

Katy Trail Home · Towns & Services · Plan a Ride · Comment Forum · Mileage Chart · Maps · FAQ · Guidebooks · Search

Home >> Ride Reports >> The Metal Cowboy on the Katy Trail

KT Alert Newsletter

The Metal Cowboy on the Katy Trail

Joe "Metal Cowboy" Kurmaskie
Author of Metal Cowboy, Riding Outside The Lines, and Momentum Is Your Friend
www.metalcowboy.com

Joe Kurmaskie, a.k.a. "The Metal Cowboy", has ridden extended bike tours all over the world, and has written books about his experiences. In 2005, Joe included the Katy Trail in a cross-country tour with his two young sons, and he has devoted a few chapters to the Katy in his new book Momentum is Your Friend.

In fact, sales of the first 10,000 books will help fund the nonprofit arts and expedition summer camp Camp Creative "No Child Left Inside", which will include an expedition on the Katy Trail in their activities in the summer of 2007.

Recently someone on the "phred" bike touring list asked the group what their favorite ride was. Joe, who has traveled all over the world on bike, replied with this glowing review of the Katy Trail:

Click to read excerpt from book

I loved the KATY trail across Missouri! Yes, it was the beginning of August when we rode it, yes, it was hot, (but nowhere near as hot as the grasshopper and Roadkill covered pavement along Hwy 50), still, even given those climate conditions, it was a truly awesome experience. Every fifteen miles or so they've converted train depots into "everything you need" cycle stops - most of the little towns along the way cater to cyclists - there are caves and B&B's, tent spots and the famed Missouri river, tall cliffs and fishing holes, wildlife and these little bar and grills... in which Quinn and Enzo learned eight ball and how to work a karaoke machine at 3pm on a Tuesday. It was a magic stretch. I can only imagine it in the fall. We're going back - and I'm bringing a load of adults and kids from Camp Creative, an arts and expedition program we're starting here in Oregon. So sure, there are more exotic places... and I have tons of other recommendations, but within the USA, this limestone trail is killer. And I hear they are trying to link it all the way from KC to St Louis - right now it starts and ends about 40 miles short on either side.

And then in a reply to questions from another list member, Joe wrote:

The limestone is packed enough to ride with thin tires, but I suggest a normal touring bike tire, as long as it's not slicks. I had Kevlar tires with some grip - I don't think it gets wet in the Fall - Springtime on the KATY is when I think they get some grooves and patches in the trail. As for flat - yes, it is mostly flat - 2 percent grades at most in places - but it's not the climbing you're there for, it's the limestone caves and the vegetable tunnels and the actual tunnels, the tranquility and all the small towns and the way it caters, completely caters, to cyclists. There are bike racks, bathrooms and water at every depot - places to eat right off the trail and tent when you get tired - a shuttle service that comes and plucks cyclists at the depots and takes them into towns like Jefferson City - when we stayed at the Ramada in Jeff City, they actually had a KATY trail rate which THEY informed us about when they saw our bikes. I talk about all this and more in anecdotes in my latest book, Momentum Is Your Friend - but the short, less poetic version is that by the time we factored in the free shuttle, the room rate, the drink coupons, the free buffet breakfasts and the free movie tickets at their first run theater next door, but owned by the Ramada, well hell, they were practically paying us to stay there (of course I had to let the boys view Cinderella Man on the big screen and justified the violence as sports violence and depression era lessons in courage - funny side note - the next afternoon (we stayed two days) the only movie showing had a prepubescent girl demographic - Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants - about ten minutes in, after the free popcorn (another Katy trail giveaway) ran out, and the donkey's cameo appearance was over, Quinn wanted to know if anyone was going to stop talking on screen and do something - and Enzo wanted to know when the goat was coming back - Quinn turns to his brother in a voice only I reserve for when I'm exhausted and trapped - he responds to his brother with, "It was a donkey, Enzo, and it's never, ever coming back." Chick flicks aside, they were basically paying us to swim, use the gym and stay in their beds. Another nice thing I found about the shops, eateries and hotels along the KATY - everyone allows for cyclists - bikes in the rooms, against shop windows etc. I know some of it stems from cyclists being the new economy of these once dying depot towns - but the friendliness felt genuine for the Midwest.

The KATY is a hidden gem.

All text and photos are copyrighted and may not be reproduced or reused without the author's written permission.

Top of page