I had set the goal last week to finally hit 200 miles on my Peaceful Joyful Free Trail journey, and I did it! 201 to be exact. This was helped along tremendously by one beautiful day when I decided to explore a new (to me) section of the Katy trail, and I ended up walking 3.5 miles. That’s the most I’ve done in one day since before my surgery, so it was a victory in many ways.
Part of my goal in this adventure was to explore all 50 plus miles of trails in and around Columbia. So far I’ve done about 10 miles I think. Some sections have these handy dandy markers, and that makes it easier to tell how far along you are. Except that it’s not clear where they start counting from. I didn’t walk 7.75 miles that day. And I’m not entirely sure what marker I started from either. Plus, I have to walk out, and then back, on account of needing to end up back at my car and all. Cheryl Strayed did not have this back tracking issue on her PCT journey. I have yet to encounter a rattlesnake or risk frostbite, so she had her own issues, admittedly.
They also number the bridges, at least on this section. This helped me to count that I actually crossed eight bridges. And the bridges really did start counting at “1” where I began the day’s walk. Making the whole mileage counting even less sensical. Anyway, bridges, and the waterways they cross, make me happy. I pop out my earbuds and listen to the water, and it’s so peaceful. I’ve often looked into the water under these bridges and wondered why there are no fish. On this day, there were fish! I saw a big school of tiny minnows at one point, and one lone large fish at another point.
Here’s some water I passed over. 
And here is some more.
You cannot see the fish. It’s hard to take pictures of wildlife in action, especially while one is meant to be in action oneself. I actually saw some sort of lizard thing skitter across the trail at one point. I swear it was blue. I’m not sure if there are blue lizards living in Missouri. Maybe he was on a lizard vacation, walking his own trail journey.
I did, however, get a picture of this little fellow. He rather insisted upon it. He hopped along beside me for quite a while, until I started snapping pictures of him. I think he wanted to show off his worm. Perhaps he had gotten up quite early to catch his worm, and he felt he deserved full credit on the internet for his accomplishment. I don’t blame him. Any time I have to get up early, I make sure everyone knows it and gives me full credit. And I’ve never even caught a worm.
So, I’ve passed the 200 mile mark in my journey, meaning I have less than 900 miles to go.