Tales from the Katy Trail - Some Free Advice from an Elder

A Beautiful, Green Canopy over the Katy Trail

You Never Know Who Might Show Up at this Peaceful Missouri River Overlook on the Katy Trail at the 147 1/2 MM

Early Wednesday morning, August 20, 2017 I loaded my bike in my truck and headed to the Katy Trail.  Tom, who I usually ride with, was on an Alaskan cruise with his wife, Linda.  According to the itinerary, they arrived in Skagway about the time I left home to ride the trail.  According to my map, Skagway is due east of Mosquito Lake and due north of Mud Bay.  No one could ever accuse those Alaskans of trying to sugarcoat place names.  I, for one, find that refreshing.  If I need to bring Deep Woods Off or my mud boots, I appreciate knowing about it in advance.

The air was cool and refreshing and traffic was light as I pedaled west to Hartsburg after parking at the North Jefferson trailhead.  Much of the way I pedaled, quite literally, under a beautiful canopy of green.  When I arrived at the trailhead in Hartsburg there was a lot of activity. 

"How's the trail ahead?" asked an eastbound biker. 

"Very nice!" I responded, after which he gave me a recap of a ride he went on this same time last year.

"Last year the trail had washouts over my head east of Jefferson City!" he said.  

"Yeah, we had 8 inches of rain early last September" I recalled.  "I think there were washouts in my driveway over my head, too!"

As we talked, I learned 2 things:

1. The gentleman was from Pineville, deep in the southwest corner of Missouri, and

2.  He was 84 years old.  That's important because every year, he explained, he takes one day and "rides his age" on the Katy Trail. This year the route was from New Franklin to Rhineland.  84 long, exhausting miles regardless of your age.  Next year he can look forward to 85 miles.  Happy Birthday, Sir!  You have my respect!  I only wish I could donate a little body fat for you to burn on your ride.

Before he continued on his 84 mile jaunt, he looked me in the eye and said "Let me give you a little free advice I like to share with younger guys. You need to take up a hobby like motorcycle riding or hang-gliding or sky-diving.  That way you won't live long enough to do dang fool things like I'm doing today!"

And with that, he mounted his bike and headed east to finish the other half of his own self-imposed challenge to "ride his age" on the Katy Trail on his 84th birthday.

On the way back to my truck, I stopped at the benches that overlook the Missouri River 4 miles west of Jefferson City.  They were deserted.  Ten minutes later, though, up pedaled a guy from Belle, Mo.  He was huffing & puffing.  "I bought 5 pounds of tomatoes at Hackman's Produce in Hartsburg" he explained.  "It's slowing me down, but not like the time a friend of mine and I hauled one of those trailers designed for carrying kids and bought two 40-lb watermelons.  THAT nearly killed us!"

"Were the watermelons good?" I asked.

"They were delicious!" he said.  

"Then it was worth it!"  I said.  Good thing he got little ones.  Only last week I was admiring a 126 LB watermelon grown in Hartsburg.

Turns out the guys name was Greg Nott and he drives to the Katy Trail nearly every day from his home in Belle, Mo.  If you would like to help Greg and outdoor enthusiasts around the world, Missouri currently has the opportunity to add to it's impressive trail system by accepting the former Rock Island railway from AmerenUE and converting it to the 144 mile Rock Island Trail.  The Rock Island Trail would cross the Katy Trail twice and run right through Belle, Mo., along with a lot of other former rail towns that would like to become trail towns since the railroad left town.  Here is a link to a great editorial on the Rock Island, along with another link to express your opinion on the matter to Gov. Greitens.

KansasCity.com editorial on Rock Island Trail

                                                                        126-LB watermelon in Hartsburg 

A Skeptic Converted - Totality is Worth the Trip!

In November of 1972 Carly Simon released a recording titled You're So Vain, a song that still gets airtime 45 years later.  Some of the lyrics were cryptic.  Like, "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you".  Who she was singing about was a mystery until she spilled the beans in her memoir "Boys in the Trees".  It was Warren Beatty, who surely got a little humility after being a key player in the most famous screw-up in Oscar ceremony history.  The song included the lyric "You flew your Learjet up to Nova Scotia to see a total eclipse of the sun".  Why anyone would do that was a mystery to me as well, but that mystery was solved in my own backyard on August 21, 2017.

That's the day a total eclipse occurred at our house.  And unless you were in the 70-mile-wide "path of totality", why anyone would travel to see one is probably still a mystery.

I was a skeptic.  But one website that had great info on the eclipse compared a seeing total eclipse versus even a 99% eclipse to walking by a steak house and smelling the steak vs. going inside the steakhouse and having one for dinner (Note to vegetarians:  Please insert your favorite veggie in place of the word "steak").

I am no longer a skeptic.

On Monday, August 21, 2017, my wife and I were joined by our son, our 3 grandkids, and 3 good friends, eclipse glasses at the ready, to witness a total eclipse in the heart of rural Cole County, Mo. The last eclipse to occur where our house now stands was on July 7, 1442.  The next one will be June 3, 2505.  If only the clouds would cooperate and stay away, we were set to take it all in.

