Day 34, Katy Trail
Bluffton MO to Cooper’s Landing CG MO, 65 miles
Due to a stupid mistake on my part, I ended up doing 13 miles out and back from Hartsburg to find some dinner. If I had just read the sign correctly, I would have discovered that the restaurant in Hartsburg where I wanted to eat was planning to open today. When I got back to Hartsburg and realized my mistake I decided to keep going, so I did another ten miles to Cooper’s Landing CG. It’s a cool place, but I got there late and the band was packing up. Everything worked out fine. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and my legs got a nice workout today.
Doing the Katy Trail is not exactly the cake walk I had expected, at least after a good rain. The ground has some rolling resistance after it takes on moisture. It’s a bit deceiving. You don’t notice it at first, then about half way through the day you say to yourself, “this is not as easy as rolling on asphalt…”
Ever since I left Yorktown I’ve been thinking about the importance of training when taking on a challenge like this. My recommendation is to not approach this the way I did, which is to say, not train. Oh, I have my excuses, and some of them might even be considered good in some circles, but it was either wait and train, or just go. Waiting and training would have made the crossing much later in the year than is wise, so I made the decision to just go. You can bet before I do something like this again (and I hope I do) I will pay more attention to preparation. Now that I have been on the road for a month, here’s what I think would have been ideal — for me. Two months prior to starting, ride 20 miles a day taking a day off here and there. Interspersed with 20 mile rides, do a few 50 milers now and then. That would not only have prepared me physically, it would have revealed things like my bike not being geared properly and the seat not quite the right one for distance touring. Like I mentioned above, everything is working out fine, but I could have made it a lot easier on myself. All I’m going to say in closing on this subject is that life is about learning.
The view from Cooper’s Landing CG.