320
3
2%
0%
8,750ft
100%
2/10
13
The Rock Island and Katy Trail rail to trail system crosses the state of Missouri connecting Kansas City and St. Louis. Stretching about 300 miles, the trail crosses small towns, is well maintained, and reserved only for bikes and foot traffic.
I had a lot of initial thoughts about how I would plan the route for this trip. I ended up with a goal to ride from my house in Olathe, Kansas to Gateway National Park with a "complete as much as makes sense mindset". I found a couple of useful tools when planning the trip. The first being the old faithful How Far Did I Run? website. The second and more trip specific is the The Katy Trail and Rock Island Trail Website. I am not sure who maintains this but it is pretty cool! I am not going to recreate the wheel.
I decided to take 143rd east through south Kansas City to Pleasant Hill where Rock Island trail begins would be my best bet. Then I could ride straight through to the Katy and onto St. Louis where I would exit at the Missouri Bluffs Trail Trailhead and follow Google Maps to Gateway National Park.
The biggest assumption, that fortunately ended up being correct, was that there were enough towns with water, food, camping scattered along the way and no other plan was needed other than the classic "ride until you're tired".
I left Thursday, May 1st, and noon and needed to be on the Sunday trail leaving from St. Louis at 3pm.
The trail is about 8ft wide almost completely flat for the entire 200+ miles, and consists of finely crushed gravel. The trail is mostly elevated, I assume this is due to it being an old rail line, and has a nice crown that helps shed water quickly. The week prior to my trip was rainy and I was worried this would be an issue. Fortunately, the trail was mostly dry and rode fast. Some soggy sections slowed me down a little but were more than manageable!
I think I came across 2 trees that were blown down on the entire 300+ miles of trail. That pretty darn good!
I rode gravel bike (Salsa Warbird) and it was fantastic. I think a gravel bike would be the best choice but you could take anything on this trail. I saw a lot of cheap e-bikes running round that were doing fine!
I saw a fair amount of wild life on this trip! Deer, turtles, snakes, spiders, lizards, and more! A few notable interactions:
I didn't have any mosquito issues. I think some of this was because I was early in the year and kept moving. There was quite a bit of standing water lining the trail that is going to be full of them later in the year!
On day one I saw a massive spider while I was riding. I got a little closer than I should and this thing jumped 6-8 inches in the air and almost landed on my leg. Later, this was confirmed this was a wolf spider. Keep some room between these guys.
After dark on day one I turned on my light and not 5 minutes later I almost ran over a black snake stretched across the trail. If it wasn't for the light I would have ran it over. I probably did about 4 total hours of night riding and was very glad to have a bright head light.
On Saturday night I was ridding by headlight and saw lots of opossums and armadillos. It was nice to have some company!
Everyone has a different idea of what isolated means. The vast majority of the time I didn't see many people, but I never felt isolated on the trip. However the trail was hardly ever busy. The busiest sections were near Pleasant Hill, Sedailia, Jeff City, and St. Louis.
I wasn't able to find much information on camping before the trip. My plan was to sleep at the trailheads if I couldn't find an established camping area!
I found that the trail is more geared towards renting a cabin or Airbnb by the trail. I know this is perfect for lots of people but not my thing!
It might seem tempting to walk off the trail and camp but I probably wouldn't. There are tons of ticks! I found out how bad the ticks can get while working for the Missouri DNR in college. However, I would camp at almost any trailhead. I think further from town the better. I don't know the legality of this, but If you pitched as the sun was going down I don't think you would have an issue.
I think the main danger is having something go wrong with your bike causing you to have to limp in or walk to the next town. Almost all of the people I saw were clearly out for an evening walk, riding the trail, or maintenence workers. I did see one "character" out mushroom hunting that I wasn't looking to hang out with for any amount of time and another very strange man at the Coopers Landing campsite that was most likely on drugs.
Overall this is a very safe activity, but I always carry bear spray!
I wouldn't do this trip in the heat and humidity. Most of the trail is surrounded by trees, which helps dudes like me with pasty white skin hide from the sun but would trap humidity.
My mindset was to not push to hard and ride in the dark a little if needed and that is exactly what happened. The trip started with some rode riding and ended at the eastern tremulous of the Rock Island trail. This is a fun section. Some of the road riding was on the shoulder of Highway 150 which might make some people uncomfortable. It's not my favorite type off riding, but It was necessary to get to the trailhead.
