Quote Originally Posted by Deborajen View Post
Looks like a fun day trip! There's so much to explore out there - all the history in the towns, the trail history, nature, scenery - A friend from work rode part of the Katy several months ago. She started at Sedalia and went east, I think. They stayed at B&B's and spent a lot of time exploring the towns. I've never been, but it sounds awesome.

So how was the trail for riding? We seldom ride anything but pavement, but I've heard the Katy is pretty nice.
We are mostly pavement riders too, but we rode our mountain bikes, so it was fine and quite comfy to ride on. Very finely packed limestone. Saw at least a couple of people riding what looked like road bikes -- probably more of the cyclocross variety with slightly wider tires. Would not want to ride a 23c-25c tire on it. We saw a couple of recumbents but mostly mountain bikes. It was a very quiet day on the trail, being mid-week. We probably only saw about 10 other cyclists in our five miles total on the trail (including stops).

We're hoping to ride the entire trail eventually -- probably in the fall, though. The hottest part of summer is upon us, and there are plenty of areas with limited or no shade. We will probably plan on a credit card tour and stay in hotels/b&bs. We did pass one guy riding a full-loaded mountain bike (tent, etc) and saw a couple of other loaded bikes.