Family Friendly Off-Road Touring? Katy Trail

[limewave]

The combination of recently reading Momentum is your Friend and watching Ride the Divide has me yearning to plan an epic bike adventure with my kids. I have a ton of vacation time and I keep rolling around the idea of doing something special with the kids for a week this summer. Dh, unfortunately does not have a lot of vacation time so it would be just myself and the kids.

As much as I would love to go tour Moab or explore single track for days, I don't think that's a good idea for our first attempt at a family tour. I'm thinking about doing a multi-day ride down the Katy Trail. I have a good friend that lives near the start around St. Louis. We'd be able to drive down and crash with her before we began the trip. We'd also have someone close by we could call if we ran into trouble.

Has anyone here ridden the Katy Trail? What's it like?

I would be riding my mountain bike towing the kids behind on a trail-a-bike and a weehoo-igo. I would think that I would be able to ride about 40-60 miles a day with them.

[indysteel]

DH and I did an end to end tour of the Katy in September of 2011. We used a tour company called Independent Tourist that moved our luggage from point to point. They also made all of our B&B/hotel reservations.

At the risk of offending anyone who really loves the Katy, my husband and I were pretty underwhelmed. The trail itself is nice. I wouldn't call it the most scenic area I've ever seen, but it was fine. It's mostly flat, although the section from Sedalia to Booneville has a bit of a grade. You'll feel it, especially if you're towing something. There are long stretches of the trail where there aren't a lot of services. The trail runs through some pretty depressed areas, and I found it more than a little unsettling and sad. We stayed in some towns where there were few places to eat, especially if you arrived--as we did--on the day that a lot of places are closed (Sundays in Sedalia and Mondays in Rocheport). We were sometimes lucky to find any food. Healthy food generally wasn't even an option. We did like Hermann and Saint Charles, and we loved our B&B in Rocheport.

I'll be honest that I think the upper end of your mileage goal is overly ambitious. We rode 40ish miles a day and that was more than enough--and we weren't loaded or towing anything. Granted, we did it in September and had less light to work with, but I wouldn't have wanted to ride much more each day, even with more light. It just felt slow going at times. If we'd had to battle summer heat, I think we would have been even slower.

I say all of this knowing that a lot of people have done the Katy and loved it. You and your kids may have a completely different take on it.

[limewave]

indysteel--I appreciate your honest review of the trail! Hmmm, I'll have to keep researching trails . . . . see what I can come up with.

[indysteel]

Please don't let me totally dissaude you. I want to emphasize that other people love the Katy. But still, I have to wonder if there are other places to go that might be more scenic and interesting for you and the kids. Do you plan to camp?

[tulip]

My first thought was that while YOU might be able to handle 50-60 miles a day, your kids might go bonkers. It might be better to keep the mileage shorter and incorporate more stops and fun things.

[indysteel]

Maybe this will give you some ideas.