Katy Trail.0 The Plan

I am doing a bicycle trip on the KATY Trail this early fall. The Katy Trail is the country's longest continuous recreational rail trail. It runs roughly 240 miles, largely along the Missouri River, in the right-of-way of the former Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad (KATY).

I will be riding the trail in mid-September over the coarse of about one week. I plan to begin the trail in either Kansas City or Clinton MO and ride it to the eastern terminus near St. Louis MO. Along the journey I will be enjoying the scenery and 153 miles of history along the lower Lewis and Clark riverway. The route promises to offer plenty of stops plus grand views of the river and surrounding countryside.

Daily, I plan to ride 40 miles or so and set up camp most nights along the trail. One or two nights during the trip I will probably venture into a town for a room, a sit down dinner, a shower and a soft bed. Oh, and a beer or three.

I will be riding my newest bike, a 2022 Kona Sutra SE. The Sutra SE is one of the last traditional style touring bikes available. It is highly regarded as a bike capable of round the world journeys. They are built for toughness, comfort and serviceability. The bike is set very up similar to a bike I had for touring in the 1980s, just a bit more modern. The Sutra's steel frame is a perfectly suited material for touring bikes as are leather saddles and triple gear sets. One big update over my 1983 Raleigh Touring 18 is twelve more gear ratios for a total of 30! Plenty of range for grinding up hills or cruising across open plains.

Here is the 1983 Touring 18, I called mine Ginger Bridgestone. Ginger because she was crimson in color and Bridgestone due to the fact that Bridgestone built the frames used on these bikes for Raleigh of America.

I typically give my bikes hooker names because they are likely to be treated poorly. In the case of my Kona Sutra SE, she has been christened Karmyn Sutra.

Below Karmyn is loaded for touring and in camp on a short trip to Hillsboro and Elroy WI. I'm looking forward to many trips on this bike over the next few years. She's a real touring thoroughbred.

I hope you check back on my adventure. I plan to add installments here as the trip progresses and keep anyone interested up to date with a short daily report.