Katy Trail, Cyclist's Paradise (and mosquitoe's as well-_-)

The Katy Trail is a 400km bike trail from Machens to Clinton in the state of Missouri. It's following the Missouri-River for most of the way and is built on an old railroad the MKT-Railroad (Missouri-Kansas-Texas-Railroad). Somehow the name changed to KT-Railroad which is obviously pronounced "Katy" what apparently lead to the Trails current name. 

Start of the Katy-trail 

The trail is gravel all the way but mostly pretty well maintained what allowed me riding more than 20km/h (12,5mph) which lead to 150km (93mi) the first and 180km (112mi) the second day. At almost every former stop they built something like a small shelter, with a map of the trail, some historical information about the place, toilets, water supply, a place to sit, repair kits and other stuff. Very similar to the Allegheny Passage in Pennsylvania just without the free campsites along the way.

Restored former railroad stops every couple of miles

Trail blocked with a tree on the first 10-mile not so well maintained part of the trail

Cause Missouri is a kinda hilly state, riding the trail along the river also means avoiding all the hills around. Although following the river doesn't mean to take the shortest way to Kansas City its still faster and less exhausting, not just because it's flat, it's also because the whole trail is a state park which means that 10 meters on each side of the trail count as state park as well and the trees in this area spend a lot of shadow what helps especially on hot days like now a lot!!

There must have been a lot of rain the last weeks! You can see the recent waterline on the left riverbank very well

The first day I got up really early, like 6:30 or something, for two reasons. First I was camping in a state park which is not allowed for sure and secondly I had to make it to a sports bar in Washington, MO 80km (50mi) away by 2pm to watch the soccer-match of the Germans against Ukraine. Now that the European Championship is on I need to look for sports bars along the way because of some stupid laws it's not possible to use the online-streaming-offers of German free TV here in the US:/

Another kind of turtle I met on the way:)

Totally closed:)

Without stopping I reached the bar in less than 4 hours just in time and enjoyed a great 2:0 win of the German team while having some delicious onion-rings and fries with at least 3 liters of cold drinks during the match. When I got the bill afterwards they didn't charge me for the drinks at all (must have been something like 10$). When I asked them they told me they're for free! So nice of them:) The second time in two days that this happened to me. Maybe they feel like pity for me cycling in that heat or they are just really nice people:)

Enjoying the match:)

Before I continued I stopped at Walmart to buy myself a footprint for my tent. It's not because of protection the bottom of the tent but rather to protect my sleeping-mat from sharp things on the ground. I just noticed that I have recently slept on plants with spines and if it would be raining someday (what I don't expect at all:) my sleeping-mat won't get wet too.

Unfortunately dead armadillo on the trail

And whatever that is called:)

Till dawn I managed to do about 70km (44mi) more to a little campsite (official!! :D). It had a shower, toilet, water supply, places to sit and even electricity! There was nobody around but they ask for 9$ on mutual trust what I payed cause it was really well maintained and definitely worth it 9$, especially the shower!

Campsite for the night

On the campsite I met a guy called Jim who was riding the trail the other direction and arrived there about the same time as me. He had a pretty cool solution for light sleeping equipment: a tent like a hammock which you can hang up between two trees. It's closed so you're protected from mosquitoes and if it's raining you just cover it with a tarp and voila! You don't need a sleeping mat and it's way more light than a tent without pegs and poles! Only issue: You need trees for that, which might become a problem in the desert or mountain parts of the US but in this area here it's definitely the perfect solution!

So simple!:)

The next morning a friend of him came to the campsite and they invited me for coffee:) He told me that they've camped a month in Death Valley during summer time. He said it was insanely hot but he could stand the heat with a lot of water. (Seems to be possible apparently;) He and his friend were really nice and gave me some advice for camping in the western parts of the US and told me about some great hikes as well.

Breakfast-group:D

Old Shatterhands canoe at Missouri River:)

During my noon-break near Jefferson City I met another very cool guy. His nickname was "Smiley" and he's currently WALKING across the US from coast to coast and will end in San Francisco as well! He started around January and it takes him at least a year to get to SanFran when he does about 20-25miles a day. When he'll get to Kansas City he'll have walked 10000miles on major walks like this in his life, what is about what I have cycled in my whole life, CYCLED!!! What he does it totally impressive and awesome. Especially the way he lives and his equipment. Like me he just pulls over anywhere and sleeps for free and doesn't cook hot I think so he doesn't need a gas-container, a stove and a pot either. He doesn't uses a tent but something like a super-lite sleeping-sack which protects him from bugs and stuff like that and in case of rain he's got small tarp which he can set up over himself. In total his whole equipment including clothes and food doesn't even weigh 10kg!!! Quite impressive for a year-long trip!! It was really interesting talking to him cause where kind of the same sort of people doing quite the same but just in a different way! Like me he's already thinking about his next trip what will be probably a long hike along the Continental Divide from Canada to Mexico or something. What a cool guy!! The less amount of weight he carried actually inspired me maybe to loose some weight myself when I'll arrive in KC by getting rid of some unnecessary stuff like my two books I'll probably never read on this trip, by mailing them ahead to my hostel in San Francisco but I'll see, considering that I lost maybe at least one back wheel due to too much weight:)

