megatripdelabrad

#5

St. Charles and Columbia, MO

April 18 & 19, 2024

St. Charles (continued)

Visited the Lewis and Clark Boat House and Museum. Charmingly chintzy. They seem to lean into the low production value. There's a stuffed animal dog among taxidermied animals, a mannequin that clearly came from a department store, and this seemingly authentic "plastic drain pipe".

Walked around the downtown, which was cute, ate, then drove to my next stop.

The Katy trail from Columbia to Rocheport

The Katy trail is the longest rail-to-trail project in the country. It's 237 miles long, and with the Rock Island Spur, you can bike the entire width of Missouri, from St. Louis to Kansas City.

I just did a 13-mile section (out and back), but it was supposedly one of the most scenic parts of the trail.

This oak tree has 4.8 stars on google, its own facebook page, and its own wiki page. And like, it's a great tree, but... it's a tree 🤷
Most of the part I rode on was like this. Towering cliffs on one side, Missouri river on the other.
Ate lunch here in Rocheport. All the towns along the trail are very bike-centric.
There was a trail you could take up to the top of the bluffs, which I did...
...and braved the fearsome wildlife...
...and it was a pretty nice view.
There's a winery at the top too, but I was too full from lunch, and still had a lot of miles to go.
The rest of the trail looked like this, flat and straight, which is usually boring, but it was so flat and so straight that it looped back around to being interesting again. You could see for miles in either direction.

I've heard the Katy trail described as a "bucket list" ride. I don't know if I'd go that far, but it was nice. It was pretty smooth for gravel, but I'm definitely used to paved trails. After 26 miles, I felt like a shaken-up can of soda and my legs were rubber. Was a good experience though.

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