At 240 miles in length, the Katy Trail is America's longest rail-trail. It crosses almost the entire width of Missouri, from Clinton to Machens. Built on the rail bed of the former Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) Railroad, the Katy Trail is scenic, historic, and – importantly – almost entirely flat. It's also the longest bike trip we've ever undertaken.
The Katy Trail
Our plan was to bike the full length of the Katy Trail in seven days, carrying our own gear and stopping at hotels and airbnbs each night along the way. Full disclosure: Things did not go entirely to plan, leading us to miss approximately 25 trail miles between Calhoun and Sedalia due to a shredded tire on Tom's bike on day 1. Thankfully, Pro-Velo Cycle Sport in Sedalia got us sorted out the same day, and we were able to continue our ride from there.
As it turns out, each of us had a day of riding that required some backtracking, plus there was some additional off-trail riding each day to reach food and lodging. Consequently, even though we missed a bit of trail the first day, our total riding mileage actually exceeded the length of the Katy Trail by a few miles. I'll take it!
The bikes: 2020 Nishiki Women's Anasazi hybrid, aluminum, with 700x40c tires (Jana). 2003 Sun EZ-Sport AX recumbent, aluminum, with 20x1.5 and 26x1.75 tires (Tom).
Tom switched to the recumbent bike last year, after a couple of spinal surgeries left him with limited range of motion in his neck, making a regular bike's seating position awkward. Jana is a little jealous. That nice, wide recumbent seat looks pretty darn comfortable!
Tom and Jana ride again!