This afternoon our daughter had her district cross country meet in Mound City. Since we had to pass through Osawatomie to get there, we planned to head out in the morning and ride the easternmost stretch of the Flint Hills Nature Trail that we have not yet experienced, from Osawatomie to Rantoul and back. A morning ride at the end of October could have been sketchy weather conditions, but it was a beautiful morning for a ride, 45 degrees, not much wind, except for on one isolated wide open patch where it's probably windy 365 days a year.
Beautiful stretch of trail, part of it which follows along the Marais des Cygne River, although the trail is about 30 feet above the river, so you're not really at eye level with it. I was happy to find that many of the old telegraph poles still exist on this stretch. They were a common sight in my childhood, but over the ensuing decades, they have slowly disappeared from the landscape.
It was a truly beautiful day for a ride, an equally beautiful trail, and I got to share it with my beautiful Bride! Topped that off with my daughter finishing 1st at her regional with a new PR!
So next weekend we are headed to the State Cross Country meet at Rim Rock by Lawrence! Way to Go Little Awesome!
Ended the day with some Ribs from Guy & Mae's in Williamsburg! Truly a day made in Heaven!
Today my Sweetie had a day off from work, so I took the day off, too, so we could go ride the Gary L. Haller National Recreation Trail (Mill Creek Streamway) in Kansas City. The paved trail is about 15 miles long and only crosses one road! I would highly recommend this trail! It did have a few hills on it, but all in all they were not bad. (There were a few that would classify as "bad" LOL ~~H)
We chose a good day to ride as there was not much traffic on the trail. I am guessing on a weekend this trail gets pretty busy. We started on the northern end of the trail by the Kansas River. The trail runs from the south side of the river to the south following along Mill Creek all the way to the Mahaffie Stage Coach park in Olathe. We passed under 87th, 95th, HWY 10, Prairie Star, College Blvd and up to 119th street.
When we were about 12+ miles into our bike ride(Meaning we were 12+ miles from our car :) ) one of the pedals on my bike decides it has had enough and breaks into pieces all over the sidewalk! Seems as my wife has said to me several times... I am just an accident waiting to happen! :) A nice couple just happened to be walking by and they told us there was a Target about 2 miles up the road we just happened to be by. So we walked our bikes over to the shopping center they told us about. Turned out on our side of the road there was a Dick's Sporting goods so we went there and were back in Business! Problem solved! We grabbed lunch/dinner as it was mid afternoon after our hour+ detour, at Chipolte and headed back down the trail towards our car! Luckily no more accidents on the way back!
S~~
So, I had mentioned as we walked the bikes the 2+ miles from the pedal-breaking location, hoping that whatever store we found would even carry bike pedals..... that if they didn't, plan B would be to call a taxi to haul us and our folding bikes back to our car 12 miles away. To which husband replied..... "I would call Randy first and see if he was available." (Randy being a friend of his that lives in the area). But we found a Dick's Sporting Goods store and got the new pedal installed and had no need to call either a taxi or Randy. But now for the hilarious part..... after being home for a couple of hours now, hubby checks his phone and sees a text message. From Randy. Who we had never contacted. It says...... "Are you bicycling on 119th and I-35?" What are the odds that in KC (a sizeable city, yes?), the friend that we had intended to call if need be, drove by the exact spot that we were and even recognized us????? That totally cracks us up. The time of the text message tells us that he saw us after we had fixed the pedal and had our mid afternoon lunch and were on our way back to pick up the trail again to head back to our car. I asked hubby, do you think if he had seen us at the point we were pushing our bikes, he would have stopped? "Probably." So, there you go. My faith in humanity is restored. And thank you, Randy, for recognizing us and asking about us. That made our day! :)
~~ H
Our start time and temperature
Good thing we got this picture at the start of the ride because it was dark by the time we got back!
Uh...... Houston, we have a problem..........
Yep, that's a problem.
But after a 2-3 mile walk, we found our mecca. Thank you, Dick's Sporting Good. Thank you, $8 pair of new pedals!
Installation.
Mid afternoon lunch on the patio at the Chipotle in the same shopping center as Dick's. This, coincidentally, was the very same Chipotle where we first, 7 or 8 years ago, discovered the culinary delight that IS Chipotle. It was like returning to our roots. Only this time we pushed our bikes there in 46 degree weather. LOL
And I suck at selfies. :)
And so husband says "Hey, we need to stop and take a picture of us in front of Bass Pro Shop." All right. And this would have been along 119th Street, just after we had come off the I-35 bridge.
Randy, I probably got a picture of you driving by in one of these shots bcause I think this is where you saw us!
Here would be one of those "not bad" hills.
And here's the handsome dude after he had just ascended another one of them.
The picture doesn't show it well, but the crest of it just drops off into oblivion.
Nope, it wasn't a bad hill. It was a bee-otch hill.
There were several low water crossings along the trail.
Here is one of them.
The view of Mill Creek from the middle of the crossing.
Pilons at bottom of this picture are the ones visible in the picture above.
Just a pretty view of the trail.
This was a neat marker in the sidewalk with the name of the trail
and the dates it was started (1988) and completed (2000).
Closeup of the 1988 part of the marker. Just because 1988 was a good year.
Another view of the trail
A convergence of American transportation: Interstate highways, train tracks and bike paths.
The trail goes under the train track in a couple of spots in tunnels like this.
The trail crosses over Mill Creek multiple times. This particular bridge was actually the original old road bridge that is now utilized for the bike path
The old road bridge now used for the bike path with the new road bridge in the background. And my bike. Because it's a cool looking bike. My spoke reflectors are awesome.
This guy's slow mode of transportation is a Montague folding bike.
This guy's fast mode of transportation is a 1985 Dominator Mustang.
This guy needed his picture taken in front of the "GLH" sign because in fast car world that means
"Go Like Hell."
Sun was going down.
Lots of neat bridges on this trail.
Railroad bridge in the background
The bike bridge and railroad bridge
At the end of the ride, on the island in the Kansas River. It was darker than the picture makes it look, but as you can see from the camera flash, the reflective tape of our Hi-Vis apparel definitely works!
Our ending time (6:52 pm) and temperature. And you'll never convince me that it was actually 2 degrees warmer than when we had started out 7 hours earlier. Because it felt about 15 degrees colder.
