Today we returned to complete the trip from Allen to Bushong that we were unable to complete because we ran out of daylight last month.(flint-hills-nature-trail-allen-to-road-335) The ride seemed much shorter this time, so much so that we even went beyond Bushong up to the top of the hill so we could see what it looked like on the other side. We saw some hikers on the trail and we also met a couple of bicyclists by one of the two gates you must go through on this ride. Interestingly enough we met that same pair of bicyclists at that very same gate on our way back. They were riding from Bushong to Allen and back. Bet we couldn't time that perfectly twice!
~~S
We Made it! Flint Hills Nature Trail sign at Bushong.
A remnant of the original railroad that traveled along this trail.
Looking back to the east down the hill towards Bushong
Looking back to the northeast from the trail towards Bushong
Today my daughter who we have nicknamed the Road Runner ran in the Blue Race at the Rim Rock High School Classic. So named because it is run on KU's Cross Country course north of Lawrence named Rim Rock. In regards to attending meets there. If you have access to a helicopter... Use it! It took us 1 hour to travel 2.5 miles on the gravel road up to the course. There are so many cars, I don't think biking there would have been a good option either. With the rain we had Saturday morning the course was quite treacherous! So proud as my daughter finished 10th out of 238 runners in her race. Runners come from throughout the Midwest.
Crossing the Finish Line! I spy a handsome dude.. Red Jacket.. Blue Camera Phone behind her.. Thats Me! ~~S
Example of one of the infamous Hills of Rim Rock!
After the race we grabbed a bite to eat at Carlos O'Kellys. Then after letting the scrumptious food settle we headed out from my parents house down the steep hill on Wakarusa and met up with the South Lawrence Trafficway Bike Trail.
Sign was actually near the east end of the trail by 23rd street and 10 Highway
Bridge we have seen from 10 Highway hundreds of times and today we crossed it!
This is a very nice paved trail. We road east on the trail all the way to 23rd street. It was close to a 5 mile trek from our starting point on Wakarusa to 23rd street. So our ride ended up just a hair of over 10 miles. If you go west from our starting point, the trail will curve and head north and actually goes all the way north following along with 10 Highway all the way out to the I-70 Turnpike entrance. We plan to ride that portion another day. We met quite a few walkers, joggers, and other bicyclists along the trail, out enjoying the beautiful cool afternoon.
Tonight since my sweetie had to work, I set off on my own and braved the Flint hills nature trail east of town. There were plenty of wild life out this evening. I came upon a bevy of quail not far into the trail. Quail are such strange birds. They must of flown up 5 or 6 time for only a few feet and would land and I would scare them up again. Finally they headed out into a bean field on the other side of the trees. The grasshoppers though still abundant seemed to be drugged by the beauty of the evening as they seemed to of forgotten how to jump as I breezed by! I made it a couple miles out of town before I was channeled into a Gauntlet of webs containing eight legged creatures that seem to have it out for the wary Trail traveler! I met my doom when I hit a patch of at least 4 full webs across the trail each with visible mutant arachnid's in tow! While trying to dodge these mighty beasts I failed to deny gravity and plunged to the earth with a resounding Thud!! Bloodying my knee and bruising only my pride! :) Taken down by a lowly pack of insects! Luckily I was able to gather my senses only to discover a herd of deer laughing at me. No.. No.. seriously I didn't hit my head in the fall.. :) There were 3 or 4 deer standing on the trail behind where I had fallen. They just stood there and looked at me. Probably thinking to themselves, oh great now we will have to listen to the spiders boasting how they took down the big man! When they figured out there wasn't going to be any more circus acrobatics, they darted off. I checked myself for spider stowaways, straightened my bike out and climbed back aboard. My knee didn't like me very much for awhile.. It pretty much reminded me of that fact on every stroke during the 4 mile ride back home. The Quail had once again gathered upon the trail to witness the spiders carnage as I passed back by. This time not so fearful of the mighty Man... They didn't even bother to fly away, they just scurried upon their way. Needless to say tonight's score Spiders 1 Man 0.
Tonight my sweetie and I rode from the crossing of K-68 just north of Quenemo to the construction on K-268. This was about 10 miles round trip. It is pretty much an uphill ride from the Trailhead at K-68 to the construction site. This was a much easier ride than our previous attempt at it, as we started with the uphill portion, so we were not so tired. (And also we are better conditioned at this bike riding thing 6 weeks later ~~H) We also rode east from K-68 about 3/4 mile to the end of the line where eventually the Landon Trail coming south from Topeka will meet up with the Flint Hills trail.
