Friday,
July 6. Paola, KS to Osage City, KS. 66 miles of riding in 5:34 hrs ending in 102-degree heat.
What can I
say…God it’s hot!! Up at 4:30 AM so I could leave by 6 AM. Coffee…fresh
cantaloupe…bowl of granola w/ Almond milk – breakfast complete. Then I loaded
the van with all the gear, threw the kit on and was ready to face another day
on the surface of the sun. Judy stayed back at the motel to do a workout.
Rolled out into a pretty nice morning with a temp of about 75-78 degrees. I
mean it actually felt cool at times, but I’m sure that’s because the afternoon
temps have been hovering at 104+ all the way thru 6 PM or so. So anything in
the 70’s feels cool.
Was
hoping to hit the dirt and gravel today in a big way – and boy did I! Not more
than 2-3 miles west of Paola my road of choice turned to gravel, and then it
just went up and down and up and down for miles on end. Felt awesome to be
riding all alone on the KS gravel so early in the morning past all this
wonderful farm country scenery. You just get such a completely different ride
than when you’re on the pavement with traffic. I mean hell, I was really only
about 2-4 miles off of Rt 68, just a tad south actually, and it felt as though
I was a million miles away from everything.
So
what I’m doing here is finding combinations of long straight roads that will
generally parallel the paved main route that Judy will be driving. This rather
than just dig myself deeper and deeper away from main roads what with this
crazy heat and humidity that I have to deal with. But I also have to consider
Judy doing support for me, and I don’t want to have her driving gravel all over
hell’s half acre trying to find me on these desolate gravel roads. What’s more,
it’s so bloody desolate out here in KS that I also have to consider the route
based on the trend of the interstate – as most all of civilization and
campgrounds and motels are just off of I-70 40-50 miles to the north or south.
Deviate too much off of that trend and you’re in no-man’s land in a real big
way. But like I said, just 2-4 miles north or south of a state route like 68
and you feel like you’re way the hell away from everything.
Anyway,
the morning ride was just this amazing experience cruising up and down the
gravel in KS farm country. Now when a pick-up truck would go by, that was a
different story. It’s just so dry out here, with no rain for weeks and weeks,
that the dust is insane. I’d have to pull out this washcloth sized rag and
cover my nose and mouth because the plume of grayish-white lime dust was just
overwhelming. A big pick-up pulling a trailer – and I had several of those
today – can lay down a plume that is virtually so thick I could not see the
road in front of me. But honestly, the trade-off was so worth it in that riding
those backroads felt amazing.
As
I said yesterday, KS is NOT flat – except on I-70 and a few of the other
interstates that criss-cross the state. Even a large state route like SR 68 has
some nice, long rollers. The gravel roads – shit, they’re just plain non-stop
rolling, much steeper, and at times so thick with gravel that you’re in the
little cookie, in the saddle, trying like hell not to spin the back wheel out
with each and every downward pedal stroke. If you do climb out of the saddle you
have to kind of hunch forward and hang your butt down over the back wheel to
keep the wheel weighted and the traction positive. So needless to say, the
speed on these gravel roads is low and the effort is quite high.
Also
had dog chases going on way back in these rural areas. In one instance I had
one big dude come out at me. It looked to be like a Great Dane or something
like that. Now this thing was the size of a freaking horse for God’s sake.
Hell, one stride forward and this dude covered like 6-8 feet. So the dude just
came barreling at me and I shouted: “NO” as loud as I could. And amazingly
enough that did the trick. Another time there was this German Shepard looking
dog that chased me. Now on this occasion, I was riding along and I heard this
jingling noise, and at first I though it was my bike, but it kept getting
louder and louder. So I looked back and there he was just flying towards me.
This time I unclipped the right foot and shouted: “Get the *&%^$ out of
here!” The dude literally stopped in his tracks and trotted back to the house.
So I’m still unscathed in the dog attack dept.
Probably
ended up with a butt load of gravel mileage on that first stretch. So to meet
Judy I aimed to the north with a gravel cross road and then took that back up to
SR 68 and rode pavement back into Ottawa, KS for our designated meeting spot.
Felt really good with 2.5 hrs in of almost all gravel roads. Put down 2 bottles
of iced water, a coke, 2 bologna sandwiches, and I was on my way to the next
section, this one probably about 30 miles plus to the city of Osage City.
