riding down a trail with a dog with no name

As I mentioned before, I spent this past weekend biking Missouri's Katy Trail. If you're wondering what that's like, take a trip to Indianapolis' own Central Canal Towpath, pretend that you're riding next to a river instead of a canal, and throw in some bluffs (obscured by trees). Ride for for 225 miles. Rinse and repeat.

To be honest, it's sort of repetitive and perhaps even a little boring. But it is pretty, and since I'm the kind of person who finds boredom entertaining, I'll be back. My friends and I didn't make the full 60 or so mile trek we had originally planned, but that turned out for the best, I think. Instead, we twice ate at Augusta Missouri's Augusta Brewing Company, and got to enjoy some locally brewed Hyde Park Stout. After a lunch of beef brisket, the only logical choice for dinner was a steak. I normally don't eat much red meat, but Saturday's 60 or so mile trek brought the carnivore out in me.

Having finished dinner (and a few glasses of the stout), we jumped back on our bikes and headed to Klondike park, which is the former site of a rock quarry that overlooks the Missouri River (and a factory). After setting up our tents and showering we headed over to a pond area that had even more bluffs. But these bluffs were unlike any other we had seen in that they were covered with a fine, almost ash-like, white sand. I'm sure my engineer friend explained what the sand was, but I'm not a very good listener.

Sunday we cleaned up our campsite and hit the trail again, and after a short distance we were accompanied by a very well behaved dog. The dog ended up running with us for an unbelievable 10 (or so) miles in total, and because her tags were worn completely unreadable (except for a rabies vaccination number), we really had no clear plan of action to rid ourselves of our her.

First we called the local police, and they informed us that unless the dog was aggressive there was nothing they would do. We then considered calling back and saying that the dog had attacked us, but obviously that wasn't a very good solution. As a pet owner myself, I was completely blown away with the fact that the police didn't want to bother; the dog could have easily been reunited with its owner if they'd just made the effort to match the rabies tag to an owner name.

In the end we ended up having a gentleman hold the dog until we rode out of sight. So we really don't know what happened to the dog, but I do know I didn't end up bringing it home, which looked like the only solution for a short while.

All in all, it was a very worthwhile trip, mainly due to the fact that we ate well. I've already started looking for a better suited bike for the trail, and I suspect I'll be back sooner than later.