The sandstone bluffs overlooking the Missouri River in the eastern/central part of Missouri are magnificently beautiful, but clearly hazardous. Signs along the Katy Trail warn cyclists to beware of falling rocks. For this reason I wear my helmet even though there is no vehicle traffic to contend with on the trail.
I left Hermann about 11:30 AM this morning in order to give the trail and my Achilles time to recover. My plan was to ride about 45 miles this afternoon to Jefferson city, the capital of Missouri. As so often happens on these bicycle tours, my plans changed.
After riding about 33 miles in pleasantly dry weather. I came to the town of Tebbetts. Like so many other towns on the Katy Trail, Tebbetts has seen better days. As I stopped to fill my water bottles at the Katy Trail rest stop in Tebbetts, I noticed The Turner Katy Trail shelter a few hundred feet off the trail. Easily distracted, I decided to check it out.
The sign on the door said it was an overnight lodging place for cyclists and that the key was hanging on a hook on the nearby utility pole. Although I was not ready to stop for the day, I felt drawn to this place. After all, as a touring cyclist I really am nothing more than a homeless man with a tent, a sleeping bag and a bicycle. This generally suits me fine except that the weather forecast is calling for rain tonight and tomorrow and I really don't like camping in the rain.
I rode a few hundred yards further down the trail before deciding to turn around and go back.I found the key exactly where the sign said it would be and proceeded to unlock the building. Inside was a cyclist's paradise unlike any I had ever seen. On the main floor there were about a dozen bunkbeds, a simple kitchen, shower room, bathroom, and workshop. Upstairs there were more bunkbeds and a balcony. It was kind of spooky being in there alone, but I felt inclined to stay.
Not having much else to do, I decided to take a walk around what's left of Tebbetts. When I returned I was delighted to see that a second cyclist about my age had stopped in to join me in the bunkhouse for the night.
My roommate was from Anchorage and had lived a life of adventure in the Alaskan wilderness. I have done a fair amount of bicycle touring over the past few years, but nothing compared to this guy. He was riding up and down the Katy Trail in preparation for two long bicycle tours he will be doing outside the U.S. this summer and fall. My new friend proved to be a likeminded guy who shared with me many adventure stories and words of wisdom about life and cycling.
When we got up the next morning it was raining again. We waited until about 11 o'clock and finally paid the small lodging fee and went our separate ways into the rain. He was heading east to Hermann and I, of course, was heading west.
While I waited in vain for the rain to stop, I looked through the guestbook in the bunkhouse. Since it is early in the year, there were very few entries, but one caught my eye. A guy and his daughter had gone to the St. Louis Cardinals opening day baseball game in St. Louis and were riding the length of the Katy trail to catch the Kansas City Royals opening day game a week later. Now why didn't I think of that!?!
One other thing happened on May 23, 1804, that I found very interesting. The expedition made a stop at what was known as the Boone settlement and went ashore to purchase some produce from the 30 to 40 families that constituted the Boone settlement. (Actually, they probably didn't purchase anything. Lewis had obtained what amounts to a letter of credit from the United States issued to him by Thomas Jefferson that allowed him to procure anything he needed for the expedition on the full faith and credit of the United States government.)
That Boone settlement consisted of a small group of people who had followed famous U.S. frontiersman and soldier Colonel Daniel Boone from Kentucky to Missouri. Boone left Kentucky in 1799 at age 65, to accept a land-grant from the Spanish government, which then controlled the Louisiana territory.
Many of the settlers accompanied Lewis and Clark and their crew to the banks of the river to wish them well on their journey. Conspicuous by his unexplained absence from that party of well-wishers was Daniel Boone himself. No one knows exactly why Boone did not greet Lewis and Clark. Some speculate he may have been away at the time.
My guess is that Boone was not a fan of the Louisiana purchase or anyone having anything to do with it. The Louisiana purchase was ceremoniously closed in St. Louis in March 1804. This could not have been good news for Daniel Boone, who had spent the preceding five years building a new life on land granted to him by the Spanish government. In fact, Boone subsequently spent several years successfully litigating his ownership interests in that land with the US government.
My planned destination tomorrow is Boonsville..
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