Katy and Cowboy Trails Spring 2021

Katy Trail Followed by the Cowboy Trail

The Katy Trail is a 237 mile trail stretching across most of the state of Missouri. We have been aware of the Rails to Trails organization for several years and this trail kept coming up as one of the top 10. Wanting to try out our new gravel bikes we invited our friend Mary jo to join us for a ride on this trail. Mary drove her van and we had ours allowing us to be creative in how we did shuttles to ride all of the trail and then some. Over half of the trail’s length follows Lewis and Clarks path along the the Missouri River where you ride beneath towering river bluffs. The rest of the trail meanders through farmland and small towns. We took a snow day off to visit the Capitol of Missouri in Jefferson City and a rainy day to visit Augusta one of the local towns that has become a wine and artist destination. The Katy Trail is managed by the Missouri State Parks which does a fantastic job of maintaining the trails and rest areas along the way. There are many informative signs thru out the trail. We started our ride on April 14th.

We left Portland on the 8th of April, stopping over night at a rest area where we awoke to freshly fallen snow.

The morning was beautiful, but when Mary arrived a little later, the decision was to head south and hope to be in warmer temperatures. Soon the day warmed up a little and we camped at Three Island State Park in Idaho.

Looking at the forecast, we decided that continuing on a southern direction was to our advantage. Today we drove thru Salt Lake City and ended up camping on Horse Canyon road on BLM land, a campsite found on freecampsites.net We took a short ride on our bikes up a paved road before calling it a day. That night we pulled out a map and decided that we would check out route 50 to cross Colorado. None of us had been to The Black Canyon of the Gunnison since it was on our route we decided to check it out and do a hike.

The canyon was beautiful, but some of the trails were still covered in snow so we decided to move on.

Going up and over Monarch Pass was slow going as our brakes continue to give us problems. We made it to the town of Salida where we spent a relatively quiet night in the Walmart parking lot.

Leaving Salida we were treated to a beautiful drive going thru numerous canyons. As we headed into Eastern Colorado we made a stop at Bents’s Old Fort, a very well done historic monument of a busy trade post on the Sante Fe Trail.

It was easy to spend several hours here looking at all of the artifacts.

This was a very well organized wood working shop.

A local peacock resident was quite proud of its feathers.

We made it to Kansas and stayed at the Beymer Water Recreation Park. Even though the park was open the bathrooms were closed so looks like we will be leaving early in the morning,

The next day as we traveled across Kansas we stopped at Tall Grass Praire National Preserve. It was established in 1996 to protect a once vast tall grass prairie ecosystem. The variety of grasses are quite short in April averaging 6 inches but by fall they can be as high as 6 feet. We walked thru numerous buildings and then took a 6 mile hike thru the fields where the buffalo roam.

We were warned to be sure to give the buffalo a great berth , which we did.

We also stoped at Fort Larned, a stone fort that was meticulous in its displays. We had forgotten to. bring our camera and since the wind was howling we didn’t return to go get it. I would recommend stoping there if you pass by. We had decided to try to stay off of interstates and seeing these historical places made it worthwhile. The roads were slower but so much more enjoyable. Tonight we stayed at Eisenhower State Park. It was huge!. We drove around looking for a site and finally found one that we could park both vehicles.

In the morning we decided to take a bike ride thru the park. we figured that it was good to get some biking in with all the driving we have done. Finally late in the afternoon we arrived to Clinton< Missouri where the Katy Trail officially begins.

We check out the map and begin to develop a plan for doing the ride. There isn’t great camping options here so we decide to head to Sedalia where we can camp at the Missouri State Fairgrounds.

This place is huge! There are sheep buildings, cow buildings, chicken buildings, swine buildings etc.

Our plan is to ride to the west, to a mile marker and then turn and ride back to our campsite. The next day we will ride to the east and then turn around and head back to where the vans are. This strategy is good for some places other days we shuttle vans.

We are up by 7

And ready to begin. Approximately every 10 miles there are bathrooms and very informative signs telling you about the history of the trail that one will be doing today.

We hit the high point to the trail today.

This has the reputation of being a very flat trail and today we experience just that.

There are also numerous information signs along the way.

We made it to the Windsor trailhead before heading back to Sedelia.

Todays miles 38.44

Today’s journey took us east, past Clifton City.

It was another crisp cool day, great for biking!

