Days 33 and 34 – Windsor to Kansas City, MO
I feel like I have emerged from a labyrinth. For more than a week, each mile of each day’s walk has been largely indistinct from every other mile. I’m sure botanists and ecologists would recoil in horror at that statement and I acknowledge my damning ignorance of flora and fauna, but on a sensory level […]
Day 32 – Sedalia to Windsor, MO
I finished the Katy Trail today, or at least the sizable chunk of it that the ADT follows. Not to worry, though, I won’t be losing the security of long straight-aways and flat gravel tracks quite yet, as I transition here, in Windsor, to the Rock Island Trail, following the old Rock Island Railroad. The […]
Day 31 – Boonville to Sedalia, MO
A running diary of today’s walk: 5:30am: The alarm blares and I spring to life. I can’t claim that this happens every day, but I know this will be a long one and I’d love to finish by 4pm if I can swing it. I pack everything with moderate efficiency, swig some coffee, and hit […]
Day 30 – Huntsdale to Boonville, MO
The Katy Trail’s historical bonafides extend beyond the railroad. Frequent placards along the way chart Lewis & Clark’s expedition through here. I appreciated the chance to read about their first aid kit’s contents: “Rush’s thunderclappers (laxative), calomel (fever), laudanum (pain, sleeplessness), tartar emetic (induce vomiting), mercurial ointment (venereal disease), Glauber’s salt (laxative), jalap (laxative), and […]
Day 29 – Jeff City to Huntsdale, MO
This was the 29th day of walking. It started like other hotel mornings do, with me trying to force down ~1500 calories’ worth of food from the breakfast buffet. I’ve sworn off the “real” scrambled eggs at this point, avoiding the cereal and pastries as well, unless I need some quick caloric filler. Fresh biscuits […]
Days 26-28: Katy Trail through Marthasville, Bluffton, Jeff City
The Katy Trail follows the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas railway line, alongside the Missouri River. In local parlance, it became known as the K-T variant of the Missouri Pacific, and in time K-T became Katy. The most memorable story I could find about the Katy centered on a railway agent named William Crush and his crazy idea. […]
Day 25 – St. Louis to Weldon Spring, MO
Today was my first full day of walking in Missouri, bringing me through miles more of St. Louis sprawl before finally leading me across the Missouri River and onto the Katy Trail. I didn’t appreciate prior to departing how much of this trip, through these stages at least, would be defined by America’s great rivers, […]
Day 24 – St. Louis to… St. Louis
Cities are big, man. On paper, this is my shortest day of this walk, spanning just 8 miles from the St. Louis riverfront to University City, where Wash U is located. In reality, we’ll see what happens–I’ll be wandering a lot through Forest Park. It’s a lovely day for a stroll, though, and I’m excited […]
Day 23 – Waterloo, IL to St. Louis, Missouri
I saw the arch for a couple of hours before I finally made it there. As my walk returned to highway 3 after the rail town of Dupo, I ascended to an overpass and was immediately staring down downtown SLC. While it’s nice to get a glimpse of something so neat, it can also be […]
Day 22 – Red Bud to Waterloo, IL
The town of Waterloo is in mourning. From one side of town to the other, some three or four miles in all, half-masted flags and homages to Illinois State Patrol’s Nick Hopkins made the sense of loss palpable. “It’s really crazy,” a woman at Bootsie’s Coffee told me. “He was Waterloo born and raised, a […]