Will_KC and I met on July 28 for an introduction to caching and motorcycle ride. We met in Moran, KS at 8:15. From there we shot to Eureka, KS on Highway 54 to start our gravel Ride. We found 2 quick caches in Eureka and headed to a cache SW of town to a neat old stone arch bridge. A cache was only a mile away but what a mile!!!
The sign said it was a low maintenance road, travel at your own risk. That was not accurate. It was a NO maintenance road. There had not been a blade down that road all year and maybe not for years. There were rocks, boulders, sand, tree trunks, mud, ruts, puddles and a creek crossing to navigate. I had my hands full bouncing my big bike from rock to rock. I was to busy to notice how Will was doing. He must have been doing fine because when we stopped for some pics he had a big smile on his face. At the creek crossing I met a snake. At the time, I though it was a timberhill rattler because of the colors however after thinking about it a while, it probably was a water snake. I did not stick around to check after running it over. We stopped for the cache and hear a motorcycle coming down the road. Needless to say he was very surprised to see us especially on two big bikes on
that road. We were just as surprised to see him.
From there we road NW through the beautiful 777 ranch to Cassoday to find another cache. Along the way it started raining very hard for a short amout of time. After Cassoday we road to Teterville Rocks and Texaco Hill to take in the breathtaking views. We headed north from Texaco to the North Branch of Verdigris River low water crossing. The area of the crossing is beautiful. It has a parklike setting. Huge cottonwoods along a very pretty, clear running stream. It is one of my favorite spots in the Flint Hills.
While riding north to the crossing we could see storm developing all around us with a large one to our north with lightning. After making to the crossing we headed east hoping we could skirt to the south of the storm. We were wrong. We got caught in it and it POURED on us for about 10 miles and then we were out of it. A few miles later the roads were dry. Looking at the sky it looked like we were going to be in and out of rain the rest of the way back so we decided to take the highway the last 60 miles home.
We road together a total of 260 mile. 120 was on black top the rest gravel, dirt and mud. We found 4 caches. The only major highway was 54 at the beginning of the day. I had a wonderful time. I believe Will_KC did as well. He may not be a new cacher but I don't believe he would have any problem going on another caching trip like that.
If anyone has interest in seeing pictures of the trip here is a link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ajayhawkfan ... lsWithBill
The road leading to the water and out the other side was jeep worthy. My bike was turned sideways kicking mud everywhere. I wanted to see how much mud my thumper would really churn up! Ed has seen my "OH YEAH!" grin. 