Marthasville, MO to Meramec River, MO, 54 miles
We started the day off on the Katy trail. We enjoyed the last few miles before returning to the road in the peacful, damp fog of the early morning. At our final trail head there was a place to have breakfast and we decided to have a stop. The Katy scramble and several cups of coffee gave us a nice opportunity to reflect on how nice the trail has been, and to prepare ourselves for returning to traffic.
The road we started on had a thin sholder and light traffic. We started to return to the type of biking that we had known for so many miles before starting off on the Katy trail. It is amazing how each segment of our trip defines itself. Even at this point, after only biking on the Katy trail for a few days and about 180 miles, it already seems like a different trip entirely when we arrived on Missouri, and traversed Kansas.
We eventually made it to a large steel bridge, scooted across, and met up with the Adventure Cycling Great Rivers cycling route. The steep hills were already begining to appear! Memories of fighting our way through elevation started to return to us as well. Despite how easy it is to think of Kansas as being flat, the last 1/3 of the state that we went through had become increasingly hilly. As we arrived in Missouri things were getting down right mountainous. Then, we traveled along the distance of the Katy trail while the rest of Missouri must have been getting steeper and steeper all along the way without us noticing. We knew it would be hilly, but we were still in for a shock!
It wasn't long before we got another flat tire. We had gotten pretty proficient with the change and pulled over to the side (unable to find any shade as the temperature was rising into the 100s). Below you can glimpse the "touring-two pit crew":
Chris changed the punctured tube and looked for the culprit in the tire. We could not find it and decided to put the next tube in with some hesitation. Did we miss some small piece of metal in there somewhere? We did not think so.
After getting the tube seated properlly with the tire in the rim Chris started to pump up the tube. After much pumping we were beginning to have our doubts about our new pump. We could not get the pressure over 50 psi. It seemed as if we had a leak. Maybe we did miss something in the tire? Chris deflated the tire and we found that there was a hole next to the patch that we put on the flat from the last flat. There was still nothing noticible in the tire and it seemed like we just missed this hole when we patched the tire last time. We replaced the tube and started pumping up the tire. This time we got the pressure all of the way up to 75, but then it started to decrease. Soon we had a nearly flat tire. We completely deflated it and had a look at the tire. There was something wrong witih the patch on this second tube and we replaced it this time with a new tube. Three tire changes and we were on the road again. This time fighting both the heat and the uphill climbs. When we arrived at a Casey's General store and gas station we were due for a break. We had a large cheese pizza, some Gatorade, and sat at a table to recover in the air conditioning.
Then, back on the road again. We travled until the early evening without incident before ariving at a McDonalds. It had been a long day and this provided us with some shelter and food while we thought about where to star for the evening. We found that there was a state park and campsite along the Meramec river not far from where we were. We decided to give this a try. We raced downhill to the state park on a low traffic road along streams and heavily wooded areas. There was no turning back at this point! We were very happy that this part of the road was on route and that we would not have to backtrack in the morning. The ten miles straight downhill was much better enjoyed knowing this.
After coming through the park gates we found ourselves at the bottom of a very steep hill. Much steaper than any road that would be subjected to regular traffic. After struggling straight uphill we arrived at the general store within the park, but found that the campsite was on the otherside of the hill! Meaning, more work in our future. The Rocky Mountians were difficult because of how long you had to ascend for, but this little mountain in the middle of this state park was far steeper and therefore far more difficult to climb! {Little did we know that there would be many more of these in our future}!
We decided to go down to the campsites despite knowing we would have to bike back up this hill in the morning. It was [probably] worth it. It was a very nice campsite with showers and it was inexpensive. We enjoyed a light snack at our picnic table.
We had a nice part of the campsite to ourselves until around dusk. Then, the inevitable (when at at state park) happened: a large pickup truck pulling a run-down pop-up camper pulled into the spot right next to us. Why they did not setup anywhere else, I have no idea. Out of the truck poured out five kids, three dogs, and two "adults." They were noisy and disruptive while setting up camp, and were noisy throughout the night while everyone else was silent. This type of thing just happens sometimes.
While all of this was going on we began to discuss what we could do for the rest of our trip. Despite the fun that we have been having and how much we would like for it to go on for much longer, we have been runnning out of time. Emily has to move out of her apartment in Gainesville by early August and graduate school will be starting before we can even imagine at this point! And graduate school means that we have to find the time to move across the country. ARGHHH!!
