Katy Trail 2 - Boonville to Hermann

 Friday, 16 October and Thursday 17 October 2021

Boonville - Jefferson City - Hermann

Boonville to Jefferson City: 53 miles. Jefferson City to Hermann: 47 miles

These were the longest days -- back-to-back 50 milers. I find riding 40 miles a day isn't bad, but 50s are not my choice. From Boonville the trail follows the Missouri River and is as flat as a trail can get. The surrounding area has bluffs and hills, but for a railroad, flat and straight is the ideal. The MKT (Missouri-Kansas-Texas) Railroad found that putting up with devastating floods was worth the cost and risk in service to flat and straight.

The first crossing of the Missouri River - and the only one on the Katy Trail itself - is leaving Boonville.

A flood in 2019 washed this bridge off its foundation. In dry times, trail users can ford the small creek and continue, but after four or five days of rain, there was water in the creek and we elected to take the official detour which was a not-very-pleasant 2-mile ride along US 40 (two-lane, no shoulders), followed by one mile along a small road leading to Rocheport.

By taking the detour, we missed the only tunnel on the trail, which is just outside Rocheport. It's a short tunnel - not that much longer than the culverts we road through.

The north side of the Missouri is lined with limestone and dolomite bluffs. Most of the time they are barely visible through the dense vegetation. There were many of these warning signs along the trail.

Lon's second flat of the trip - this time on the front tire. When checking the inside of the tire, the cause of the flat was obvious - a 1/2-inch long nail/tack/spike had gone completely through (inset photo).

Good views of the river were remarkably rare. If the trail ran close to the river, there was usually a fairly dense set of trees between the trail and the river. At other times, the trail could be a mile or two off the river - going straight where the river doesn't!

Coming into Jefferson City the capitol dome was visible above the farm fields.

It was a three-mile ride off-trail to get to our hotel, the Marriott Courtyard - definitely very modern.  An official spur trail leads from the Katy across the Missouri into town. The US 54 bridge has a dedicated pedestrian/bike lane, which is accessed by this amazing three-level ramp.

Lon riding up the ramp.

Sue riding down the ramp the next morning.

"Standing Rock" is a sandstone "plug" was left behind when the rest of the limestone bluff eroded away. Although the rock is a 1 1/2 miles from the river, at least 7 floods have been recorded here, some over half-way up the rock.

We never knew we had entered the nuclear power plant emergency planning zone.

Once again our night's destination, Hermann, was on the south side of the Missouri River. The two-mile spur was along a very busy road, but the shoulder was wide and there was a dedicated pedestrian/bike lane on the bridge. Our hotel for the night was the Hermann Crown Suites - a tavern with several B&B rooms, as well as a nice bar and performance space in the cellar. Hermann displays its strong German heritage with Octoberfest - food, beer, wine, and music.