The westbound part of the Boone Bridge complex, crossing the Missouri river between Chesterfield Valley and St. Charles county, is ancient. It’s well over 70 years old, has been restriped to put three lanes of traffic where two were supposed to run, and is scary bad to drive across.

Tonight, MoDOT had a meeting in St. Charles county to show some plans for the bridge. There’d been some rumors about keeping it as a footbridge and/or cycling bridge between St. Louis and St. Charles counties, and I got pretty excited about that. However, tonight, MoDOT revealed that that option is off the table. That means if you walk, hike or cycle through this part of the world — and there are a TON of cyclists through this area due to the Katy Trail — you only have two places to legally cross the river, as the Boone is now part of I-64.

One is just south of downtown St. Charles city, at milemarker 42.8, and is on the deck of the Page Avenue bridge as a separate bike lane. The next crossing to the south is 28 miles south on the Katy, crossing the very dangerous Hwy 47 bridge at Washington MO. This is such a dangerous crossing that a whole business has been built around folks carrying cyclists and their bikes across the bridge in vehicles, in order to keep things safe.

A pedestrian crossing at the Boone would give folks a way to cycle or hike from the Katy Trail (which crosses directly under the Boone) into the Chesterfield Valley, where a new loop around the Valley has been constructed. It would also be a valuable connector from St. Louis into St. Charles.

Chattanooga figured out a way to do that with the Walnut Street bridge, and it’s turned into a real boon for downtown renovation. Admittedly, the two ends of the Boone are either retail or light industrial, but think of the start this could be.

I get the lion’s share of my riding on the Katy Trail done after work. I work about five miles from the trailhead, so it’s a no-brainer to drop down there after work and get some miles behind me. However, until the time changes, it’s tough to do — the sun just sets too early. With the Dubya-enacted changes to DST, that means I have the opportunity to get on the trail three weeks earlier, weather permitting, and today, for the first day of the season, weather is permitting.

It’s been interesting watching the hitch-mounted bike racks start to re-appear on vehicles at the office over the last week. You can tell that folks have been gearing up for the beginning of the cycling season. When I pulled in this morning, I noticed another bike on a hitch-mount, ready for some after-work action on the trail.

Man, I love this time of year!

14.79

The weather dudes (and dudettes) prognosticated cool temps for this morning, so today was a day planned for riding. I knew it couldn’t be quite as long a ride as I wanted — two birthday parties to attend today — but I also knew I could get some quality saddle time in.

So the weather cooperated with the weather folks, and it was in the mid-50s this morning — right in my wheelhouse for good rides. I filled my CamelBak, loaded up and hit the road. I wasn’t quite sure where I wanted to start from or head toward, but the drop-in at Weldon Spring is the absolute closest point to the Katy Trail for me… but is still almost 20 miles from the house. As it ends up, that’s where I headed as a starting point.

Even getting there just after sunrise, I was already late — there were tons of folks out on the trail already. I guess mid-50s in June grabs folks’ attention! From Weldon, there are two nice medium-length rides: I can head to Pitman Hill for a 16mi ride, or I can head to the boat ramp at Klondike for a 15mi ride. I elected to hit Klondike. I hadn’t been there yet this year, and a decent bit of that ride is out from under cover, so the combination of cool air and low-angle sunlight would feel good.

I stopped about every five miles, and took a long drink, and ate a fruit cup. Between that regimen, and the cool weather, the ride was fabulous! Easy too — I didn’t bump into that crazy wall before three miles like I typically do. In fact, I felt pretty invinceable on the trail today, and really felt like there were more miles in the legs. However, that bit about planning for the return ride was front-of-mind, so I elected to go with what I knew, and plan for only fifteen miles.

I actually ended up shooting a little bit. The boat ramp at Klondike had obviously been flooded during the high waters recently. This high water decimated the grass on the sides of the ramp, and now that the waters had been gone for a week or two, the sun has parched the soil. This left some really cool dry soil, reminiscent of a parched river bed in the desert. Really cool, and fun to shoot, too. I tried some overheads and some ant’s-eye views as well. It was nice to hear my photography muse whispering in my ear on this one!