There is a night path on the north side of Highway 150 that stretched most of the route and got me off of the shoulder. Eventually I had to jump on Outer Bend Road. It was okay, but a lot of traffic. Smart road is quiet and takes you by some great mountain biking that I have written about: Mopac Single Track Mountain Biking.
Be very very careful out there. This guy would not let me pass until I paid "The Tax". I jumped on the bike and got the hell out of there shortly after this video was shot.
In all seriousness, I pulled about 20 ticks out of this dog. Make sure to check yourself and stay out of the tall stuff!
I ended in Windsor with plans to camp at the trailhead. Google Maps brought up a camp ground and I decided to take a look. Wile standing over my bike looking at the sign, I was approached by the owner. The allure of a shower and coffee in the morning got the best of me. I usually pass on $20 to camp but this place is worth it. The owner is supper nice, the facilities are clean, and they go above and beyond what is expected. Defiantly a place I recommend!
The day started with a shower and when I was putting my sock back on it ripped. Little did I know that this would end up setting the timeline for the rest of the trip.
I was very lucky that the sock was still covering the heal of my foot!
I rode into Sedalia, got coffee and some food at Woods, and went to the bike shop to get a new set of socks. The name of the shop is Pro-Velo and it is right off the trail next to the Katy Depot. The dude working was super nice and we shot the shit for 20min. After hearing I had no plans he insisted that I stay the night at Coopers Landing even though it was cutting the day a little short. He filld my head with stories of college woman from Mizzo, live music, beer and all overlooking the big muddy. How could I resit?
Rochport is a cool little town that I wish I had more time to explore. You come into town by riding through a longer old railroad tunnel and are quickly greeted by a roadside stand. The town is right on the bank of the big muddy. Explore!!!
I rode into Coopers Landing and did in fact have a great time and slurped down a couple of beers. I highly recommend staying the night if you can. As mentioned in the safety section I did run into a weird dude that was under some kind of chemically induced trance that required river worship at 3am. In the morning I felt culturally enriched but a little light on sleep!
I got to pay the price for an easier Friday. 126 miles to a hot shower and some shitty toxic hell(Taco Bell) The last 30 was in the dark and the rain. Lucky my light lasted and it wasn't a downpour or too cold! I'm not going to lie, a low point was reached Saturday night. Push push push!
I was worried about soreness from the big push the day before but this ended up not being an issue. It started out as a great. I was riding the high of feeling way better than expected. I was making good time though the first 10 miles so I stopped for a coffee. I sat at a 4 person table, crazy haired, covered in 4 day old cloths, and quickly shoveling food into my mouth. I was surrounded by a variety of uninterested people. A group of guys had driven there "cool cars" to the shop and talked loudly about cool cars they didn't have. A group of geriatric walkers in brand new athleasure cloths and many others looked on. Impatiently wanting for me to leave. They wanted to take my table but not to afraid to ask. It was so good to be back to the big pretentious city. The food was like rocket fuel. The rest of the ride to the arch was pure bliss trough some beautiful parts of St. Louis. I was even able to push it a little through traffic which was shocking after the previous day!
Riding Amtrack on the way back was an intresting experience! Once I figured out how the bike situation worked it was smooth sailing. Make sure that you purchase a ticket that has a bike endorsement!
I was quickly yelled at to not use the bike storage. This is what was agreed upon between the conductor and I. It worked, not sure why the bike storage was out of the question though.
There are a couple of options that I think would be fun to slim this trip down. All of the suggestions start and end in towns that connect to Amtrack! I would try to hit Coopers Landing, Rochport, or Defiance. They were the coolest little towns!
I met 2 women from Colorado doing this exact trip! Defiantly doable for almost anyone. I would spend the night at Coopers Landing and take the quick ride to Jefferson City in the morning!
This would be great if you lived in St. Louis and were trying to impress and adventurous woman with a fun overnight date. I would stay in Defiance. Camping is limited but I'm sure there are rentals avaiable!
This offers a little more riding. I would Stay in Rochport or Coopers Landing for the first night. Then Steamboat Junction Campground or rent a place in Herman for night 2.
I couldn't recommend the Rock Island and Katy Trails enough! The riding is so flat and you can camp in so many different towns. You can really dial intensity to whatever fits your pace!