Taking to the Trails

First let me say


Happy Father's Day to all the fathers and grandfathers...
           Have a special day with your family!

Today, blogee friends, I am taking a little diversion away from my usual ramblings and taking a road trip of sorts.  Well, actually a trail as opposed to a road, I suppose.  As some of you know I am an avid walker/hiker and I love trails. So today, I am walking a trail with all of you. 

A couple of days ago, Mike from  We Work For Cheese  had a post called  How Not to Die While Cycling.  In his post he was talking about  the ease/difficulty of cycling around Montreal.  He went on to mention that he went two years without brakes on his bike which might have increased the difficulty level somewhat.  Dare I say, that probably edged him more toward the DIE side of things.

Kansas City like a lot of other U.S. cities doesn't have an inordinate amount of bike traffic.  I am sure,  in part, that is because the infrastructure isn't designed for bicycles and probably the other part is that isn't what people are accustomed to. Which brings up the fact that because cyclists and motorists aren't used to sharing the same roads, they tend not to share "nicely".  On any given day, you can read some "letter to the editor"  with one side or the other finger pointing at the other. (sometimes that finger is pointing straight upward)  So the rule of thumb here is, unless you are a REALLY experienced cyclist OR if you have a death wish, you really need to take your tight little biker's butt over to one of the hundreds of bike paths.

 Kansas and Missouri  have wonderful trails.  Miles and miles of them cut all through the the 4 counties that comprise most of Kansas City, KS and Kansas City, MO.  I can't get an accurate count of the number of trails or the miles of trails because they tend to be maintained by different cities, different counties, different states and they go by different names.    So for the purpose of today's post I started at mile marker 13 in Olathe, KS at the Trail Head for the Indian Creek Trail.  I will be walking today.  To really do this post justice I should be riding my bike.   So, Mike and Nicky, here is my excuse.  Hubby isn't here to help get my bike off of the hook that it lives on when not in use.  Oh, and I might point out, I walk better than I cycle. 


So let's take a walk on the bike/hike path....




  I am entering the trail head here at Mile Marker 13.  I am now in Olathe, KS


 At  this part of the trail there are  little wooden boxes up in the trees.  What are those, I hear you asking?
Those are to allow a place for Little Brown Bats to nest.   EEKK, I hear you say.  First of all you won't ever see them unless you are out here walking in the dead of night. (which would also be creepy).  AND there is a reason they are there.

Here is a little sign that tells us why the city is creating habitats for the bats.  A single brown bat can catch 1200 mosquitoes/insects in just ONE HOUR.  They often eat 1/4 to 1/3 their own body weight each night. If you weighed 160 pounds and ate 1/4 of your body weight in cheeseburgers, you would have eaten 40 pounds of food or 160 cheeseburgers.  So Olathe is doing it's bit to take a "bite out of" the mosquito population.




 
The first Mile Marker I come to is 12.5



  Quite a bit of the trail is heavily wooded and fairly level.




 

A lot of the trail follows a creek that winds all through the county, so there are a number of bridges to cross.







 When I first started walking this trail, I lived in Texas and was here on business trips.  Back then when I came to these forks in the trail it was a 50/50 chance that I end up where I wanted to be.  I have managed not to get lost in quite a while.






This is around Mile Marker 7.  I am leaving Olathe and entering Overland Park, KS




  In order to keep the paths from being impacted my any auto traffic the paths dip under the roadways.  On my walk today, I will go under six major streets.



These condos sit right next the trail.  A couple of units went into foreclosure last year and sold for less than half  of their value.  I think it would have been a beautiful place to sit up on the balcony.  I have been in some of these units and the view is pretty awesome.







Queen Anne's Lace...Some of the best parts of the trail are the wildflowers.  I wish I could send out the smells and the sounds to you.





  In this part of the trail some of the neighborhoods back right up to the trail. This is the neighborhood that Kiddo #1 lives in.  I have been known to take a little pit stop at her place.  Today I didn't but I am around Mile marker 5 here


I love this person's hammock that sits maybe 5 yards off of the trail.  Talk about a nice place to laze around a bit. Wonder what the owners would do, if a hiker/biker just laid down to rest a bit. Maybe that was their intention.

Going under another street.

 

In a lot of areas their are little signs at the base of the trees to let you know the species.



This morning there were mostly bikers and walkers but here was a rollerblader leaving me in the dust.








Not all of the trail is level.  There are several places in the section I walked this morning that are fairly steep.
 

 
I am at Mile Marker 2.5 which means I could walk to the Missouri state line in 2.5 miles.  BUT, I am turning around.  I have to go back to Mile Marker 13 to retrieve my car.

The Kansas trails hook up with the Missouri trails and if one would be so inclined, a person could walk/bike to St. Louis. (which is  about 248 miles) Most of the way you would be walking/riding on the Katy Trail.   The Katy Trail is over 200 miles long and is part of the 8000+ miles of Rails to Trails.  

 The Good for the Day....It's a VERY NICE DAY



The Bad for the Day...Walking back the same distance as you just came.



The weird for the day.

Actually, I have 2 weirds today....

 One of the real estate offices I work from is located near the trail. The Realtors can never find a parking spot because the bikers and hikers use it like a trail head parking lot.

The other weird for the day is that the Katy Trail was named because the trail is actually the old  Missouri, Kansas, Texas Railroad rail bed that was turned into biking/hiking paths. So where did the M go for Missouri???

With the name Katy Trail, you would suppose that part of the trail is in Kansas.   There are plenty of trails  in KS but none that are part of the Katy Trail.  Missouri  (who is left out of the name) on the other hand has the most developed part of the Katy Trail.  Maybe someone should push for a new name.  Kamoty Trail???

Mike and Nicky, I hope you enjoyed the bike trail, even though I am not riding my bike.