Lawrence to Hays Oct 6th report

[The Harm]

I have some friend that are in studying for their masters at Fort Hays State that invited me out for their Oktoberfest Celebration. I accepted their invite and thought about a the prospect of trying to make it halft way across Kansas on dirt roads. I made a route north of I-70 up and over to Glen Elder and then down into Hays.

It turned out to be a great day to ride although a little windy. I was a little nervous about the ride for a couple of factors, one I planned the route only using Mapsource from Garmin and topo maps which are not the most accurate road maps, the overall length of the trip, an estimated 320 miles and unknown roads. I had a good idea of what the landscape is like but having never ridden the area before is always sketchy. Plus I was riding solo!!!

I left at 7am on saturday morning crossed over to north lawrence and hit my dirt route imediatley. I did have a few longer stretches of pavement crossing Perry lake and Tuttle creek. I did find three dead ends that were quickly rerouted and continued on my way. The roads were all pretty tame mostly gravel and lots of unsurface roads untill reaching the Beloit/Glenn elder area were they turning into some great rocky hilly roads, old steel truss bridges and nice curving dirt roads. I did pop over one hill and was quickly stopped by a large bull that was on the wrong side of the fence. He didn't move so I quickly turned around and found another road passed him. I don't know how agressive he might be but I didn't want to find out. I rode till around 4 in the afternoon and made it to the small town of Waldo and quickly asked were the closes gas was, 5 miles back miles to Luray or 16 miles to Russell. since I wouldn't make it to Russel I went back to Luray and filled up. I still have 50 miles of my planned route left. I was pretty toasted at that point and didn't want to get to Hays just to pass out. So I opted to leave some adventure for the next time I'm out there. So I hit pavement to Russel and then to Hays were I had a great news waiting for me. KU beat K-State. I stayed the night in Hays pick up I-70 for the long boring route home. I do have a few pictures that I'll post later tonight. I have the route saved if anyone else would like to take a look at it and possibly upgrade it.

http://picasaweb.google.com/roryharms/S ... enceToHays

[troy]

So you chose the "no bull" route, eh? Thanks for sharing!

[BigO]

Wish I would have been free and able to get together with you. There are some good roads south of Beloit along the Saline River all the way to Hays. I am trying to make plans to ride the area between Russell and Hays for the weekend of October 20th. If that weekend is open for you maybe you could come to Concordia and go out with me.

Take a look at the map.

http://picasaweb.google.com/rideklr/200 ... Plainville

[The Harm]

I'm definatley going back out to that area again!! Unfortunatley my weekes until Nov are booked up with non-motorcycling activites, mostly wedding stuff for a buddy. I would definatley like to Make out to Concordia to go for a ride with you!!