In 2023 Dr. B and his partner Maureen rode their bikes across America, starting in Virginia Beach and ending in my neck of the woods at Rialto Beach, Washington. 11 days into their months-long ride, they met Tristan Rudolph in Damascus, Virginia. Tristan meshed well with Dr. B and Maureen, and he ended up joining them for the duration of the journey. Dr. B and Maureen timed their bike adventure with such precision as to be able to join last year’s Sea to Sound at the end. Tristan was intrigued by what he had heard about our eclectic three day mobility event across the Olympic Peninsula and he elected to participate in it. It was a natural extension of all that he had done with Dr. B and Maureen up to that point, and fortunately Celina, Jimmy, myself and many others got to meet Tristan at that point in time. Now, a year later, Tristan came down from his hometown of Chicago, Illinois to join us for a day on the Katy Trail. He arrived on Friday evening after we returned from a dinner and beer sampling excursion, dripping sweat and a little flushed after riding 30 miles from a train station to our Air BnB in 90-plus degree heat. After some electrolytes and water, he was ready to help us tackle what we had coming the next morning: a crack of dawn move day.

After 3 nights at our Air BnB house in St. Charles, MO, we were ready to move on to Jefferson City and we wanted to do it in a manner that allowed us to completely check out AND hit the trail as early as possible to beat the hella heat. My go bags aren’t small, so move days require a ton of shuffling, packing and reshuffling. Fortunately my team worked with maximum efficiency and we were completely out of the house and in the transport vehicles at 5:45 AM.

A winding drive brought us to where we left off yesterday and it didn’t take long for us to gear up to begin our second day on the trail. A big thanks to our platinum sponsor of the day, Motion Concepts!

We settled in to rolling on the Katy Trail, between stalks of Conyza canadensis and Equisetum. We went through an area where there were dozens and dozens of small frogs criss-crossing the trail like nobody’s business while we all tried to avoid them. Smatterings of Black-eyed Susans decorated the trail sides, made especially vibrant where they were joined by brilliant purple Echinacea flowers. A pond slider sat just off the trail, barely moving his or her head while we stopped briefly to watch. We saw more dragonflies and damselflies than we had on day one. As the day grew warmer, we especially relished one section that had us right along the sliding waters of the Missouri River, North America’s longest river. Its uppermost headwaters are in the mountains by Bozeman, Montana. Some water from Alberta and Saskatchewan Provinces of Canada flow into the Missouri. In its entirety the Missouri courses 2,341 miles before it confluences with the similarly voluminous Mississippi River. The volume of water in the Missouri along the Katy Trail is mind-blowing, something to the tune of 130,000 cubic feet per second where we are now, and that water cools the air above it. We savored the river breezes as we moved along, and we missed them when we moved away from the river.

Today we crossed more bridges (spanning tributaries) than we did yesterday and the quality of these bridges underscores what an impressive bit of infrastructure the Katy Trail is. The decking of the bridges often seamlessly tie into the crushed gravel beds of the trail at each end, something that I very much notice as I go along in my chair. We also crossed quite a few driveways and small side streets, and almost without fail the transitions were smooth. Such nuances make a big difference in the overall feel of a trail. The trail construction and maintenance has been commendable.

It was nice to converse with Tristan today and to have his cameras in action. He had his phone and an old school single use film camera. It was great to get some shots of me and my team out on the trail where we usually don’t have that extra perspective.

At one point I caught sight of a large frog on the path right in front of me. Just before squashing the frog, I veered sharply to my left and almost collided into Dr. B. Jimmy saw what transpired and commended me on my save. Poor Dr. B, who didn’t see the frog and didn’t know what was going on, almost soiled himself.

Toward the end of the day’s section, we traveled some pretty long sunny stretches, which just amplified the growing heat of the day. Jimmy and Dr. B were extra diligent with spraying me and between that, my Diestco canopy, my ice vest and my handy fan, I stayed cool. Nonetheless, we were happy to hit the day’s destination and get out of the sun.

More early mornings and very hot days coming up. Stay tuned!

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