For the 2nd day in a row, I had to pack a tent that was soaked with water from the night's rain.
Due to all the recent rain, the Katy Trail surface was wet and soft. I rode on the trail about 6 miles, but got tired of feeling like I had 2 tires low in air pressure. About 6 miles out of Sedalia, a perfectly good paved road with low traffic ran next to the trail, so I hopped on it and took it to Sedalia.
While having breakfast at Sedalia, I got to rethinking my decision to stay on the Katy Trail to it's terminus. It would take me north, and add about 25+ (slow) miles to my trip. I looked at Google Maps, and decided to take U.S. Highway 50 from Sedalia to Jefferson City.
Highway 50 started out with a nice wide shoulder for several miles. However, it then went to a small shoulder with a rumble strip on it. That meant I had cars and commercial trucks passing me pretty close if traffic was coming from the other direction.
I stayed on Hwy 50 til Tipton. I got tired of the traffic zooming by me, so it was again time for some route rethinking. Out comes Google Maps, and I saw some secondary roads that ran almost parallel to Hwy 50 about 2 miles north. I figured I would take a chance on those, not knowing if they were gravel or not. It was a great choice because they were nicely paved, low traffic roads. A couple of pics below of the scenery on these rural roads.
I was able to remain on secondary roads to Jefferson City. The hills were probably a lot steeper on those roads than on the highway, but it was worth harder climbs to get away from the traffic.
It's obvious from the pic below that the Missouri State Capital building in Jefferson City is undergoing a major renovation.
I decided to hop back on the Katy Trail in Jefferson City. I took a pedestrian/bicycle bridge to cross the Missouri River to get to the trail only to find out that the path to the trail was closed on the other side of the river due to flooding. So I pedaled back across the river and got on the U.S. Highway 54 bridge during rush hour. This is the only bridge in town that crosses the river, so traffic was thick. Luckily, there was a wide shoulder.
I got on the Katy Trail and there were signs of the recent flooding (pics below), but this part of the trail was generally in good condition.
I made it to Tebbetts where there is a nice shelter that cyclists and hikers of the Katy Trail can use for $5. I pitched my tent outside, but did use the shower at the shelter. There was also some microwave popcorn and a microwave there, so I had a bag of popcorn. Now here's the real deal worth all of the $5 - there were Q-tips there. (Ahhhhh!!!) Pics below of shelter and some information about it.
Below is a pic of Roger and Jael, who are also camping outside the shelter. They are from Salt Lake City, and are biking from Sedalia to Hermann, MO, and then taking Amtrak back to Sedalia. They are both riding electric bikes.
Tebbetts at sunset.
Total miles today: 101.2
No comments:
Post a Comment