Another day with an early start to try and beat the afternoon heat! I was on the road by 7:30am and made my way down a busy St. Louis 4 lane road south towards the KATY trail. It would be a nice change of pace to get off the roads for a few days.
About 10 miles I left the roads and jumped onto the Hamburg Trail, a trail I didn't know of until last night when I was searching for a way from O'Fallon to the KATY. This trail quickly met up with the KATY and I was now ready for ~230 miles of crushed limestone and gentle rail grades.
The KATY seems a lot like the GAP rail trail I did with 2 friends, Cliff and Ed, last summer. Lots of shade along the trail helped a lot with the 105 degree high of the day and was much better than cycling through all those corn fields with no shade in sight.
I was excited for the chance to see other cycling tourists on the trail and I was not disappointed. Not 5 miles in I met up with a group of older ladies who were just finishing up a KATY ride eastward. About an hour or so later I rode by a group of maybe 12 cyclists going east wearing "coast-to-coast" jerseys but with no gear on their bikes... must be sag wagon supported ride. I'll admit I was jealous, but I feel going self-supported with all the gear on my bike just seems like a cooler "I'll make it on my own" type adventure... Though I'm sure I'll be wishing for a sag wagon when I reach the rockies!
I pushed on, and while resting at one of the trail heads a little before noon, another solo tourist heading east rolled up to me and introduced himself as Mike Fink. He is riding to raise money for the Huntington's Disease Society and started in his home state of Delaware. Mike didn't have a straight route across the country like myself but wanted to eventually hit the west coast, while hitting up events and visiting historic places along the way. He was on (or around) his 70th day of riding, his current plans were to take the KATY trail to the end then go south to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to attend the 100th anniversary of Woody Guthrie's birth (he had Huntington's disease.)
After a short introduction we agreed to ride together to give each other some company along the trail. About an hour or so later we crossed a girl from England riding east coast-to-coast. She informed us that there was a $5 cyclist hostel in Tebbetts, about 40 miles father, where she had spent last night, and they had showers and AC! Mike and I agreed it would be worth pushing ahead and riding through the hot afternoon sun for that.
While there were stops every 10-15 miles along the KATY, it seemed like the eastern half didn't have water at a bunch of the trail heads, just a toilet building with no electricity. Mike and I were burning through our water in the high heat and had to dip into our reserves to make it to the next stop with water (I used an extra 32oz gator-aid bottle in one of my panniers, which was in addition to the 3 water bottles on my bike.)
Eventually we made it to Tebbetts and found the cyclist hostel, an interesting old building that was once a general store and then a church that now existed as a hostel. There was no one there to oversee the place, just a note on the door stating the keyring was hung on the telephone pole outside and notes inside telling cyclists to deposit their $5 in a metal box and what to do before leaving.
The main room had about 10 bunk beds and a table, assorted cooking appliances, and a fridge. There was a giant mural on the back wall, cycling magazines on the table, and a closet chuck full of books. Off the the side were the showers and bathroom and a room with tools to fix your bike (which was full of old bike parts and old bikes missing half their parts. The upstairs consisted of another giant room housing about 16 bunk beds and a 2nd floor balcony above the enterance.
When we arrived we were greeted by another cyclist spending the night there. He recently moved to the US from Costa Rica and was riding the KATY trail eastward. He had been there for a few hours before us and had already eaten and was just reading a book on his bunk. After showering (the KATY trail is DUSTY!) Mike and I made dinner, his ramen with my can of chili and some left over slices of pizza from lunch and fell asleep on our respective bunk beds.
Start: O'Fallon, MO
End: Tebbetts, MO
Distance: 92.82 miles
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