My plan for my next adventure is to bike the Katy Trail. Actually, my plan is to bike it both ways. This is a 237 mile long trail and it has been almost ten years since I last rode a bike so this plan might be overly ambitious. Unless I get a job before next Tuesday though I will at least be attempting an out and back ride of the Katy Trail.
I’m thinking it will take me about six or seven days each way to bike the trail. I’m guessing that I will be able to bike about 40 miles a day. Back in 2005 I biked 17 miles on the Virginia Creeper trail in about 2.5 hours with several breaks. The Katy Trail is also a relatively level, crushed limestone trail so I figure in a full day of riding I should be able to do about three times as much mileage. A bike ride from nine years and 35 pounds ago might not be the best basis for establishing my current bike riding ability though. My other thought is that I was able to hike 14 mile days on my recent hike. Biking should be at least three times as fast as hiking and 14×3 is 42 so that is another basis for my 40 miles a day estimate.
My method of biking the trail does allow me to scale back my daily mileage plan if it proves to be too ambitious. I’m going to ride out and back to my car each day. For example, the first day I might bike from the Clinton trailhead to Windsor and then ride back to the Clinton trailhead. The next day I would drive to Sedalia and ride from the Sedalia trailhead to Windsor and then back to the Sedalia trailhead. The trail has mile markers so if halfway through the day I feel like my initial goal for the day is too far I can note my current mile marker and turn around there for the day. Or if my initial goal was too easy I could push to a further mile marker before turning around for the day, but I doubt that will happen. This method will give me a lot of flexibility on how far I bike each day.
This method of biking will also help keep my costs down since I’ll be sleeping in my car rather than staying at a hotel at night. I’ll still stay at a hotel or campground some days since I won’t want to go more than a couple of days without a shower. This method will increase my gas costs since I’ll be driving each day, but overall the trip will be relatively cheap.
It is costing me a bit of money to get ready for this trip. I’m borrowing my girlfriend’s bike which has the advantage of being free. Unfortunately, it also has the disadvantage of being pink. It is also a cheap Walmart bike which might not be reliable for such a long ride. Since I’m riding back to my car each day it shouldn’t be too much of a hassle to make any needed repairs or possibly find a replacement bike.
That is my plan for now. Since I’m returning to my car each night I’ll be able to continue blogging and I’ll keep you updated on how the plan works.
This sounds like a pretty ambitious plan for somebody who hasn’t even biked recently. Are you at least going to go on a long ride this weekend to test everything out?
I did go for a half hour ride yesterday and it wasn’t easy. It might take a while to get my daily mileage up to 40 miles a day like I thought I could do.