The week before the eclipse a friend of mine had told me about an iPhone app - "Solar Eclipse Timer" - that would maximize our viewing pleasure.  It cost $1.99, normally a no-no for me, but what the heck - I sprang for it!  With a mere press of a button, this app located our deck on its GPS, filled in our latitude and longitude, pre-programmed the exact times of the four stages of contact, and alerted us each time a critical time was approaching, both verbally and with a tornado warning type alarm.

As the time of the first contact approached, the excitement grew.  But it really wasn't too exciting as we all looked for the dot where the moon was encroaching on the sun's surface.  As the moon continued to block more and more of the sun,  the sun began to look like an orange moon going through all the lunar phases.  The big excitement was the second contact, that moment when the moon, 400 times smaller than the sun but also 400 times closer to earth than the sun, completely obscured the sun!

The landscape darkened and the air cooled as the moon slowly covered the sun.  With 10 minutes to go, our dog felt compelled to go jump in the lake.  Twice.  Area roosters crowed as the landscape darkened.  That's not all that remarkable for us or unusual for them to crow at odd hours.  Slowly, but surely, the surface of the sun disappeared, down to just a tiny sliver.  Then, momentarily, the sun disappeared and our eclipse glasses went black.  "You may remove your glasses" advised the Solar Eclipse Timer.  And then we saw why Warren Beatty flew to Nova Scotia to see a total eclipse of the sun.

In the sky was the most magnificent sight I could imagine.  The moon had a diamond ring around it!  Ooh's and Ah's and cheers went up from our deck.  And we could hear our neighbors cheering a half-mile away!  Staring at the sky, eclipse glasses in his hand, my 10-year-old grandson just kept exclaiming "THAT'S SO AWESOME!  THAT'S SO AWESOME! THAT'S SO AWESOME!"  In the woods just south of our home, every owl in the forest began to hoot!  I suspect they were hooting "THAT'S SO AWESOME!" but I can't be sure.  Along the tree line, either a large hawk or a smallish eagle flew through the semi-darkness.  Surprisingly, the normally vocal coyotes were silent.

I searched high and low for a video that even semi-captures the magnificence of the moment and found this video taken by Lauren Pointer.  It does a good job other than the moment when she apparently got so excited she fell out of her chair.  Take a look:

Lauren Pointer eclipse video

If you weren't in the "path of totality" - that 70-mile wide swath of land from Oregon to South Carolina which included our home, you never got to take your glasses off and marvel at that amazing spectacle in the heavens because the sun never went totally dark.  After about 2 1/2 minutes of trying to absorb and observe as much as possible, the warning came to put our glasses back on and the moon began to slowly leave the sun in it's wake.

The skeptic was converted!

On April 8, 2024, another total eclipse will occur within easy driving distance of our home.  It's path, from southwest to northeast across the U.S., will cross the path of this eclipse over the New Madrid fault in the bootheel of Missouri.

God willing & assuming Kim Jung-un hasn't started WWIII, I plan to be somewhere in the "path of totality" on April 8, 2024.  I am currently working on the lyrics of a song about my exploits to send to Carly Simon.  The tentative title of the song about my eclipse exploits is "You're So Old!"  ("He drove his pick-up to Cape Girardeau to see a total eclipse of the sun!  He's so old, he probably forgot this song is about him, about him.")

If it sells well, I'll take along a group of friends and relatives in my new Learjet.

Here are some pics from our deck as from August 21, 2017, the day I was converted to a "totality" believer.

Gavin "THAT'S SO AWESOME" Reece

Leia the mole dog enjoying the weekday company on our deck. She jumped in the lake
just before the total eclipse.

The Deck Chairs had already achieved totality

360 degree twilight during totality.  

Totality from our deck

Watching the River Be Run

Joe Wilson would be proud.

A Pedal-Power Canoe Departs the Jefferson City Checkpoint
With the Missouri Capital in the Background

Joe poured his life blood into developing Noren Access beneath below the Missouri River Bridge at Jefferson City.  So much so that it was renamed Wilson’s Serenity Point at Noren Access after he passed away last September 21.

Today, Wilson’s Serenity Point is a beehive of activity.  It is a checkpoint on the Missouri American Water MR 340, the longest non-stop canoe and kayak race in the world.

Heat, Exhaustion, and Obstacles Like This
Floating Tree Trunk Challenge Paddlers

Paddlers started in Kansas City yesterday and are now spread out between Kansas City and Hermann, Mo.  The finish line is in St. Charles, Mo.  My friend, Tom, and I stopped by Wilson’s Serenity Point Wednesday afternoon to watch the activity as canoes, kayaks, paddle boards, etc. checked in and then hit the current again en route to the finish line at St. Charles, 115 miles further downriver from Jefferson City.

As I write this blog at 5:18 pm on August 9, the Jefferson City team of David Ganey and Tod Wilson were in 38^th place.  These guys, not content with a mere 340 miles of grueling paddling on the Missouri River, rigged their kayak with wheels and pulled it behind their bicycles from Jefferson City to Kansas City.  After they finish, they will get on the Katy Trail at St. Charles and pull their kayak back home to Jefferson City. 

