With the wind, we're glad that we're only driving about thirty minutes to our new campsite at the Katy Roundhouse Campground in New Franklin, Missouri. This picture was taken as the sun was setting over the campground. But it also pictures the main reason it is so popular. It is situated on mile 189 of the Katy Trail--Missouri's longest and most popular bike trail.
Besides riding bikes, we took a road trip to check out our surroundings. We're only a mile through the woods from the Missouri River, and three miles down the road from the little town of Boonville. As proof that Daniel Boone's family spent time in the area, we also made the trip to Boone's Lick State Historic Park. After driving for miles down narrow country roads, we then hiked to a secluded spot in the forest. This is where Daniel Boone's sons set up Missouri's first industry--producing salt. The spring water is salty here, and when the water was boiled away, it left the precious salt needed for preserving meat. We were disappointed that almost all evidence of the salt production is now gone, and we were just left with a walk in the woods.
After church the next day, we headed out on the Katy Trail. We could have started right at our campground, but since the bikes were on the rack attached to the car, we decided to drive them to the trail head in New Franklin. That will save ourselves a couple miles of pedaling.
The Katy Trail uses the trail bed of the former KT railroad, and it's the longest-continuous rail bed conversion path in the country. We love these rails-to-trails routes because they are so flat. Trains like inclines less than 2 degrees. The same could be said of Denisa's biking preferences.
This trail runs 240 miles--the entire width of the state of Missouri. We obviously won't be riding that far, but many people do. Our campground is a great stop for those people camping their way along the Katy Trail. This section closest to New Franklin runs along the edge of corn and soy bean fields.
We took a break from the bikes to wander along a path that runs perpendicular to the Katy Trail. The trail led to a camping site for those hardy riders going the entire distance. It also led to a creek where we realized we weren't alone.
It's a little blurry, but the wildlife picture of the day is an entire group of river otters, playing on the log right in front of us. Once they noticed us watching them, they dove silently into the water to continue their antics.
The further we rode our bikes, the taller the stone cliffs beside the path grew.
About nine miles into our ride we got to the only railroad tunnel on the entire Katy Trail.
On the other side of the tunnel is the Rocheport Depot and the next trail head. This would be a great place to start a short ride, because the scenery is so pretty here. Rocheport also caters to bikers, with places to stay and/or eat right along the trail.
We had to ride a little further to get our best look of the wide Missouri River, but it was certainly worth it. Just like the Mississippi, we saw that waters of this major river have flooded into farm land and low places in this area.
And that ride east of Rocheport also offers some of the tallest cliffs right beside the trail.
When you have the river on your left and the tall stone cliffs to your right, you know you are having a wonderful bike ride. It feels like we have wandered into another of God's wonders today.
We had several stops on the way back home, to rest our weary legs. We love the Katy Trail, but we've been spoiled with paved bike trails this summer. This rock trail means that you are pedaling 100% of the time. This was another resting place--this beautiful old tile granary is the only thing left of the tiny town of Pierson along the trail.
We're glad that we made it all the way to the Missouri River today, but the constant pedaling almost did Denisa in. By the time we got back to New Franklin, we had ridden 21 miles, and none of it was down hill. She was certainly glad that we opted to start at the trail head instead of the campground to save those two miles. We don't think she had another two miles in her! We have conquered another segment of the Katy Trail, so it is once again time to head down the road. We're pretty excited about the next wonder that we are wandering toward!
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