Again, just about 1 mile outside of the city of Ottawa I hit gravel. Now the
main gravel road, Osborn, was a series of long and sweeping climbs, and then
these brutal little steep guys with pitches so steep that I had to use the
little cookie, and once, just once I damned near contemplated walking the bike
up the crest of the climb.
By
then that cool morning had turned to 90-some degrees and the wind had picked up
out of the southwest again. When
I’d stop to take a picture, I’d just start dripping with sweat due to lack of
wind for ventilation. Had to kind of wipe myself down with the washcloth before
I got the camera out of the plastic bag and the case to shoot.
Somewhere
between 1.5-2 hrs into that section I was really starting to feel the heat,
with the sun just reflecting off of the white lime gravel like a prism.
Eventually went through both of my waterbottles. And then the thirst factor set
in. You know: that sticky, cotton mouth feeling, those visions of ice water and
Gatorade, the constant licking of the lips. It was swift for sure, and I was a
bit taken aback about how fast the heat ramped up out there. My beautiful
backroads on white lime gravel in farm country morphed into a journey through
the Mojave Desert.
I
finally hit the road – Strump Rd -
that was to take me onto paved Rt 268 for a short stint and then I’d
take a left back onto gravel again where I’d ride another 10-13 miles to finish
up in Osage City. But it was as if the switch was flipped in me. Had to be all
the climbing in combination with the heat and headwind, but man I was feeling
really cooked having put in roughly 50 or so miles on gravel at that point.
Bottles empty, feeling like toast, I stayed on paved 268 and took it to a
little grocery store just to the south of Pomona State Park. Went in with my
mouth feeling like I hadn’t drank water for the whole freaking day. Checked the
cell to see if I had service in order to call Judy. Had 1G with 2 bars, and
made the call. Told Judy to drive back east on 268 to meet up with me for
water, Gatorade and coke. In the meantime I went in the little grocery and got
a big quart bottle of Gatorade Blue Ice. I just chugged that thing Johnny on
the spot.
Remouted
the bike and rode on expecting Judy in the near future to get me the rest of
the fluids I needed. And sure enough she arrived about 5 miles later. She’s
like a pit crew pro at this point, jumping out of the van, pulling out ice
water and Gatorade and cokes like nobody’s business for me. I jumped in the van
and downed everything. At that point I think I’d had 2 quarts of Gatorade, 6
bottles of water and 2 cokes. I decided to ride paved 268/31 into Osage City to
finish the day – probably like 12 more miles. That way if I got into heat
trouble she’d be right there in the van. Once I got going on the bike again I
started to feel pretty good, and rode the rest of the way into the town with no
more fluids or food.
Passed
about 5 riders riding east on that stretch, totally loaded down with gear, so I
figure they’re doing a coast to coast ride. Gave them the thumbs up and shouted
some encouragement to them. At least that had a tailwind. By that time it was
102 degrees, according to the time and temp sign in Osage City. With the
headwind it felt kind of like a little blast furnace. Made it into Osage with
66 miles in the bag. Now I was hoping to keep pace with the rides I did through
here last year on my recon mission, but God, even with towing that 75-pound
trailer, I was a good bit ahead of what I’m doing now. On the pavement you can
fly at like 13-15 mph – with a trailer. On the gravel, damn, it can range from
a low of like 3 mph climbing the steep hills, to 17 mph descending down the
steep hills. The average probably shakes out at about 10 mph. So there’s just
no way I can match those 6-hour 80-mile days on the pavement from last year –
and I had the same heat last year. On the gravel, wow, totally different story
in this heat.
So
once again, it was motel time after the ride. We kicked around the idea of
camping at one of the state parks down near Osage, but man, the idea of finding
shade out here in KS at a campground, and then cooking dinner on the gas stove,
and then me trying to work on the computer for 4 hrs, and Judy trying to take a
nap in the back of the van – Nope! Ended up driving like 30 miles north to
Topeka for a Super 8 motel. Judy is crashed out on the bed right now from
dealing with the heat for 6+hrs in the van, and I’m enjoying the AC while I sit
here at the desk on the computer. Subway’s just next door, so we’re covered
there.
This
is going to be one tough stretch going thru KS if the heat sticks, especially
doing the gravel thing. But I’ll try to keep on keeping on. If only I could
start at 4 in the morning and ride the gravel for 2 hrs with a headlamp on… but
that’s pretty stupid, so we’ll put that back on the shelf. Late………..Pete
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