From Rocheport to New Franklin, the trail runs 9.9 miles through tree- or bluff-lined scenery with views of the agricultural landscape. Heading west from Rocheport, travelers cross Moniteau Creek at milepost 178.8 on a bridge built in 1943 after an earlier bridge burned when an ammunition train exploded. Just beyond is a short detour to the Diana Bend Conservation Area overlook, where visitors can see a wetland along the trail. At milepost 178.9 stands the only tunnel on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas line, a cut-stone arched tunnel built in 1892-93 and used by trains from 1893 to 1986; its blackened ceiling remains a reminder of those trains, and it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Davisdale Conservation Area at milepost 182.1 offers primitive camping, hiking, picnicking, hunting, fishing, frogging, outdoor photography, nature study, and wildlife viewing. At the former site of Pearsons, where the town once had at least one store, there is an expansive view of cropfields, and the old clay-tile grain elevator is the only one remaining along the Katy. The trail crosses Bonne Femme Creek at milepost 187.8 on a bridge built in 1897, and Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark camped at the old mouth of this creek on June 7, 1804, when Lewis and two men paddled partway up the Bonne Femme.