Katy Trail Ride

My husband and I are planning a ride in early Oct. We will start in
Clinton park in Sedalia plan to ride the train back to Sedalia. Is Washington the best place to take train back. We are planning to camp along the trail. Info on camping would be appreciated. We are
also wondering what the weather will be and do you think the trail will be in good condition. any info would be appreciated.
thank-you

The weather, tradionally, should be beautiful mid to low 70's maybe upper 60's, dry. October is pretty dry but you never know. The trail will be good shape, and washington is about 4 miles off trail with a narrow bridge to cross with no shoulder. You also can catch the train in Hermann , this shortens your ride about 30 miles but much safer bridge to cross and only 2 miles off trail. Hope this helps.

As previous responder indicated, the bridge at Washington is very dangerous. You can get a cab ride for $15. Hermann is a great place to cross to get the train--separate bike lane.
Book your Amtrak bike reservation early. They allow only 4 bikes on each train (not each car, each train!). There is no baggage car on the train--they put the bikes in one end of the passenger car. We just rode Amtrak 3 times (due to flooding last week, our end-to-end plans changed) and I asked the conductor if they were strict on bikes. He said "we try to accomodate folks, if there is room, even without a previous reservation." Each bike costs $10, regardless of how far you are going on these four St.Louis-to-Kansas City trains. Can book seats at Amtrak.com (bikes are booked as an "view upgrade options").

Try to arrange to camp at Doug Rendleman's in Bluffton--Doug's passion is the trail--he is a wealth of info.

If you need more info, you can email me direct at dgat1989@yahoo.com

Dutzow is a good stopping point also. The restaurant right on the trail is an oasis after a
days ride--there is also a winery just off the trail. However, I would call a cab to take you
across the bridge. My husband regretted his decision to ride over and bring the car back
for me!

Catfish Katys is the only place I have stayed along the way and the camping was 'ok'. The hosts of the campsite were very friendly and the hot shower was nice as well. The campsites themselves are a bit rocky and uncomfortable if you don't have some padding, but hey, it's a campground.

I had expectations of camping in Hermann last year during Oktoberfest and after what I witnessed last year, I will never consider camping in Hermann again. The Hermann website makes their park look like a huge oasis of secluded camping.......not the case. It's a small city park with about half of the MO population camping in it. Fire pits are limited to just a few and it was noisy. I packed up my stuff in the evening and headed down the trail and camped on the side of the trail, in solitude.....it was much more peaceful and less trashy.

I have actually stayed at a campground called 'Lazy Day Campground', north of Hermann. If you call ahead, I would imagine that you can get a ride from Hermann to this campsite which is probably a 20min or so ride. I really like this campground because it is not overrun by people and the campsites were extremely clean and well maintained. They have a laundry facility next to the bathrooms which is nice to be able to wash one's stinky biking clothes. Probably the nicest and most accommodating place I have ever camped. They had their pool open last year during Oktoberfest as well and it was heated, which made the 40-50 degree weather outside seem awesome.

The Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival is October 11th and 12th and we expect 50,000 plus people to attend. Biking in off the Katy Trail is one of the best ways to attend. We will have music and over 18 food vendors and over 250 craft booths. Come have a good time.