All of this to consider and we don't have a route figured out to get us back. Google maps says that we are about 900 miles from St. Augustine, which would be possible in the time that we have, but that is using highways that we would not be able to bike on. We could continue on the Great Rivers route untile it connects with the Underground railroad and goes directly south to Louisiana???, and then take the last leg of the Southern Tier across Flordia. This would allow us to use a known cycling route but the total distance would be around 1,400 miles. We just don't have time for this, no matter how much we would like to do this. Standing here we have biked over 2,200 miles. The Souther Tier route that we set out to complete is only 2,800 miles. Going off of our original route has lead us through some incredible experiences that we would never have seen before (the Grand Canyon, Sedona, Lake Powell, the Colorado Rockies). We definitely don't regret the path that we choose, if we were to do it again we would do it the same, but it has left us short on time. Defining our own bicycle-friendly route to approximate the 900 mile route that Google created would be dificult.
I am writing this in retrospect, summarizing a lot of the things that we were considering at the time. It has been really busy for us trying to figure out how to get home in a timely fashion while still maximizing our experience along the way. We are sorry that we have not been able to update more frequently. To plow through 900 miles in two weeks, we know that we will not be able to do as much sight-seeing along the way as we have been accustomed to.
We greased and cleaned our bike chains and did some laundry while thinking these things over. The thick, hot, humid night made sleeping difficult.
19 July 2011
Meramec, MO to Farmington, MO, 57 miles
In the mornining we spied these two gigantic woodpekcers!
Without knowing exactly where we wanted to go, we had a pretty slow morning. We found that the laundry we hung up to dry the night before was actually a lot more wet this morning than it was the night before! The humidity definitely makes things more difficult!
Eventually we set off on the Great Rivers route with the plan of stopping in the next populated city so that we can execute one of two plans that we have for getting home:
1) Shipping lots of stuff home to make us lighter and faster so that we can cover more miles in a day. Planning on staying in hotels more frequently so that we can avoid the humid nights (that have been preventing us from getting enough sleep at night), and saving us the time of setting up and taking down camp every night. We would have to create our own route to get home.
2) Rent a car and drive closer to our final destination. This will allow us to bike on Adventure Cycling routes and give us enough time to sight-see along the way. We could also potentially stop someplace along the way that we would not be able to see by bike in the time that we have left for our trip.
We set off for what would be one of our most difficult biking days so far. Our first obstaclel, the [small but very steep] mountain that was blocking us in the camping area. Luckily it was much more gradual from this side and we made it to the top without too much struggling. On the short way down we reach 38 mph after the final turn coming down the mountain straightened out across the picnic area of the state park.
We were back on the roads. We started off on a road with a comfortable shoulder, then found ourselves on an infrequently traveled two lane road. This is where things started to get really difficult. We were in the middle of the Ozarks, know for being increadibly steep and relentlessly frequent. By the end of the day we were calling them the "Topless" mountains because it seemed like we were just going through climb after climb. What was really happening was that we were climbing up one mountain, coasting down, and then having to furiously climb up the next section. Unlike biking in the Rocky Mountains, there is no gratifying summit. You never reach a peak and get to go down. It is just a constant struggle mountain after mountain. Each individual hill is so steep that we are forced into our lowest gears and even they are not nearly low enough. They are much steeper than the slopes of the Rocky Mountains that we encountered. It also did not help that we did not know how long this would last for. Whenever we would encounter a downhill section that lasted more than a minute, or that turned around a corner, we would trick ourselves into thinking that it would flatten out at the bottom. Instead it would always go straight back up!
We found a wooded area where we could take a break form the hills. Unlike the climbs that we have done in the past, where we have known how many miles we had to go to the top (where we were able to have a definable goal and setup places to stop), we were completely clueless as to what was ahead. We wanted it to get better! But, because of this we somewhat overexherted ourselves and really need the break.
Looking into the distance, the far peaks are over five miles away even though they seem pretty close. This is due to the constant straight up and down grade of the road.
We stopped at Ludya's Mercantile. A small, locally owned store where we could enjoy some shade, ice cream, and cold water. There were no other sources of water on the road so we were quite grateful!
We finally arrived in Potosi. We stopped at a picnic shelter outside the local library and planned where to go next. We had gone about 35 miles and were pretty exhausted. We had a snack and found that a nearby town, Farmington, though off of the Great Rivers map, had a lot of resources concentrated into the small city. We decided to route ourselves there. We checked the roads and they all had ample shoulder. Though there was more traffic, we felt safer. Also, since we were now on a major road, the grade was much less steep than before. We were able to cruise at a comfortable speed and started to feel better about biking again.
Now the mountains were "topless" for a different reason. The tops had been excavated to accomodate the more relaxed grade of the highway:
When we got into Farmington we encountered the first city that was not receptive to cyclists. I have never seen so many people look as if they had never before seen someone ride on a bike before! It was unsettling.
Finally we reached the Super 8 motel. We decided that we would need to dehumidify for the night, and would need the WiFi in order to plan the rest of our trip. We were still not sure what would be the best, and most enjoyable way for us to get back to Florida. There was an Italian restaurant across the parking lot from the hotel that was doing 1/2 off pasta dishes that night. We decided to walk over after hot showers and cleaning up. It was a nice way to recover from the long day.
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