Riding Missouri's Katy Trail

Trenton and Rasham Gibbons share their story of riding across the Missouri. The ride includes a long stretch on the Katy Trail: 

Riding the Katy Trail (Free Life by Bike blog)

No cars, no steep grades, no rolling hills and plenty of shade: its our dream come true, and we glide upon Katy’s packed dirt with excitement and ease, adoring the tree-given shade and the jungle vines tucked behind her manicured edges. The Katy Trail is a total of 237 miles and spans the state of Missouri, but it takes a northward turn and we need to get off and ride the highway in order to continue east towards our destination.

We ride until we reach Tipton and decide to spend another night indoors at the local motel. Trenton walks across the street to a Chinese restaurant and orders carry out, a dinner of rice, vegetables, and noodles; real food.

We awaken and head for the Tipton cafe before riding out, where we spend a while talking to the locals, one of whom is the uncle of comedian and actor David Koechner, a charmingly witty older man in overalls and an appetite for sharing the history of his town, long ago settled by German immigrants who took to farming as a way of life.

Read about the rest of their ride across Missouri here.

Connecting the Katy Trail across the state, creating trail connections from nearby communities to the Katy, and making the Katy Trail the centerpiece of a complete, connected cross-state trails system are just some of the trails-related goals in MoBikeFed's Vision for Bicycling and Walking in Missouri.

Find out more about Missouri's trails, including the Katy Trail, on MoBikeFed's trails page.