One of the signs told us to be on the lookout for prairie chickens, but alas none were to be seen.

Each stop had these signs with so much information.

Often the signs would tell what one should expect for the terrain that they will be riding.

Along side the trail someone had placed an actual train whistle and light that was motion activated.

We activated it several times as it was so fun.

We went over several bridges today.

The Sedalia trailhead was lots of fun and the buildings were well maintained. There were bathrooms and a gift shop there.

At a lot of the trailheads there were examples of train cars.

On the return trip back to our vans, we noticed an interesting van parked near the trail. Don and Mary went up to check it out and met an interesting man. He was a bike mechanic as well as the local historian and told them stories about the area and the trail. Looked like he had lots of bike parts in his van.

Once again meeting people is what adds to the interest of the trail.
Todays mileage was 37.44

On the 16th we checked out the forecast and it was calling for rain, another town, Pilot Grove was predicted to have rain later so we loaded up the bikes and headed East.

We started out the day by going thru a huge culvert.

And reading about the route that we plan on doing today.

Since we are doing this section both ways we will get to go up and down.

This stretch of trail had several decorated bicycles.

At one point on the trail we crossed over the interstate.

At the town of Boonville there was another nice building, although it was mostly closed due to covid.

A nearby building housed a museum and a gift shop. we were able to pick up a Katy sticker.

The rain hadn’t fallen as predicted so we came up with the plan for Don and Mary to shuttle a vehicle to another trail head. I waited for their return at Boonville. (and waited) The railroad track is straight but the roads are country roads that meander around and around before getting to the final destination, It took them longer by far to drive the vehicles to the next trailhead than it did to ride the bikes there.

There was a lot of reading to do while I waited.

Finished the ride, got the vehicle and then drove back to Boonville.

Camped tonight at Knob Noster State Park

miles today 28.58

Today we started out with a hike at the State Park we camped at last night. The May flower is just starting to bloom and we hope to find a morel mushroom. Today did not have any success so we loaded up the vans and headed to Windsor. Today we will head to Windsor, take the trail to Clinton(the official start and return to Windsor

On the way to the trailhead we passed several Amish Carts. We saw a sign advertising an Amish Store so after getting back to the van we went to check it out.

Miles peddled today 33.95

The store was quite busy with lots of unique items. We found a couple of dishes and then filled up with cookies and fudge. We camped in a city park tonight. It was free but got a little noisy during the night.

The morning found us driving back to Boonville and leaving me and bikes here while Don and Mary shuttle vans to Cooper Landing and return with a van. We head out looking forward to crossing the Missouri River and riding the bikes along the river bluffs. We pass by the town of Rocheport which is a popular trail head for bikers doing day trips. There was a lot of activity here.

We always enjoy reading about the history of the area and what to expect about the trail

This old grain elevator was in excellent shape.

The trail hugs the river with bluffs on the other side. This is definitely quite scenic.

The Missouri River has changed since Louis and Clark did their expedition. We learned a lot about their adventures as we peddled next to the river. One bridge has washed out so we did some road biking. We can appreciate the Rails to Trails so much more when you have cars passing you Tonight we camped at Binder Park Campground. We felt quite fortunate to have a site here. Don’s strava app stopped so didn’t get to record our mileage today.

Leaving our campground we headed towards Hartsburg where we plan to start our days bike. We will head to Copers Landing and return back to Hartsburg.

It is another day of getting to ride next to the river,

Looked like they were getting sand from the bottom.

This area is prone to flooding and this sign was very informative.

We decided to try an exchange the key ride for the last part of today. Don drove a vehicle to N. Jefferson and then rode his bike toward Cooper Landing. Mary and I rode our bikes to N. Jefferson. That was a good option as we covered more ground today. Headed back to Binder Park where we found a May Apple in bloom. So where are the Morels?

Today is going to be a rest, laundry, showers and a visit to the state capitol. We aren’t on a tight schedule and when we woke up this morning and looked out the van window, this is what we saw.

After showers and laundry, we headed into check out the capitol of Missouri, Jefferson City.

The building and the grounds were impressive.

We had a variety of snow, rain and sunshine today.

It felt good to do some inside exploring today.

Tours of the capitol were limited due to covid, but we were welcome to check it out on our own, One could spend a lot of time here as there were several floors filled with lots of interesting things.

Not a bad place for the Governor to call home.