If you are interested, you can follow the results of the race at:

Volunteers Assist Paddlers Checking in at
Wilson's Serenity Point

MR 340 Race Results

The Ganey/Wilson team is in boat number 680.  They have named their team “TEAM 680”.  They seem to be a lot better at paddling than they are at thinking up catchy names, unlike entry 7279 (Ship of Fools), entry 3764 (Paddling Pfefferkorns), and entry 1300 (Horse With No Name) which currently leads the race.

When Joe was alive he was in his glory when an activity like the MR 340 was in progress and he was able to introduce visitors to Wilson’s Serenity Point. Some became lifelong friends.

Rest in peace, Joe.  

Wilson’s Serenity Point is still a show place.  

And “Big Boy”, that ancient tree trunk that flood waters deposited at WSP and you tied down is still in place, still securely tethered to the shore at the high-water mark (At least until the NEXT new high water mark is established).

Before Joe died, I wrote a blog about him and a blind dog he rescued and subsequently paid to have its sight restored.   You can find that blog at:

He Once Was Blind But Now Can See

It tells you a little more about the kind of man Joe was.

GOOD LUCK RACERS and REST IN PEACE, JOE!

Another Tale From the Katy Trail

Hartsburg, Missouri is a town of 105 souls located 10.5 miles west of Jefferson City via the Katy Trail.  Each October approximately 50,000 people make their way to Hartsburg for the annual Pumpkin Festival.  But most days you are more likely to meet the “Town Beagle” making his rounds than you are an actual Hartsburg resident. 

Friday morning was an exception.

Bikes loaded, my friend Tom & I headed for the North Jefferson trailhead on the Katy Trail, just across the Missouri River from Jefferson City.  By 9 am we were pedaling west.

It was a rare August day.  The temperature was 59 degrees as I got in my truck to pick up Tom.  The sun was shining brightly, but the high for the day was only expected to be 75.  Take that, San Diego!

The ride to Hartsburg was uneventful.  No snakes, and the eagles must have been sleeping in.  The air was fresh with little humidity.   It felt like we were riding in a perfectly climate-controlled environment.  In Missouri, in August, that’s unusual.

Catrike Recumbent Bike

At Hartsburg we hydrated, checked email, and marveled at our good fortune at having such a beautiful day to ride.  A guy from KC rode up on a recumbent bike.  Recumbent bikes, three wheels instead of two, are more comfortable than a regular bike.  It’s like sitting back in an easy chair.  Not for me, though.  I’ve never relished the idea of pedaling the Katy Trail with my rear end a mere six inches above both the trail and any snakes that may be sunning themselves on the trail.

While resting at Hartsburg, Tom found a Facebook post from some friends of his who are in the U.S. on a 4-year work visa from Ukraine.  That was the good news.  The bad news is that the post was written in Ukrainian.  “I think Google can interpret that for you” I suggested. Maybe later.  Mounting up, we took a quick tour of Hartsburg and then headed back toward the truck.

Four miles west of Jefferson City is one of my favorite spots on the Katy Trail.  It’s shaded, has a picnic table, two benches in memory of former Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan who died in a plane crash, and a beautiful view overlooking the Missouri River.  It is also a great place to meet people and swap stories from the trail.

As we neared the rest area, I could see a couple of bikes parked beside the trail.  As Tom & I arrived, we saw two ladies standing beside the steep bank that drops 15 feet to the river.  It was a mother and daughter from Hartsburg.   The mom owns the Eber Haus B & B in Hartsburg and the daughter works in Washington, D.C. and was in for a visit.  

New Friends Alyona and Sarah

In the course of our conversation, we discovered the daughter is fluent in Ukrainian.  So much for needing Google to translate the Facebook post of Tom’s friends.    Taking Tom’s phone, the daughter summarized the gist of the post.  “The war goes on.  How is so and so.  Did you ever do such and such?”  etc. etc.   Not nearly as dramatic as it looked written in Ukrainian.

After that, our topics of conversation ranged from snakes to mosquitos to spiders to the risk of a B&B guest unwittingly leaving a starter batch of bedbugs behind after a stay, a genuine concern for any hotel, motel or B & B no matter how fancy or expensive.

“I’ve researched the subject of bedbugs” said the mom.  “The temperature has to get to 140 degrees to kill them.”  That’s a pretty hazardous endeavor in a vintage home.  “But”, she continued, “there is a spider in the Ukraine whose diet includes bedbugs!” 

When I got home, I researched it.  The spider is the Thanatus Flavidus, and I’m sure it is friendlier than it looks.  In 2014 there was actually a petition to the White House to import the spider, which one proponent described as “adorable and harmless”, to help rid the U.S. of bedbugs. 

Thanatus Flavidus - Harmless, Adorable,
and Like Bedbug Buffets

Question: if you were in a motel, would you rather find dozens of bedbugs under your pillow or a single “adorable & harmless” spider on the wall?  My inclination is to go with the spider but my wife’s inclination is to just go – and fast. 

Ah, the Katy Trail.

Exercise your body AND your mind. 

And maybe even get a Facebook post in Ukrainian translated into English along the way.