16.4mi

Tonight’s ride was really a big ol’ reminder of last year’s rides. The first few miles were horrid, full of self-doubt and a huge desire to turn tail and head for home. But, just like last year, I broke through the 3-4mi wall, and found the rest of the ride to be pleasant.

Along with a good ride though, I also got to see a bunch of snakes on the trail. I’ve seen more snakes this month on the trail than I did all of last year. I dunno if that’s because the water’s so high, or from some other kind of natural influence.

So, I haven’t entirely identified what I’ve seen. The state has a site showing the snakes of Missouri, and I’ve been trying to do some comparisons.

I know I saw a rough green snake tonight, along with an osage copperhead (poisonous). The big black one might’ve been a western cottonmouth (water moccasin), but I haven’t been able to tell from the single photo on the site. Another site makes my coiled up mystery snake appear to be a cottonmouth, but it’s still hard to tell. And I think the big black wavy snake is yet another species, but I can’t tell for sure.

Any ideas?

20.7mi

Beck and I took a little ride from Weldon to Defiance today. This was the first time she’d been on the trail, and I picked an easy route that included a stop at the Katy Trail Bike Shop for a slurpie. Now that’s riding!

After we got back to Weldon, I decided to ride one-way up to St. Charles, and have Beck pick me up. As it ends up, I only went to the 364 bridge — there was a big festival up there, and I figured we wouldn’t be able to find each other, much less get her parked close to the trail! So, to the bridge complex I went, and got myself picked up by Beck.

I hadn’t realized how liberating it would be to ride without having to keep the return ride in mind. It was wonderful not to worry about the distance I had left in the tank! Really cool ride.

And I ran across one of my little friends on the trail — apparently a timber rattlesnake. Man, there’s some serious snakage going on this year!

16.39mi

I visited my friend, the Katy Trail, tonight. After a couple of rides on the Al Wilson trail this week, I decided it was time for me and friend Katy to see each other. That trail’s a jealous mistress!

I decided to head toward the bridge from Weldon, and started pedalling. As I observed last year, the first 3-5 miles were horrible. But once I got to the bridge, I decided to head on up to Pitman Hill Road. I hadn’t been there this year, and my legs felt like they still had some “go” in them.

That’s when I ran over the first snake — a tiny little green snake. I doubt I hurt him, but I still didn’t like the fact I put a couple of tires across him. A mile or so later, I encountered the other snake.

This guy was about two feet long, as thick as my thumb, and coiled in the middle of the trail. I later discovered he was a Red Milk Snake. His colorings are similar to those of the Coral Snake, but this little dude is non-poisonous, and is really pretty. I stopped and took some photos of him… he didn’t seem to mind.

I looped back at Pitman Hill, and neither of the two snakes were around. I guess they got tired of us cyclists, and went home. For me, I went home after a very satisfying ride!

22.84mi

The MS150 folks sponsored the first warm-up ride today before the MS150 in September. This was my first organized ride since last September’s MS150, and I was both excited and dreading it. I had a pretty good idea that I’d be able to make the 22mi loop, but I didn’t know what the route was, aside from the starting and ending point, so I had no sense of what to expect from the terrain. I met a couple of other team members from our corporate MS150 team, and we started off around noon.

The weather was pretty nice, with loads of low clouds and temps in the high 60s — a glorious day for cycling! The course was kind for the first four or five miles, flat and very little car-traffic. That wouldn’t last though. We turned onto a heavily travelled, two-lane back road — Eatherton Road — and things got miserable pretty quick. The cars and bikes had woven together, with cars waiting for oncoming traffic to pass before passing the cyclists running along with them. This had cars off the rear wheels of the bikes, and bikes off the rear bumpers of the cars….. Ugh. This particular road is notorious for conflicts between cyclists and drivers — the drivers don’t respect the cyclists right to be riding on the road, and frankly, some of the cyclists on that road simply won’t move to the edge of the road to allow cars to pass easier. It’s not wonder we had cars honking at us as we rode. Since this was an organized ride, we had police support, and that kept an incidents to dull roar — that’s the ONLY way I’d ride this particular road.

