Day 3: Boonville to Jefferson City

As you read in the previous post, we originally planned on biking 38.2 miles from Boonville to Hartsburg, but we decided if we were making good time, we would go all the way to Jeff City. We did make great time and went a total of 54 miles including getting to our hotel in Jeff City. 

This was definitely one of my favorite days on the trail. Even though we went 54 miles, it was all DOWN HILL on the trail (ok slightly graded downhill, but it was amazingly easy) and there were no storms in the forecast. We went from 615 feet down to 548 feet. We were able to totally take our time, stop and linger when and where we wanted, and we started seeing more people along the trail! We talked to everyone we saw. It was so interesting meeting everyone and finding out about their adventures along the trail. We kept running into the same groups of riders along the trail and in restaurants from this point out. It was so exciting running into people that we were now friends with, and sharing our stories. 

So, we went through New Franklin and arrived in Rocheport to be greeted by Llamas!
The tunnel in Rocheport was awesome too! 

Since we left so early in the morning, it was too early for the shops to be open. Rocheport was voted one of the "Best Day Trips". Les Bourgeois Vineyards/Blufftop Bistro got rave reviews too. When we ride the trail again, I will definitely plan to be in Rocheport later in the day so we can explore all it has to offer. We did stop at the Rocheport Katy Trail head, just across from the Llamas, and hung out for a bit. We were confident that we'd make it to Jeff City, so I booked a reservation for a hotel while we hung out. 

When we made it to the MKT Fitness Trail Spur to Columbia the trail got a lot busier with day trip riders. It sounds like a cool trail to explore one day.

We traveled on and I almost ran over a snake! Oh, not just any snake, but a poisonous COPPERHEAD!

This was pretty cool too. The Railroad used it for storage back in the day. 

While we were stopped here we met a lady who was biking alone and she started in CALIFORNIA and was going all the way to the EAST COAST! 

We saw the Native American Petroglyphs...they are pretty faded now and not very exciting. We passed Katfish Katy's Campstore which we heard is a great resource for bikers. It looked great from the outside, but we didn't need anything so we kept going. 

Somehow we missed the 300 year old Burr Oak Tree at MM 171.7.  Apparently it's just off the trail enough that it's easy to miss. We did see Pierced Rock, but didn't get a picture because we were getting attacked by mayflies when we stopped!

It seemed we were pretty much out in the country and we were getting hungry for lunch. I remembered that there was a "Thai Food Truck" out in the middle of nowhere. It's parked at Cooper's Landing, near MM 163.5. OH MY GOODNESS! I don't know if it was the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere and eating Thai while drinking a Beer or what...but that was a super scrumptious meal! Do yourself a favor and stop here! The ladies at the Cooper's Landing store are so very nice too...and they have a bathroom!

It really was an amazing lunch! I know you can't tell by his awesome expression :O

It was such a beautiful day along the trail!

We made it to the Jeff City trail head and GPS said it was 3.98 miles to our hotel. We found our way to the "2 Mile Bike Path across the Missouri River Bridge". As we were riding up to the river a man driving a truck stopped us and said they wouldn't let us down there near the river. We were like...ummm we need to get to our hotel via the bike path on the bridge. He was like, oh ok well they might let you pass...they are trying to find a body in the river. WHAT!? A. BODY. IN. THE. RIVER! Let me just say...there was never a boring minute on this Katy Trail adventure. As we got closer, we saw the caution tape, police, news reporters and coroners. Sal saw it on the news later that night and they had pulled a dead guy out of the river. We moved passed them with no problem and then I looked up and saw THE BRIDGE. Whoa! It looked a little scary. I don't even like to drive across long bridges and I had to ride my bike around and around...up and up...

 and then across this....

It was super shaky and scary. Sal tried to stop IN THE MIDDLE to take a picture. I said, "NO WAY! I am not stopping until I get to the other side!" Even after biking almost 50 miles, I immediately found the energy to speed across that bridge. Sooooo, we get off the bridge and immediately realized that Jefferson City as a lot of very, I mean VERY, STEEP HILLS! Oh my! It took us forever to get to the hotel. We had to walk our bikes up and down some of the monstrous hills. Then, as we are getting ready to lay on the sidewalk, we see a dude riding up and down the hilly streets like it's no big deal. We find out later, from the hotel clerk, that you get used to it after awhile. Oh, and GET THIS!! He also tells me that the Double Tree Hilton Jefferson City would have happily picked us up from the TRAIL HEAD! Sigh...Really wish I would have known that before. Actually, even though the bridge was super scary, it was still an experience I wouldn't have wanted to miss, so I would suggest getting picked up on the other side of the bridge. The clerk gave us warm fresh-baked cookies so that made me feel better. He also hooked us up with a ride back to the trail head in the morning. He was instantly my new best friend!

The Double Tree Hilton Hotel was amazing. We were allowed to bring our bikes to our room, so we didn't have to unload and reload everything. The room was decent size and the bed was amazing. After we cleaned up, it was time for dinner. We wanted to try Prison Brews but we absolutely did NOT want to get back on our bikes. My GPS said it was .74 miles so we decided we could walk. Pfft...obviously we were so hungry that we forgot about the hills. The .74 miles seemed more like 3 miles. We finally made it...beer well earned!

After dinner we walked back to the Hotel and decided our sore muscles needed a nice soak in the HOT TUB! It was soooooooo nice :)