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Jarred from Florissant on 2/10/2006 4:19:53 PM:

We are planning on riding the trail sometime later this summer. It will be a group of about 4-5 of us and I was thinking about riding in early August or late July. We will begin preparing for the ride within the next 2 weeks. We are pretty amped about it. We are thinking about riding the trail out to Clinton and back from St. Charles. We are thinking that it can be done in about 5 days. Just wandering if everyone thinks this is a feasable time period??

savage24 from KC,MO on 2/10/2006 10:07:57 PM:

Did you mean 5 days each way (10 days total)? Or did you really mean only 5 days to go out and back? Are you carrying camping gear on the bikes or traveling light and staying in B&B's & motels?

Jarred from Florissant on 2/11/2006 12:58:29 AM:

We are thinking about 5 days to go there and back. We were thinking about taking one tent for all of us to camp in. We were going to carry it on a small bike trailer. At least that was just one of the ideas. We had also thought about staying in some of the hotels or motels along the way. There is still a lot of planning left in the works. If we were to ride just one way. (To Clinton) Do you know of any shuttles that we can catch back to St. Charles?

savage24 from KC,MO on 2/11/2006 8:25:25 AM:

WOW. No, that does not sound feasable to me. Can it be done? Sure, but why would you want to? That would be an average of 85-90 miles per day, hauling gear, in the summer heat. I personaly would allow for 8 days for a round trip. The fact that you are asking questions now and preparing early is great - since ultimately only your group can decide what is comfortable for everyone in the group. So get out and do some rides as soon as weather permits, including hauling your gear and doing an overnighter. You can find a list of shuttle services by selecting plan a ride, then select shuttles and then plan my ride or whatever the button at the bottom of the screen says. I'll try to post a link, but sometime they don't work for me. http://www.bikekatytrail.com/planner.asp

Ray (webmaster) on 2/11/2006 9:14:08 AM:

I agree with savage24 - riding nearly a century a day for 5 days straight is very intense. It's probably beyond most people's ability, and even most of those who can do it would be completely miserable at the end.

I think you're on the right track with riding one way, and then taking a shuttle the other way. This will still give you plenty of good hard riding, but it also will allow time to stop and look at the river, have a leisurely beer at a small bar along the way, visit with the locals over breakfast at a small town diner, explore a side trail or two, etc. etc.

Most shuttles charge by the trip rather than by person, so you'll find the shuttle fees to be pretty reasonable when split across a group of 4 or 5 people.

Jarred from Florissant on 2/11/2006 12:25:41 PM:

Eight days does definitely sound a little more comfortable than 5. Thank you guys very much for your opinions. It is very helpful to have someone who knows a little more about the trail give you some advice. We are pushing for a quicker trip for the simple reason that we will have to request off work for that duration. I'll get it figured out though. I'm sure our workplaces would let us off if they knew what we were trying to accomplish. I will definitely get back to you all with more questions and appreciate your information greatly!!

Thomas Hobbs from Webster Groves MO on 2/14/2006 5:06:44 PM:

I have not had the chance to ride the Katy Trail ,I have to tell anyone planning any ride during summertime in Missouri that the humidity can be quite high resulting in a heat index that you need to monitor, it will cause problems when you are not adjusted to it. The problems also include insects and chiggers and ticks to worry about along the wooded sections.Plan on taking the time and not rush this trip. Also storms can and do form rapidly and without much warning and tend to get quite severe along the MO River and I-70 , high winds and hail and strong and intense lightning

Jarred from Florissant on 2/16/2006 12:16:01 PM:

Yeh, we have been thinking about the possibility of storms. We hope by planning the tip in late july- early august we may have a better chance at avoiding the bad weather. The draw-back is definitely the heat though. We will bring plenty of water and water purification tablets just in case. In case of bad weather, well, let us just hope the weather cooperates.

kasko from STL MO on 3/2/2006 11:07:05 AM:

I think you are misjudging the distance and heat in a major way. Five days one way is OK. Do you understand that even though the Katy is a State Park there is NO camping along side the trail !! - unless you find an off the trail private camp site at each overnight location. Taking one big heavy tent sounds very naive to me. I suggest you load up your trailer and several weeks before intended trip try pedaling a 40 mile ride. I suspect that will add some realism to your plans. Right now you seem to be planning a "survival" trip with no time to stop and smell the roses.
You can get a shuttle ride from Clinton back to Sedalia where you can catch Amtrak train back to St. Louis ( get of at Kirkwood if more convenient than downtown). A "shuttle" all the way back to St. Louis may be quite expensive. Check out and compare costs.

Sarah from Denver on 3/4/2006 6:45:17 PM:

We took 6 days to ride one way from Clinton to St Charles last June and felt we could have done it in 4. I'm a pretty strong cyclist, but my companion is more of a weekend warrior. We have hybrids. The heat, however, was major for us. One day we got a late start and were absolutely fried at the end of the day. The rest of the time we started out really early to avoid it, and that worked well--6:30 AM or earlier.

Mike Bryant from Southeast Missouri on 3/5/2006 9:14:48 AM:

No Way! I am have been a cyclist for years and have ridden many centuries and one 200 miler. My wife and I rode from Clinton to St. Charles in the middle of July about three years ago and did it in five days. It was too hot. We saw very few cyclist on the trail. You might be able to do it but you sure won't enjoy it. You should also take into consideration the possibility of bad weather. JMHO

MaBell from Overland Park, KS on 3/5/2006 10:59:54 PM:

Jarred, seriously, you're looking at some miserable heat. Just curious why that time frame? The DNR trip is in late June, 5 days, one way, and the heat was a kicker. You definitely want to get an early, early start, and maybe consider stopping in the early afternoon, then starting up again around dinner time...just a thought. We camped, and the heat factor was just as bad when we weren't riding because we had nowhere to go to cool down. If you can camp in places with a swimming pool (Pilot Grove, Herman, etc.) it might be okay. Overall, enjoy the trail as you go, because there's nothing like it. Hope it works out!

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