Squeezebox

I'm thinking about a Katy trail trip. I want to stay home until my son leaves in 2 weeks. So that puts the Katy trip at the end of the month. I'm thinking St. Louis to Clinton and back. Camping and cooking most of the way, probably. 60 miles per day sounds reasonable to me. Anybody want to come along?

JerrySTL

Sounds interesting except for the cooking part. However I'd doing a supported tour one-way starting on the 20th.

Squeezebox

When I cook I know I'm getting good, tasty food. Tell me more about your supported tour?

mrFreel

Keep In mind that there is a scheduled ride supported by the parks department starting in the east and riding west June 20 through 24. This is a capped ride and is full with 350 riders. Probably a good time to avoid

Mike

Squeezebox

I almost want to go out and watch. It's cheaper than the circus.
Thanks for the heads up.

indyfabz

Yeah. I love cooking on tour. Just packed my cookset last night for my flight to Missoula on Tuesday. Stove and empty fuel bottle were chipped out with the bike, which is on the truck for delivery to REI.

I can whip up something like this in pretty short order.

BigAura

Congrats Squeeze sounds like a great plan. If I were in your area I might even consider taking you up. Personally, if was going I'd recommend two rest-days, especially if I wasn't in touring shape. Probably something like: three riding days and rest-day. That said, riding through at 60 miles a day sounds completely reasonable. No matter what you do ENJOY!

Squeezebox

How about 2 short days, instead of zero days?
Thanks for the out of shape advice.
I'll bring a book. Maybe it will rain.

alan s 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXsQAXx_ao0

Roughstuff

Those who don't do the trail are Katydidn'ts! Those who have are Katydids!

robow

And those that said they did it but really didn't, well, I'll leave that up to these guys

BigAura

I never officially train for my tours. But I regularly ride 50 miles/week, run/walk 25 miles/week, lift weights 2x a week, yoga 1x --> to keep generally fit, irrespective of tour plans. So although somewhat tour ready I'm training on the road.


I usually like to start with two or three days of riding and take a day off to fully rest my body. If the weather conicides, all the better. In my opinion, half days don't cut it as far as recovery is concerned. I'd much rather take a day off and add extra miles (if required) to subsequent days . I generally stretch out my rest days to four-riding days to one rest, as my tour progresses.


The reality for me is it takes two-weeks on the road, touring, to get into touring-shape. At that point I feel I'm melded with my bicycle and the road. I can then effortlessly ride whatever/whenever forever. This why I prefer long tours of at least a month. Sadly for many this is impossible and that applies to me too. But great when available.




Yes --> Book good for a relaxing rainy day.

indyfabz

Winning!

JerrySTL

Have you seen this web site:
Katy Trail Forum - questions, answers, and discussions about

I'm going with the following group. 2016 is sold out. Sign-ups for 2017 (Clinton to St. Charles) starts on March 1st. It sells out as quickly as one day.
https://mostateparks.com/2016KTRide

alan s 

I recently rode the entire Katy Trail out and back completely unsupported in about 2 hours, including several other connecting trails. No big deal. The lesser known one in Dallas, TX.

bransom

Have fun! I did it a couple of years ago and may sign up and do it again next year. The Parks Dept. does a great job of running it.

JerrySTL

You had me going there for a moment!