Missouri River Rumble-Day 6

Klondike Park, St. Charles Co., Missouri

 

Today was to give us a break after the long day yesterday, so we just did 17.8 miles from Washington to Klondike, the site of Klondike Park. The 250-acre park was closed to the public during our stay so we could have total access to the facilities. How great is that? The towns along the river have been wonderful in working with the Rumble organizers. In Klondike, one of the St. Charles County executives even came down to help make sandwiches and bag lunches for tomorrow’s paddle. She came just to chip in, and not because there were going to be cameras around. Now that is what being a wonderful public servant is all about. A large crew of St. Charles County workers appeared to drive vans and trucks to shuttle us all from the ramp up to Klondike Park.

It was starting to spit rain as we set up camp, so I slid under the

partial cover of a picnic table.

 

The Klondike Park was the previous site of a silica quarry. To quote from our Rumble trip guide, the “silica sand was mixed with soda and limestone to create glass products. The top layer was used to make amber glass because of its yellow, clay-stained color, while clear glass was made from the white sand found below 18 feet. Production reached its peak in 1945. The quarry was closed in 1983 and the park opened in 2004.” The park offers scenic views of the river, a beautiful quarry lake, and is also close to the Katy Trail.

Klondike Quarry lake.

 

We first met the Katy Trail when we camped next to it in Jefferson City. It is part of the wonderful “rails-to-trails” program, and at 237 miles across Missouri, it is the longest such trail in the country. For biking or hiking, it travels through some beautiful countryside between Clinton and Machens, Missouri, with most of its length following the Missouri River.

As we carried our boats up the ramp, we were welcomeed by fresh straw covering the entire area. They were doing construction on the ramp and parking facilities, and the straw was for erosion control on the hillside, but how nice it was to lay our boats for a change on a thick bed of straw.

There was a shuttle bus trip to the Sugar Creek Winery for wine tasting and a tour. Dinner and breakfast the next morning were both catered and set up right in the park pavilion.