For those of you who read the title of this blog and didn't get it, you should watch the following video.  For those who got the title of the blog, you should still watch the video, it's probably the first time you ever heard the song.  For all others, you'll probably like the trip down nostalgia lane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPbymWrqXGc

The Katy is short for the MKT (Missouri, Kansas,Texas) railroad.  Its original stock exchange symbol was the 'K-T' and the name of the line evolved to 'Katy'.  The Katy was the first railroad in Texas and in its heyday, the Katy provided rail service for Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and even a small line to Louisiana.  The MKT incorporated in 1870 and the railroad was still going strong in 1970.  Economics caused a considerable downsizing of the rail line after that time and the MKT was purchased by Union Pacific in 1988.  With generous donations by Edward "Ted" Jones Jr. and his wife Pam Jones, of Edward D. Jones and Company, much of the Missouri rail line was converted to a rail trail and now constitutes the Katy Trail State Park.

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The bike trail is absolutely beautiful and crosses 2/3 of the state of Missouri, starting in Clinton and ending 240 miles later in Machens, just north of St. Louis.  My Mom and her friend Elaine DuCharme came down to visit us as we rode the trail and they served as a SAG wagon for us so Jaine and I could ride the trail together.  Here are some pictures of the start of the trail in Clinton, MO.

 

The very beginning of the Katy Bike Trail

Clinton Trail Head

All of the trail heads had a station that had historical information about the station, places in town to visit for services and support, a description of the flora and fauna of the area, a poster board for people to communicate via notes or announcements, and a description of the highlights of the section of trail you have just traveled, and where you will next be traveling.  Also, every trail head has a restroom which can come in pretty handy sometimes.

The nice thing about the Katy Bike Trail is that it is flat.  Since it's a rail trail the grade can never be above 5% and the Katy Trail never has a grade greater that 2.2%.  The trail is very shaded with tunnels of trees for the vast majority of the route so even on very hot days a rider can stay quite cool.  The average distance between trail heads is about 10 miles with some as short as 4 miles and a couple of long ones at 16 miles.  There's lots of places to eat and lots of places to stay along the trail.  Much of the trail follows the Missouri River and many times there are tall bluffs on one side of the trail and river on the other side.  There is a lot of wonderful history along the trail...a lot of it follows the Lewis and Clark trail, including the area where Lewis saved himself from falling off of a 200 foot cliff and certain death by stabbing a knife into the cliff 20 feet into the fall.  Daniel Boone and his boys did a lot of hunting in the area and started a salt trading center along what is now the Katy trail.  Thousands of Germans settled in the area near Hermann and produced almost half of the US production of wine until Prohibition began.  Cool stuff.

The downside?  The material packed down to make a rail trail is made of crushed limestone called 'pug' and the grit can get in the mechanics of the bike. Also it can cover clothes and bike with a dust that should be washed after a long ride.  Pug dries rather quickly after a rain, but some areas can soften up after a rain and can make for difficult or slow riding.  Nevertheless, they tend to be very scenic and are great riding with no contentious automobile traffic to worry about.

Here are some pictures of the Katy Bike Trail.  I highly recommend the trail to anyone who is a casual biker and would like nice vacation to hit this trail for a few days of good exercise, beautiful scenery and nice places to visit.

Tunnel of Trees

Lots of Big Bridges

A Typical Trail Head

As an added aside, the MKT did some crazy things to promote the use of the railroad.  The following paragraph is taken from Wikipedia:

In 1896, as a publicity stunt set up by William Crush (what an appropriate name), the Katy crashed 2 locomotives head-on, pulling loaded trains at a site that came to be known thereafter as Crush, Texas.  The collision occurred before more than 40,000 spectators, three of whom died and several injured by debris from the exploding boilers.  The ragtime composer and pianist Scott Joplin, who was performing in the area at the time commemorated the event in his song "The Great Crush Collision March" which he dedicated to the MKT railway.  After the collision, William Crush was immediately fired, but as there was no adverse publicity from the event, he was rehired the next day.

Before Collision

Moment of Impact

After Collision

If you want to hear 'The Great Crush Collision March' check out this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_QENErUx8o

I wonder if the stunt would be considered 'OSHA safe' today?