Bike Across Missouri Along the Katy Trail | Living St. Louis

The Katy Trail is the longest rail to trail route in the country. Bike Across Missouri gives cyclists a guided experience as they travel on the 240 mile trail.

[Music] the Katy Trail follows the former route of the Missouri Kansas Texas Railroad the Katy and it’s the longest developed rail trail in the country when I came here I had you know some good expectations of having a great ride but riding the Katy Trail every single day has surpassed my expectations it has been an absolutely beautiful Trail to ride bam started a few years ago to give people a opportunity to have a guided experience along the Katy Trail its entire length 237 miles across Missouri and it stops in a variety of places and gives people a chance to see what’s along the trail but experience the little towns that they stay in towns they stop in for lunch and have breaks and people from around the country and around the world actually come to it to have the experience the state maintains the park and from what I’ve heard from people that have done rail Trails all over the country this one’s extremely wellmaintained one of the other things that’s really nice about it is every 10 to 12 miles there had to be a stop for the steam locomotives and fuel cold or whatever and little towns popped up around those stops those fueling stops so most of them still exist to some extent old General Store an old grain elevator and there are some small businesses that are still hanging on there are some pretty rugged and isolated bikes trails in the US this is not one of them it’s scenic but relatively flat and it has all those places to get on and off for Outsiders from other parts of the country or even the world this is a chance to experience well the heart of America we’ve met people here on that front porch from France from South Korea from the UK and many many people from New York California and all points in between a lot of people come from around the world but a lot of people come from around the corner it’s this very uh relaxed pace you’re stopping at all these little cafes bike shops and whatever along the way it’s it’s great experience neat being able to come to these small towns like this and ones just passing through that you would never really know about and then the hospitality that you get in places you know that come out they they support the writers and they’re really welcoming to to everybody coming through so that’s been a lot of fun too awesome every step you know every town that we’ve gone to to have breakfast or lunch everybody’s great a lot of small business owners you can tell that they’re new entrepreneurs and they just treat you like gold a full trip takes 6 days anywhere from 27 to 50 m in a day there were organized stops and Trail assistant restrooms and showers evening concerts the cost $450 per person for the full ride if you can’t a lot more to book rooms [Music] no we did not 10 camp we did the hotel option which I think it’s fun that they have that available for people like us to like the hot shower and the comfy bed and not getting rained on you know they said what three or 4 days rain originally just one day I I can do it [Applause] I’d say the rain has definitely enhanced The Experience on the Katie for sure you know you you keep thinking the night before that you know you’re dreading the rain and conditions of the trail but it’s really been perfect incredible rain or shine the Katie often makes the list of the country’s best bike trails and there are those dedicated to this Pastime who have put the KD all 240 Mi of it on their bucket list well there are C there’s a group that you know they do all the popular you know there rag ride there’s Katy Trail there Ride The Rockies there’s Bond timeon yep there’s maybe a dozen of them that are pretty popular you run into people that you never would have met any other way we all have one thing in common we’ like to ride our bicycle share stories about some things it’s all about the ride and the food and the the scenery all that stuff the people that you need along the Route there’s a mother daughter team out here there’s um at West Point Brad pulling her dog um there’s a grandpa and his grandson there’s old buddies college buddies that are out doing some time together so they can share stories so there’s a whole mix of different people out here all because they love cycling in the evenings we get to see people outside their bik bike gear and everyone is just so willing to to discuss the day the the events that happened um special things that happen on the trail so that’s it’s a big connection at night for one of the one of the benefits uh is it’s a smaller number right we will not have 50,000 Riders we can’t and we’re doing about 153 this time I’d like to see this ride get up to about 300 people the cycling clubs and things like that we’re uh we really Embrace having them come out in force and uh helping bolster the numbers and and experience Missouri yeah bikers are friendly people it’s like we’re a little fraternity of our own you don’t have to it’s not a race you don’t have to get from one point to the next the mileage is doable for the day so you just take your time you see what you want to see I mean if you want to go fast go fast if you want to go slow go slow want to stop somewhere take pictures you can do that so for me riding the Big Bam gave me a taste of what I could do on this Trail yeah I guess what I tell people is it’s not like you’re riding 50 Mi it’s like you’re riding 5 10 Mile rides it’s not as difficult as as you might think coming into it I mean you got to spend some time on the bike and as much as anything it’s getting your bottom a custom sitting on a bike seat right yeah it’s not typically a physical limit it’s more about well when do I need to go get laundry done right so yeah but we’ll we’ll get together and chat for a while afterwards and it’s just enjoying everybody’s company the common Bond of the bicycle brings us all together organizers have been running two of these a year one in June and one in September in the future the Katy Trail is going to be able to bring the same kind of benefits to these little towns and communities that the railroad did they’ll bring visitors they’ll bring business and they’ll bring bring interest to the area that’s one of the things that we’re bringing with the Big Bam is we’re bringing a a record number of people to eat in a restaurant in Pilot Grove or or in a Green Ridge on a day when they’re normally closed a lot of my focus now is more of the full weekl long type trips and so spreading that economic impact across the whole Trail the hope is that this keeps them going so they can provide it’s kind of our Charter to provide these services that keep the KD so attractive to these tourists