Day 27. May 21. Monday. Rocheport to Jefferson City

Top picture is from yesterday at Franklin. I was running away from storm clouds so didn’t read the two huge plates of info. Has something to do with the history of the railroad and/or trail. Sorry. Was in the panic mode. As you know I got off the trail at 9am due to more lightning than I could handle. Stayed in the most awesome BandB. It was an old school house, quite large, and remodeled into rooms with cool names. I was in the spelling bee room and had bees on the wall paper. An awesome room. I want to go back some day. Some of the other rooms were named poetry,Dick and Jane, graduate, prose, honor roll, school master, school marm, and, of course, principal’s office. That was the check in office. So cool.

Today’s ride was so much better. First day in I don’t know how long, there was no rain. I think the next three days are supposed to be decent so hope to be at the end by Thursday and back on paved roads.

If you look closely at the picture with foliage in it, at the top you can pick out a natural bridge. This was a landmark back in the old days. Kinda hard to see now with all the trees.

I had to ride up a ramp at the bridge leading into Jefferson City. There were 11 ramps in all. You are looking through a chain link fence. Then while crossing the bridge on the bike/ pedestrian path, there were hundreds of padlocks attached to the fence. Haven’t found out yet what that signifies.

The trail ever since Windsor has been real solid, even with all the rain, but maximum speed is still 9 mph. You have to pedal constantly, which is tiring.

I met two local cyclists today and picked their brain about the lack of food and accommodations near the trail. They explained that all along the MO River, the trail runs through the flood plain and most towns that used to be here have since died after certain floods. As I came into Jefferson City today, I saw markers near the river where the water level was in the 1993 flood. It was probably 10 ft over my head and I was standing near the bank where the water was at least 10-15 feet below me. I can’t even imagine the water being that high. No wonder the towns never came back. So now I know I carry extra food and have to go off route to find a place to stay.

I look forward to some sunshine and maybe three days of cruising instead of panic riding.

41.1 miles today. 976.4totalwere

Author: bikeral2000

Retired musician, now gardener and cyclist. View all posts by bikeral2000