Finally we headed to an ice cream shop which we saw advertised. Mary and I ordered a dish of ice cream and Don ordered a banana split.

His eyes got big when the dish appeared.

Other than a few shared bites, he ate the whole thing.

When he returned to the campsite, this is how he spent the rest of the afternoon.(perhaps a bit of a sugar downer)

it was 29 degrees this morning. We sure have had a variety of weather on this trip. It has been nice to have the vans to sleep in. It is a little early for some of the campgrounds to be open, but when they are this would be a fun bike pack trail. We drive to Blufton and to Bluftons Barn. Here we met Doug the owner who provides lodging for the bikers. He gave us permission to leave one vehicle here, we will drive one vehicle with the bikes to Marthville and ride to Blufton. Then drive back to get the other vehicle. We are doing more driving than we would like to, but having vehicles definitely gives us options.

We haven’t seen any beavers, but looks like they have been busy here.

Every 10 miles we get to take a break and learn more about the area.

We make it back to Blufton and then drive to get the vehicle. Upon returning Doug invites us in for some wine and we share travel stories.

His room of biking shirts have a lot of stories to tell!

It was fun meeting and talking to Doug.
Mileage 33.45

It was another cold morning, the temp. on the van said 24. The puddles were frozen and the urge to start riding early was not there. We asked Doug if we could leave a vehicle here and drive the other van with our bikes to Marthasville. We will then ride to here and take the van with our bikes back to Marthasville. Everyday we figure out the best way to ride the entire trail. Doug had told us about a famous spiritual center not far from here. Many people each year make a pilgrimage here. Since it was mostly on our way we decided to go check it out.

it was amazing and it took us awhile to walk around the grounds to see all of the displays. I think the photos don’t need any description.

It was great to learn about this site from Doug.

Now it is time to drive to Marthasville and learn about this section of trail.

The flowers are beginning to bloom.

We are also heavy into learning about the expedition of Lewis and Clark.

Every couple of miles there is a sign telling about them.

We also see more grain elevators,

We take a break to take in the scenery.

And soon we are back to Blufton and the van. We thanks Doug and head off to the Marthasville Community Center where we will be spending the night.

Mileage 33.64

In Alaska one would see a grizzly bear made with a chain saw…here it is corn.

It rained hard during the night. We decided to delay our departure till about 10 as the forecast was for cloudy, but not raining. Our plan for today is that Mary and I will start the ride here go to Defiance and then turn around. Don will drive to Defiance ride to Marthasville and go back to Defiance. This means that we don’t have to shuttle two vehicles. When we meet up with Don on the trail, he mentions that there is a sketchy town coming up. He doesn’t explain further so we are not sure what to expect.

Meanwhile we see more old grain elevators.

Learn interesting facts about the importance of wine here,

and also realize that Daniel Boone was quite the historic figure in this area.

As Mary and I were peddling along enjoying the ride, we hear a scream made by two fighting animals. Had we been in bear country we would have clearly thought that two males were fighting. Instead in the distance we see quite a bit smaller animals tearing into each other. They were two groundhogs that by the time we were near them they were so exhausted they didn’t even move,

Never knew they could make such a loud noise.

When we arrived to the town that Don had warned us about, we had to laugh. There were artists sketching thru out the town. It was a one day contest where professionals and amateurs spent the day sketching and then displayed their sketches. As we walked around the town we were able to observe many of the artists at work. At the end of the day the sketches were judged and the winner got $500.00.

There were over 100 artists from 16 states participating in the event.

We finished up today’s ride early so we decided to head to the nearby town of Herman. It is known for its wineries and restaurants. We will have to give both a try.

One of the first things that caught our eye was the ornate County Courthouse.

Many of the old buildings were quite impressive

Herman was named after this German warrior.

We had been told that this town was well known for its German food and when we saw a restaurant advertising its bratwurst , we decided to give it a try. We weren’t disappointed, We headed back to the community campground. There is a major rain storm coming tonight so we may be having a non peddle day tomorrow.

Todays’s miles 19.50

The rain poured most of the night and into the morning, we are not going anywhere on the bikes. We decided to visit a Daniel Boone Historic Site and the town of Augusta where the art festival is continuing. Yesterday Don had met the owner of a gallery and he suggested that this town was worth visiting.

First we check out an area that has more info about Daniel Boone .