Once we got off that back road, we continued on to the rest stop at the turnaround point. There were several small hills and grades on the way, and some of them really kicked me hard. Once again, I was reminded that riding the Katy is just not the same as riding on the hills found on the road. I pulled into the rest area, and found it was not quite what I was expecting. It just wasn’t very well stocked as compared to the stops for the MS150 — some Gatorade, water, bananas, orange slices and Rice Krispie treats. I caught back up with my teammates, and rested for a little bit.

The return ride seemed long. The sun had come out, the temperature had come up, and I fought a brutal headwind through much of the flat. The good news was that the first part of the return journey was generally graded downhill, so the pedalling wasn’t too tough for the first five miles or so. However, Eatherton Road was a mess again, only this time the cyclists were much more spread out, so it seemed like every few minutes I was passed by some motorist. I finally got back to Ghisallo, and after stowing my bike on the truck, I found my teammates, and I ravenously ate. This spread was good — hummus wraps, meatballs, fruit, cookies, beer, water, and a variety of sandwiches. I definitely got my $5 worth!

So, some notes for next time… I have to remember to pack my Camelbak, regardless of the ride length. I find that I stay more hydrated with that thing on my back — it’s just a lot easier to reach over for the tube than to try to handle a bottle while pedalling. I also need to replace my GPS. I had no idea how far I was from the easier parts of the course, despite knowing how far I was from the finish. I also need to find a pouch for my handlebars to hold the camera. I would’ve taken photos of the ride itself if I could get to the camera a little easier.

So, it was a good start to the official season I suppose. I’d have been happier had the ride been easier on me, but that just tells me I need to do more rides into Creve Coeur this season. It’s paved, connects to the Katy, and has some good hills, along with a 75′ vertical climb to the bridge complex — all things that will help get me ready for this year’s MS150!

10.02mi

We have had the weirdest winter, with temps way above normal. In honor of this weirdness, I took Bandit up to Weldon Spring today, and put in at the Katy Trail for the first time this year.

It was cool, just under 50 degrees. Before I left, I told Beck that I needed to get some sweat pants for some of the cooler temp rides. For my birthday, she’d already gotten me some, and presented those to me as an early prezzie. There were indeed warm!

As usual, the first 3-4 miles were just brutal — they always are for some reason. After that though, it was a great afternoon ride. The trail is so different this time of the year, with all the leaves down, and the low angle of the late afternoon sun enhancing the browns and the land… well, it was beautiful.

I hope this is the beginning of new adventures on the trail — I’m ready to get back to regular rides out there! Sunset is still too early to try riding after work. However, by the time the first part of March rolls around, sunset will be around 6pm, and that’s late enough to get in afternoon rides on the trail. And with the early start to daylight savings coming on March 10th or so, that’ll give me two extra months on the trail this year. That’s a great thing.

With the time change this weekend, my cycling after work is done for a while. The sun sets too early now for me to get to the trail, change clothes, and get in a decent ride before darkness envelopes the trees on the trail. In fact, this will probably be the case until the time changes again in March, although I haven’t looked at the sunset times out that far to see if I might be able to get some evening rides in ahead of that.

Bummer that. I guess that means big rides on the weekends, and the odd few miles around the neighborhood after work, until it gets dark too early for even that. (By the Winter Solstice, the sun will set around here before 4.30pm.)

Unfortunately, I think that puts my goal cycling 1000 miles before the end of the year in jeopardy….

11.7mi

Tonight marked a triumphant return to the trail after nearly three weeks away. Since the MS150 earlier this month, there’s been all kinds of things inserting themselves in between me and my bike, and that’s been a crying shame.

It was wonderful to get back out there, especially with the weather we’re having. On the way back to the trailhead, it was misting rain, and the temperature couldn’t have been more that 65 — perfect weather for me! It’s supposed to be cool for the next several days, so I expect I’ll get back out there to burn up more miles on the trail.

My recently-injured ankle didn’t bother me too bad, although I can definitely tell that I’ve ridden on it. I’ve just gotta keep strengthening it, and keep it flexible by working with it. There’s no better medicine for it than being on my bike!