Katy Trail Advice

Hey guys,

We're going to do the Katy Trail this Fall and wanted to know a few things before booking this trip.

1. What town is the best western point to start at, and what town is the best eastern town to end at (we were looking at St. Charles).
2. What window of time is best if we want to bike in the Fall colors?
3. We were going to do 40 to 50 miles per day. What would be some good towns to stop at for food, airbnbs, etc?
4. Are there any services that offer staging of a car? We'd rather not bike it both ways. If anyone here lives in the area, we'll gladly pay you gas money and some money for your time to help stage us.

Thanks!

I did my own Itinerary.  Many bed and breakfasts along the route.

You might look at this website to see if this helpful   https://www.crossroadsbiketours.com/self-guided-katy-trail/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_Kz5wc-6-QIVailMCh2k-ACEEAAYAyAAEgLirPD_BwE

Renegade wrote:I did my own Itinerary.  Many bed and breakfasts along the route.

You might look at this website to see if this helpful   https://www.crossroadsbiketours.com/self-guided-katy-trail/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_Kz5wc-6-QIVailMCh2k-ACEEAAYAyAAEgLirPD_BwE

That's great, thanks. I found a shuttle.

Can anyone local to MO tell me what week of the year is best for biking in Fall foliage?

I live 2 hours south of the Katy.  Peak Fall Colors can be between Oct 1 and Oct 15.  I am not sure what Fall will look like this year due to lack of rainfall.

Good Luck and enjoy the Katy

Renegade wrote:I live 2 hours south of the Katy.  Peak Fall Colors can be between Oct 1 and Oct 15.  I am not sure what Fall will look like this year due to lack of rainfall.

Good Luck and enjoy the Katy

Thanks. Is there any issue riding it west to east vs east to west? Which is a prettier ride?

focogravel wrote:

Thanks. Is there any issue riding it west to east vs east to west? Which is a prettier ride?

It looks the same either way. Prevailing winds usually mean west to east is the easier route. But you can never exactly predict. The western side is also a bit hillier thru the river valleys, eastern side very flat. 

I started in the middle at a B&B and went East to West.  I chose that way as I had my wife meet at various spots for refill.  No real advantage either way.  The trailhead at Clinton is pretty wide open and not much scenery.  Next time I do the trail, I will just end at Windsor.

The ride can be pretty scenic along the river.  If wine is your thing, make sure to stop in Roachport and or Hermann.  Octoberfest in Hermann is a really fun time, and most of the wineries let you bring your own food in.

focogravel wrote:Hey guys,

We're going to do the Katy Trail this Fall and wanted to know a few things before booking this trip.

1. What town is the best western point to start at, and what town is the best eastern town to end at (we were looking at St. Charles).
2. What window of time is best if we want to bike in the Fall colors?
3. We were going to do 40 to 50 miles per day. What would be some good towns to stop at for food, airbnbs, etc?
4. Are there any services that offer staging of a car? We'd rather not bike it both ways. If anyone here lives in the area, we'll gladly pay you gas money and some money for your time to help stage us.

Thanks!

agree with the others: I would just add probably to hold off til end of that oct 1-15th....the latter time period will be better IMHO.  It has been a dry summer here so not sure color will stand out

I haven't done it, but you may look at Pleasant hill, and see if the trail 'rock island' section, from Pleasant hill, to windsor, which marries into the Katy there, just a thought

best towns are as mentioned, rocheport, herrman (very german small town-always octoberfest) washington is nice little town too

probably not a big issue with east/west vs west/east, its just a nice ride either way

I believe the missouri katy trail state site has a forum up with lots of itineraries for self guided rides, so worth a look IMO

I can't wait til the Rock Island trail is added, which will make the katy with the additional rail trail a loop, about 400 mile of loop/trail and the additional is suppose to have a lot of tunnels/bridges and terrain that is different than the missouri river

Enjoy!

Thanks, everyone. Great stuff.
We booked the crossroads tour someone linked above. It handles all lodging etc which was a pain to set up, so we were happy to pay them a bit to handle it for us, and we're all set. October 13th-18th are the dates we got.

Great that you booked the tour. We did the ride 10 years ago and booked Airbnb's along the route. One night in a boxcar, another in a caboose and so on.
The most important thing to note is the towns/stops along the way shut down very early so if you lollygag along the way ( like we did) and think you'll have pizza and beers at the end of the ride....think again  
The first night we were fortunate enough to have a couple that we passed along everyday share pizza their kids brought them. Otherwise, we would have starved that night and likely not faired very well the next day.
One night we also had some good rain pass through and we luckily had light rain gear with is. 

It's a beautiful trail and am sure you will enjoy it.

peanstein wrote:
The most important thing to note is the towns/stops along the way shut down very early so if you lollygag along the way ( like we did) and think you'll have pizza and beers at the end of the ride....think again  

That's very good to know, thanks!

We wound up filming all 6 days of the trip if anyone wants to see this trail in Fall. Man, it was so beautiful! We want to go back. Just an ideal trail and time of year to ride it. This Spring we're going to do Mickelson Trail out in SD, though. But maybe next year we get back to Katy. Here's our channel where we'll be posting the longer rail trail rides and local rides (Colorado) that we do, if anyone is interested to see this ride and others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZvAveHhbMg