The 11.50-mile stretch from Pilot Grove to Boonville is considered by many Katy Trail users to be the trail's most difficult section because of its uphill grades. Over the first several miles, riders travel across a rolling landscape dominated by hay and crop fields. Around milepost 199, long vistas toward Boonville and the Missouri River appear to the left. At milepost 197 is the site of Prairie Lick, once an MKT railhead for agricultural products, and at milepost 196 the Katy makes its only overhead crossing of Interstate 70. Riders then make a final descent into Boonville and the Missouri River valley on Lard Hill. Local legend says the hill got its name after an MKT train killed a woman's pig and refused to pay her more than $5; she rendered the pig's fat into lard and, with her children, spread it on the tracks each morning for weeks, causing trains to slip on the grade until the railroad agreed to make full compensation. Just past the trailhead stands the 1912 Spanish Mission-style Boonville depot, now home to the Boonville Tourism Center, and the Boonville Katy Caboose Museum is located in Caboose #134 outside the depot.