We also passed what would be a rather large canyon along the trail if you were an ant. Good thing neither of us rode our bikes into it as we would have likely had dirt for dinner. I am sure she will share some pictures of the rather large canyon!
For our reward, we stopped and ate dinner at Amigos Mexican restaurant in Pomona. It was quite busy and the food explained why. It was quite delicious! Well worth the trip.
S~~
Two vehicles pull into the Flint Hills Nature Trail Quenemo trailhead at *exactly* the same moment on a beautiful late summer Saturday afternoon. One is a green Honda Fit, the other is a gray Chevy Silverado. From each vehicle emerge a man and a woman. From the back of each vehicle are pulled two bicycles.
That is where the similarities stop.
One couple are wearing shorts and ratty neon T-shirts that bear tell-tale grease marks in the shape of bike chains. They strap bike helmets on their heads.
The other couple are wearing full-on camo outfits, head to toe, long sleeved shirts and pants. They sling hunting bows over their shoulders.
And at this point, I imagine each couple is eyeing the other and thinking thoughts along these lines: "It appears that we have conflicting objectives regarding our intended usage of this trail on this day."
But the male half of the camo couple did strike up a friendly conversation, asking if we rode this trail much and if we see many deer. He then went on to explain that they use their bikes to get to their deer stand.
As we rode away on our bikes, I imagine they were thinking "Great...... I hope they don't scare all our deer away."
And I was thinking "Great...... I hope we don't get speared with an arrow." Ironically, this very thought had occurred to me earlier this summer when we first starting riding, that I really wouldn't want to be out on these trails during hunting season. It appears that it must be hunting season.
I did comment to him that if there was a positive, it was that they knew we were out there.... and what we were wearing. And we obviously made it home alive or I wouldn't be reporting this now. And it's highly likely that we did, indeed, scare their deer away, because just minutes into our ride, I would estimate maybe a half mile away from where we had ridden away from the hunters and both of our vehicles, hubby said 4 deer very quickly bounded off the trail just a short distance in front of us. It must have been very quickly, because I didn't see them. I apparently only see snakes. :)
Trail closed sign at the K-268 underpass currently under construction (east side)
Pretty darn good sized washout/crack/mini tectonic plate running right down the middle of the trail somewhere between the Quenemo trailhead and Road 249
Foot for scale.
But on the upside, kickstand not necessary.
The point east from K-68 about 3/4 mile to the end of the line where eventually the Landon Trail coming south from Topeka will meet up with the Flint Hills Trail.
Amigos Mexican restaurant in Pomona. Our after ride supper. Muy bueno!
We had a busy and very productive weekend. I am currently pursuing an associate degree in graphic design from an online school, which I may or may not actually see to completion, but I do need to at least finish this semester since I paid for it and all. So, I spent literally all day Saturday finishing and submitting 3 Adobe Illustrator projects, encompassing my last chapter project, as well as my final graded project for the entire course. (Which by the way, this chick got 100% on all around ......... applause!!! Thank you).
So, for all that hard and successful work, today I got to play. We drove the 40 miles to Topeka to ride the 7 mile trail around Lake Shawnee, with the plan to get at least 20 miles of riding in. We ended up spending the morning circling the lake twice. The east side, which we tackled first, has some pretty good sized hills. This trail is definitely a workout. It was being heavily utilized on this 80 degree Sunday morning at about 11:00.
After making our second loop, and completing just shy of 15 miles, it was 12:25 and we were hungry. So we decided to hit our favorite post-ride spot (Spangles) for our favorite post-ride meal (All American Meal Deal -- hamburger, fries, drink AND ice cream for $5). Seriously, you can't beat a deal like that.
After that "healthy" lunch we parked at the Crestview Community Center to ride the Shunga Trail from Fairlawn Road to Kansas Avenue and back, a total of 10 miles . This trail was also being utilized on this day, though not as heavily as the lake. This was a completely shaded ride, unlike the lake trail, and since by the afternoon the temperature had climbed to 94 degrees, this was a perfect easy and comfortable ride, much flatter than the lake trail, so a perfect "cool down" ride.
By the end of the day, we had ridden a total of 25.75 miles. That is our personal best!
~~H
I think she pretty much summed up our day! Had a great time riding both trails. Look forward to riding them again!
S~~
Notice the grade sign. Notice how the trail seems to drop off into oblivion. This is not a coincidence. :)
It would be terrible to have a paved 7-mile trail around a lake right in your backyard. It would also be terrible to have a sidewalk from your neighborhood to get to that trail. She says jealously.
Nice station to fill up our water bottles!
Lake Shawnee behind us.
They be expecting food, it would seem.
