.

A couple of guys ran across Missouri in 2009. Their pathway included the Katy. They pushed a large-wheel stroller for their supplies.

You're only planning to run 20-30 miles a day? That's barely a marathon every day for 10 consecutive days. You are certainly taking a leisurely pace.

For the most part the trail surface will be fine for running. There are some sections east of Jeff City (as of last fall) that were a bit rough so be careful there). Doing 20 - 30 miles a day will require some good planning to make sure you end up somewhere that you can camp - technically the "park" closes at sundown but my experience is that is not strictly enforced.

Due to construction on the Moniteau Creek Bridge in Rocheport, the Katy Trail is closed from the Rocheport Trailhead at Milepost 178.3 to Davisdale Conservation Area at Milepost 182.2. This section is anticipated to re-open mid-May, 2011.



During construction, trail users are being rerouted to Hwy. 40, so will need to use caution. Signs will direct trail users to follow the below detour:



Traveling west:

From the Rocheport Trailhead, follow Katy Trail to Central Street (.2 mile). Turn right onto Central Street. Central Street becomes Hwy. 240 Spur (.1 mile). Take Hwy. 240 Spur to Hwy. 40 (1.0 mile). Turn left onto Hwy. 40. Take Hwy. 40 to the Davisdale Conservation Area parking lot (3.2 miles). Enter Katy Trail from the far side of the parking lot. Turn left out of the parking lot onto Katy Trail.



Traveling east:

From the New Franklin Trailhead, follow the Katy Trail to the Davisdale Conservation Area parking lot (6.0 miles). Turn right into the parking lot. Turn left onto Hwy. 40. Take Hwy. 40 to Hwy. 240 Spur (3.2 miles). Turn right onto Hwy. 240 Spur. At Rocheport, Hwy. 240 Spur becomes Central Street (.1 mile). Take Central Street to Katy Trail (.2 mile). Turn left onto Katy Trail.



While following the detour, trail users should use caution since they may experience travel over city streets and highways; motor vehicles traveling at high speeds; uneven or loose gravel on road surfaces; and narrow roads and lanes.



We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your paitence while the bridge is being replaced. For an update, call 573-449-7402 or visit http://www.mostateparks.com/katytrail/conditions.htm.

Thanks DNR.....this has been needing fixed for some time now. It's good to see our tax dollars at work!

That is a pretty good hill from either directions on HWY 40 if you are only used to the flat KATY. We had to take that detour last year due to the flooding west of Rocheport...I was pulling a BOB trailer and I was pooped!

As a courtesy to School House guests, if you do not want to ride on the highway detour, we can provide a shuttle for you and your bike from the Davisdale Conservation Area parking lot to the School House in Rocheport or vice versa. Please mention this when booking and let us know if you wish to take advantage of our shuttle service and if so which direction (east or west) you are traveling to get to Rocheport. In our response to your reservation we will provide contact information for pick up time arrangements on the day of your arrival at the School House. Availability and reservations at www.schoolhousebb.com.

Now that's just plain old good service!

Love to see maintenance being done on the trail, but sure hope this is completed before the Pedalers Jamboree over Memorial Day weekend. That detour will be tough with the little ones.

Bummer - that is my training route- Boonville to Rocheport and south, then back. However, it will be great to have the bridge upgraded.