Cross-country cycling meets cross-country hiking:)

Later that day I suddenly passed the entrance of a cave and couldn't resist the temptation of having a look inside. It ended up being an hour-long visit cause the cave turned out to have a small river inside and active-water-caves are usually pretty long so after probably a couple hundred meters I just turned around without a soon ending in sight. On my way out I found two fossilized bones which I took with me. I don't know if they are human, that would be totally amazing but very unlikely I think. I'll probably ask an archaeologist about that just to be sure:)

Cave entrance from inside

Beautiful flowstones further inside

Someone has been here before:)

Bone I found in the cave

When I was getting out of the cave again I got attacked by a bunch of mosquitoes even more than before I got inside. As I continued my way along the riverside it got worse and worse. I never had it that extreme with mosquitoe's in my life, not even when we were in Sweden where it can sometimes get really really bad with those! But here it just got insane! They really don't seem to care about the heat at all! It wasn't even possible to stop a second for taking a photo without getting attacked by dozens of them! It just simply wasn't possible! When I once tried to take one I counted at least 10 of them on my arms and legs after just two seconds, no kidding!! As a consequence I couldn't stop for the next 30 miles cause the only thing I forgot to buy at Walmart the other day was.........insect repallant:/

Cliffs next to the trail close to the cave

Missouri-River sunset

Cause I wanted to arrive at the Hansons in KC the next day and it was still 180km to go that moment I decided to continue on the trail for at least 30km after it was getting dark. I didn't want to arrive late the day after or making more than 150km so it was the better decision to more km that day what was no problem on a bike trail at night without any cars. At the end of the day it has been my latest arrival (0:30am) and my second longest stage I ever did (181km) but I didn't feel exhausted at all, maybe because of I didn't have to deal with any hills that day.
Cause there was no campsite close this time I decided to pitch my tent just anywhere like usually:)

Interesting bridge-construction on Missouri:)

Route 70 by night

The third day I left the trail in Sedalia and headed west to Kansas City via highway 50, a big road with four lanes and a side-lane on each side. Not very nice to cycle but the good thing was that it cuts itself it's way through all the hills in that part of Missouri, well...almost, but I'll explain that:) and you have food and drink-supply along the way everywhere what was really nice to have in that intense heat (36℃/99℉) that day.

Forest I stayed in this night

Bike covered completely in dust after two days cycling on gravel

Now, the only strange and kinda annoying thing about the highway was the way they built it. Somehow, and I really can't get the point of that, one side of the road is well adjusted and cuts through the hills like major roads always do while they apparently totally failed on the other side of the road. It simply takes every hill on the way without cutting through a single one, what means you have to cope with a lot of difference in altitude while the other side of the road is simply flat. Can't get the reason for that at all, just seems like they've run out of money on one side or something.

Why???

Amish are everywhere:)

One of many gun-adverts on my trip

But still, it wasn't that exhausting as I expected and I made it in time to Overland Park (south of Kansas City) where the Hanson family lives:)
Chris is a cousin of William and Kathy Good who I met back in Cleveland and the nephew of Marion and Lowel. They invited me for dinner to a famous barbecue place in town and I had some delicious ribbs with potato salad. Yummy!:)

I love my life! :D

Chris offered me to go to the baseball match of the Kansas City Royals against the Cleveland Indians the next day so although I had planned to continue on Thursday I simply couldn't refuse that offer and decided to take a day off. Was maybe a good decision cause the next day turned out to become the hottest they they had in 3 years in this area with more than 38℃ (100℉). So I spent the day blog-writing and in the evening we all (Chris, his wife Jan, their son Erik and me) went to the stadium to see the match of the Royals against the Indians.

Kansas City Baseball Stadium

Cause I never watched Baseball before Erik explained the rules to me while watching which is probably the best way to learn it in a very short time. Baseball is actually a kinda interesting sport to watch, although i still like flowing games like soccer better, it was really fun to be in baseball-stadium watching a match live. The stadium is really big for baseball I think, (capacity about 50000 which is almost as much as our soccer-stadium at home has) and the Football stadium of the Kansas City Chiefs right next to it has even 80000 what is like the major soccer-stadiums in Europe.

The second largest stadium-screen in the world!!

During the match they even do all the things you usually see in movies like Kiss-Cams and some other weird traditions. For example in matches like that when there's a chance of winning the third game in a row against the same team people are bringing brooms to the stadium with what they wave if their team wins (like this time, they won 9:4:)

Hanson family and me:)

Thanks a lot to the Hanson family for being such nice hosts and for the delicious cookies, they were one of the best I ever had!:) and for mailing my stuff to San Francisco for sure:)

My route during these days:)

Cause I'll cycle through the Great Planes approximately the whole next week on my way to Denver, I don't really expect to see very much so I'll summarize that part in one post when I'll arrive in Denver then! See you soon:)