As usual it is interesting to learn about the significance of Daniel Boone’s influence in the area.

It would have been quite a different mode of travel to cross Missouri in a covered wagon.

A poster describes the Art Gallery event.

We drive around the town and check out some of the wineries. We learn about the town from a man that Don met yesterday who owns a gallery here. There is a wealthy individual who has been buying most of the towns wineries. Even though they appear to be quite different the owner is the same. This person is also buying up most of the lodging locations as well. There is mixed opinions in the town whether this is good or bad. Needless to say the town is definitely getting a major face lift. The idea is that in the near future Augusta will become a destination for wine and artists. We spent some time checking out the well done gallery

The rain had turned to sun by the time we were ready to head back to our campground.

Before we headed to our parking spot for the night, we found out about Missouri mud. A road that we had traveled yesterday was now a muddy quagmire. We realized it too late as our wheels sunk in. Fortunately, a man had a pick up truck and was was able to pull us out. It was a lesson learned.

Today the sun is shining and the wet trail is quickly becoming dry. We can see that the trails surface can quickly change due to the moisture level. Wider tires are nicer when the surface is soft. We drive to St. Charles after we drop Mary’s van off at Defiance.. It is a beautiful sunny day and a lot of people are out enjoying the trail. Once again we take time to read the signs at one of the trailheads.

We understand why this is one of the top ten rails to trails.

We ride as a trio to Defiance then Mary drives her van to St. Charles and Don and I ride back to St. Charles,

A lot of riders finish here , because where the trail really ends does does not have vehicle access . Tomorrow we will ride from here to the end and back to here. Since we are here early today we decide to walk around the town and also to visit the Louis and Clark museum.

a sculpture of Lewis and Clark near the trail head.

The museum was quite good as we walked around the displays and watched a movie about the expedition.

Another train car.
Tonight we are camping at Babler Memorial state Park
Today’s mileage 21.17

This is the day we will complete the Katy Trail. We drive back to the large parking lot at the St. Charles Trail head and head to Machens. We take a brief stop at the Black Walnut trail head. This is the closet trailhead to the end.

We are greeted by a yellow dog who seems to know just when bikers are arriving.

Soon we are at the end. Take some end of trail photos.

And we all get to ring the bell.

We read a couple more signs before heading back to St. Charles.

This trail gets 5 stars for being informative.

The trail back to St. Charles is flat…so flat.

On the first day of the trail we passed by the high point of the trail. Today we see the sign marking the the low point.

We also see a post recording the flood level in 1993.

Soon we are back to St. Charles and celebrating with…….

A good way to end!

Our trip started April 14 and ended April 26 th.

We had warm weather, snowy weather and rainy weather.

We met lots of nice people

Had no bike issues

Learned a lot about the ares

Peddled 305.90 miles

Katy Trail is a fantastic trail!!!

On to the Cowboy Trail

We said our good byes to Mary and she headed west towards home. We had heard about a gravel bike event in Hermann and decided to participate before heading to Nebraska and the Cowboy trail.. Some of our friends have done these events and they always have fun. It is a two day activity with several loops each day. One can do as many loops as they want. They are all timed from when you start to when you finish. We tried to stay at the city park in Hermann where the event started, but it was booked by the bikers who were going to participate in the event. Doing a little research on where to find a campsite we came upon the Daniel Boone Conservation area. It was a free site with no facilities, but we are used to that and decided to go check it out. It was perfect, plus there were gravel roads everywhere to ride. We found a site, took out the bikes and went riding. The next day we did some more riding on one of the loops in the event. We also studied the route that the event will be on. We decided that we are going to do two loops the first day which would be 60 miles of riding and 50 the second day. Both days have some mileage on the Katy Trail before heading on some back roads. We also drove on one of the loops to get a feel for the up and down hills. The trail Katy got us ready for the flat but not so much for elevation. When we were on the Katy Tail we met someone who recommended the Adam Putchta Winery. When we saw it we decided to pull in and check it out.

May 1st. The first day of the Hermann Gravel Challenge begins. There is a lot of energy in the air. The serious competitors move to the front and Don and I move to the back.

Masks/buffs were required until we spread out!

