Day 66

Spiders
There are so many freaking spiders in Missouri. I've just had to come to terms with the fact that I will bike though many strands of spiderweb on this bike trail. Some branches are covered in the white trap of death. Other places had the classic spiderweb shape, with the spider perched in the middle. I heard several people walk/run/bike by before I got up- I'm not even really all that worried about it any more. I've never been bothered by anyone while I've been in my tent- only when packing up (the lady cop on like day 2) and when setting up (the closed rv park guy in what, Nevada?). While I was taking down my tent, I think I identified like 4 different kinds of spiders- one was incomfortably big. I hope it isn't like this for long. It took about 5 minutes to get to the next rest area, where I got to fill up on water. I decided to take a slight shortcut by going on the highway for like 3 miles. Then I got to go over a huge bridge crossing the Missouri River. The city on the other side looked anchient and worth checking out, but of course I didn't have time. I got back on the bike trail and continued on it almost to the end of the day. It really was a great trail. There were consistent places to get water or to use the bathroom along the way, and places to get food nearby. I met many people along the way, mostly they were doing part or all of Katy's Trail. There was a tree down in the middle of the road- a guy pulling a trailer behind his bike and I moved it out of the way. I was pedaling along when I saw something weird in the road- maybe a big crack or stick or something- it was really dark colored. I completely passed it before realizing it was a snake. I stopped and got off my bike to check it out. It hadn't moved at all until I approached it on foot. I managed to get a foot on it a bit off the trail. I tried picking it up, but it quickly wrapped around sticks and stuff. It showed me the inside of its mouth- definitely non-venomous. It pooped on my hand, and I realized this was probably a losing battle. I let him slither off. I finally got to Clinton, the end of Katy's Trail, about an hour before sunset. I navigated through the small city and then came upon a road closed sign. Awesome. On Google, there really didn't look like there were any better routes. I figured I'd go for a bit and if it sucked, I'd turn around. I was a bit worried though, because it was slowly getting dark. It ended up being one of the most interesting parts of the trip. It was a paved road, so most of the riding was smooth. But it was overgrown in many areas. There were several bridges. This is where things really got rough- the space before and after a bridge was usually disintigrated. The views were amazing- the water reflected the colors of the setting sky. A crane flew off that was as big as a pterodactyl. It kinda did have that Jurassic Park feeling to it. It was so weird, going from city streets and suddenly being thrown into the wilderness that felt like it never saw people. I got to a bigger bridge and ironically found people- two guys, a truck and a boat. At the end of the bridge, there was a 6 foot drop. So this is why the road was closed. It was an easy fix though. I took off my basket and then lowered the rest of the bike down. I checked out the giant spiders in their webs on the bridge and then jumped down. I had to push my bike up a pretty steep incline to get back on the road. It was dark enough now, I needed to find a place to camp. The road got much better here- no plants in the road at all. But it was still the wilderness. I picked a random spot off the road. The plants were taller than I was. My path was very obvious. I settled down in my tent and listened to the sounds around me- owls, insects, birds, a dog barking, the occasional far off truck, an airplane, coyotes, and possibly something sniffing at my tent. Hopefully nothing too big.