Duck, duck, goose
Back to the car!
Lunch break at Spangles between rides!
I's Hungry!
Undoing all the work we just did on that 15 mile ride! LOL
So, now to work off those Mudslides..................... :)
A very heavily utilized skateboard park. Beware of small children darting without concern in front of you.
A cool mural in one of the trail underpasses. Can't remember which street.
Shunga Creek, which the trail follows.
The old Santa Fe locomotive on the Expocentre grounds that has sat there as long as either of us can remember.
A happy sunflower in a fenced garden right next to the locomotive.
Have not posted much this week as we have been busy and mainly just riding here in town for exercise. Through trial and error we have found a minimum of 10 miles a day to be the distance needed for weight reduction to occur for me. Last night while trying to get in a few miles before we had to go to the high school football game in Emporia, I broke another spoke on the back wheel just riding on the street. Not doing wheelies or jumping over scantily clad woman. (Hey there's an idea! ;) I think the riding that had been done with the solid tubes weakened all the spokes. So I drove up to Topeka this morning and priced a new wheel at Capp's Bike Shop. Surprisingly a new wheel cost about what it would have cost to replace 2 spokes with parts and labor. So I went with a new wheel. I was out of there in 10 minutes after they swapped my tire and gearing onto the new wheel. When we rode tonight, I noticed a significant reduction in drag. The bike coasted much easier. We ended up riding 12.4 miles tonight in the time it previously had taken us to ride just over 10. I think the bearings in the old wheel as well as likely many loose spokes was causing additional drag. My Sweetie commented that she was having to work tonight to keep up with me. Lately it had been me working to keep her within sight! :)
You just seem like, you know, kind of an indoor girl. -- Jack Dawson, Titanic That's me. And I admit that unashamedly.
We attempted to ride the trail east of Osage City tonight. In just the first 1-1/4 miles, I dodged a bazillion and seven grasshoppers, got nailed right in the face by one of them, rode through a spider web with the spider still on it, and ran over a snake. And folks, I think that does it for me.
We have now ridden several unpaved trails (other parts of the Flint Hills Trail, Landon Trail, Katy Trail in Missouri) and on none of those have I run into anywhere near this grasshopper problem. Snakes, yes, unfortunately, on two other parts of the Flint Hills Trail, but no encounters with snakes on the Landon Trail OR the Katy trail. And I wonder what the difference is? Is it simply the weed-free surface? Is it because those other trails see more regular use?
I came to the conclusion in my own mind tonight that until the trail around our town sees the benefit of this funding, I think I'm done attempting to ride my bike on it. I ride my bike for exercise and for fun, and tonight's ride was not my definition of fun. ~~H
This afternoon we decided to Labor by driving over to Ottawa and ride to Rantoul and back on the Flint Hills Nature Trail. To get to the trailhead take 7th Street East out of town about as far as you can go and it will be on the right. We just parked in the grass along the trail . This was going to be a challenge as it would be the furthest we had ridden in one ride. We had the pleasure of my Daughter joining and pushing us along the ride. She is a long distance Cross Country runner and in far better shape than we are! There was some decent traffic on the trail on this beautiful afternoon and evening. Today's temperature stayed in the 80's so it made for a very enjoyable ride! Daughter smoked us on the way back, riding all the way to the cars from the bridge and then back 3 miles to us just as we were getting back to the bridge under I-35 just outside of Ottawa. So proud of my Sweetie and I. I remember talking to her about a 20 mile ride back in June when we started riding and both of us thinking Hell would be a lot colder place before I would be able to do it. :) Seems We proved ourselves Wrong! They must be selling snowcones in the pit today!
S~~
Encountered 5 other cyclists, 2 dog walkers and a jogger on this trail today. And multiple piles of evidence that a horse had been there at some point. Always glad to see the trail being utilized!
And yay us! 20 miles and we are alive to blog about it! If you had said to me back in late June when
we started this new lifestyle that by Labor Day I would go 20 miles in a
single ride, I would have said, "What choo talkin' bout, Willis?" LOL :)
~~H
Getting ready to embark on our longest ride yet!
Evidence that plans are in the works for a fence on this bridge. But as
it stands now, it is mildly terrifying.
This is a long drop if you
would go over the side.
Dad and daughter
One of the very few unshaded portions on this stretch of trail
Our halfway point!
Snack stop!
I was disappointed that this photo didn't come out better of us on this neat bridge. So, here are a couple of doctored Photoshopped attempts to make a crappy exposure picture look a little better. Black and white version.
I'm kind of partial to this one. (Diffuse glow filter in Photoshop Elements in case anyone gives a flying fork). LOL