We soon were in a rhythm and enjoying the pace. The first major hill had quite a few walkers so we didn’t feel bad when we joined the crowd. The route was a good mix of flats and elevation, along with great scenery. We completed the first loop and Don had gotten back to the van first. He thought he would wait for me at a corner but alas I had already passed it and in reality was quite close behind him. Eventually he figured that somehow he had missed me and headed back to the van where I was not very patiently waiting. Since we both had a rest we started loop two with energy. Another 30 miles and we completed day one. Total mileage 60. We enjoyed this day and plan a little strategy for tomorrow,

Day two was 50 miles or 100 miles if you wanted to go that route. We opted to do 50. The first 5 or so miles were on the Katy Trail as well as the last several miles. It is amazing how quickly the bikers dispersed. A lot of people had downloaded the route on their devices which made it quite helpful as the route was not always marked well.

It was a fun two days, and we got to put our bikes thru more challenging terrain than the Katy Trail

After the race we headed to Graham Cave State Park where we were able to take showers and enjoy some of the spring flowers.

We started the road trip to Norfolk and spent the night in a Walmart Parking lot in a major thunder/wind storm. We were glad that the shopping carts were well secured. We drove to Norfolk with the wind howling, This would not be a good day to start biking. We found where the trailhead for the Cowboy Trail was located. It didn’t seem like a great place to leave a vehicle and after checking a couple of other places we decided to drive to Valentine which is the other ending or starting place for the trail. We had decided to do the trail both ways so it didn’t really matter to us which was the recommended direction. When we arrived to Valentine we checked some parking places, when nothing struck us as good options we headed to the visitor center. Fortunately the receptionist was quite helpful and suggested that we could leave our vehicle in their parking lot. We headed down to the City Park, which had camp sites. Looks like we will be doing our first bikepacking adventure starting tomorrow.

We awake to temperatures in the mid 20’s, the heat in the van feels good. Soon though the sun is up and we begin the organization of putting our backpacking gear minus the backpack into various bags on our bike. It all fits.

We head to the visitor center where we park the van and then to the trail head.

This trail doesn’t seem to be quite as organized as the Katy Trail, but it is nice to see the official start.

The cowboy trail is 187 miles of crushed limestone surfacing. It is maintained by the Dept. of Transportation and is not on the priority list . Most of the trail was in descent shape, but when it rained some of the sections became quite soft. we were glad we had wider tires. There were also several bridges out from the flood of 2019. This meant detours on the highway. Fortunately the berms are quite wide and it was no problem to do road riding.

Within the first several miles we were riding over a very long trestle. (180 feet to be exact.) This trestle is well known on the Cowboy Boy Trail.

When we were driving into the town of Valentine, we saw this trestle. It was impressive from the road,

Today we saw antelope, wild turkeys, owls, a very large coyote, swans, geese and numerous ducks. We also saw the yellow headed blackbird. When we had peddled about 50 miles we pulled into the town of Ainsworth. We found the camping area, but it didn’t seem very open. a women who was parked there said she wasn’t sure if it was open but gave us a couple bottles of water before she drove off. We saw a maintenance man who was closing up a garage. He said that they were open and there was no charge for bike campers. He pointed us in the direction of a covered picnic area that had bathrooms close by. We ate a good dinner, set up the tent and soon were fast asleep. We get the feeling that we are on the early side of doing this trail. We heard that the temps got bee quite hot in the Sumer so we would rather deal with the cold. On another note when we pulled into the campsite last night we notice that we had picked up several thorns in our tires. We were thankful that we had tubeless tires and had no problem with flats.

The rain started falling about 5 and lasted till about 7. It was a very hard rain so staying in our tent felt appropriate. We felt fortunate that our bikes were in the shelter staying dry. We packed up and were on the trail about 8:30

There was a detour around some of the trail as a trestle was out. Unfortunately we didn’t see a sign to get back on the trail so we added some distance by riding some other dirt roads. The plus side was that we got to see some beautiful very large ranches and the start of oh so many cows.

The trail is mostly flat but there is an overall down slope to Norfolk from Valentine.

The trail goes by several small towns today. We stopped to buy some fruit at a small grocery store and a local man talked to Don about his family owning a ranch here for four generations.

We appreciated all the historical signs along the trail. They added to learning about the area.

The very small town of Newport had this pool hall along the trail.

There was a sign welcoming one to come inside the pool hall and look around. There were snacks and water available to purchase. It was an honor system to pay what you bought . You just had to leave the money in a little box.

The wind was behind us for most of the day which helps with making mileage. The trail was hardpacked for most of today’s travel. We made it to O’neil and camped at a fairground. They had hot showers which felt good. We are both feeling a little tired and have some sore body parts.

Mileage today was 68 miles

It was another cold morning so we decided to pack up and have breakfast a little later. We met a biker here who essentially lives on his bike and travels all over the country. We were quite impressed with all the places he has traveled on his bike. We also met a woman who was doing up and. backs . She would travel to a campsite, leave her car and return to her car each night. She does a guided tour on the Mickelson Trail in South Dakota and highly recommended it. We may try to do it this fall.

We rode our bikes to Ewing and by the time we got here it had warmed up and we pulled into a park to have breakfast. Some of the trail in this section was quite soft. The highway parallels the trail so we hopped off and rode on the highway for awhile. It was easy to make good time.

We were also glad to see this sign.

We have increased our awareness of the Monarch after a friend gave us a chrysalis and we watched it hatch into the butterfly stage. We also saw the migration of Monarchs in Michigan where they had gathered before flying across Lake Michigan.

Most of the town had these signs when you entered them.

In this section you can see how close the highway is to the trail.

Cows and grain elevators made up a lot of the scenery.

This section had several bridges out and one had to detour to the highway. One made good time, but the trail would have been a lot more scenic. We made it to the town of Norfolk today and camped at the TA-Ha-Zouka campground. With the strong west wind and some highway riding we arrived here today at 4:30

Mileage today was 75

We looked at the weather report when we arrived last night and then looked again. The west wind that pushed us so nicely yesterday was changing to become a very strong East wind. We decided to be ready to go early morning and were on the trail by 6:30. Our warm clothes and mittens felt good. This was the section of detours so back to the highway once again. We arrived to ONeil and decided that it was time for an ice cream.

When we got to the small town of Inman, we took a snack break and a woman in a nearby building came out to talk to us. Her story was quite interesting as well. She had bought this building and wanted to restore it to its original purpose. It was used to weigh hay and coal. She showed us a photo of bringing hay into be weighed.

The inside was full of antiques. It was as if we were just going back in time. One of her ideas was to open a coffee shop here.

It was fun listening to her tell stories of the town.

We continued to use the wind to our advantage and did our longest day ever on the bike. Our mileage today was 90 miles! We were ready to set up camp at Atkinson Mill Race Park. It took us a while to find it, but when we did it was a welcome sight. Very nice bathrooms as well as a covered picnic area. Glad to be here! Thanks to the wind. Looks like we will have more wind tomorrow.

Mileage today 95 miles

We headed out early thinking that we would take advantage of the wind again. We passed by some interesting ranches signs today.

We liked the wagon at the entrance to this ranch.

And then there were the cows. They were everywhere.

They all seemed quite curious when we rode by.

There were black cow fields and brown cow fields.

We had our DaBrim hats on today and they worked as a sail.

This sign was left over when the trails passed by.

We were about 100 miles from Valentine so decided to do 50 miles today and 50 miles tomorrow. We pulled into a small gas station that had a picnic table outside. Don went in and bought some drinks to have for our lunch. When we were eating his jaw went out. This is going to be interesting, Fortunately it went back in place. We found a you tube video that gave some ideas of pressure points to realign it and it worked. Later when we talked to our dentist, he thought it was the long ride and holding his mouth in one position while riding. Glad it didn’t give us any more problems for the rest of the trip.

We made it back to our campsite that we had stayed the first night.

It was a cold and rainy evening so we opted to just sleep in the picnic shelter. Tomorrow we plan to be back in Valentine.

With all the rain that we had last night the trail had turned quite soft. We alternated between trail and highway depending the hardness of the trail.

And of course we saw more cows.

This field was particularly interesting. There were a lot of calves and they wanted to chase us as we peddled next to the fence, This made their mothers try to catch them yelling at them the whole time.The little calves were quite spunky, kicking up their heels and just having fun.

Then we came upon the familiar trestle.

Trestles are definitely a fun part of riding the Rails to trails.

Then we saw the sign and knew that our trip on the Cowboy trail was coming to an end. We were quite happy with our first go at bike packing.

Headed to the visitor center where our car was packed, loaded up the bikes and headed to an RV park where we could do laundry and clean up. It was nice to be out of the weather. On to Wyoming..Oregon and catching the ferry back to Alaska.