Pomme de terre Lake April 27-29th

[troy]

WARNING. Brian tells me the campground is further S than my track end points would indicate. Adjust accordingly.

[katbeanz]

Nice work on the tracks Troy! May run into you guys somewhere, starting and returning to Nevada.

[KLRed]

My Nemo campground site should be real close to N37.86035 W93.27398.

[troy]

Yeah, I don't know about that. I do know that several of the roads around Truman dead end into the lake. Fairfield that is near there was a town that is now under the lake. I know the highway leading to it dead ends. Worse case I guess would be turn around if it was under water and best case a cool new water crossing found. Although I wouldn't cross unless you could see the bottom.

I rode that highway that ends in water last year. It's an interesting place, and I did not know the history of it--thanks for sharing. The road can be seen here.

[troy]

Nice work on the tracks Troy! May run into you guys somewhere, starting and returning to Nevada.

Why are you starting and ending in Nevada? You working a job down there, katbeanz?

[katbeanz]

Nice work on the tracks Troy! May run into you guys somewhere, starting and returning to Nevada.

Why are you starting and ending in Nevada? You working a job down there, katbeanz?

Buddy Marty lives there, ADV Redburn. You'd have met him if you'd been at Eddie's garden party. The bonfire was epic!
I was looking at BigDog's Missouri Mills gpx, is Schlitz (sp?) the only one close enough to check out?

[ajayhawkfan]

Nice work on the tracks Troy! May run into you guys somewhere, starting and returning to Nevada.

Why are you starting and ending in Nevada? You working a job down there, katbeanz?

Buddy Marty lives there, ADV Redburn. You'd have met him if you'd been at Eddie's garden party. The bonfire was epic!
I was looking at BigDog's Missouri Mills gpx, is Schlitz (sp?) the only one close enough to check out?

If you are going to be in Nevada you might check out the following:

South end of abandon RR Tracks N37 54.851 W94 32.952
MM Road N37 42.959 W94 29.485
Waldo Road N37 42.559 W94 29.035
Little Dry Wood Creek Crossing N37 38.628 W94 24.032
Prairie State Park N37 31.521 W94 34.238
Bowers Mill Site N37 08.995 W94 03.381
Jolly Mill N36 53.732 W94 04.185
Turnback Mill N37 11.297 W93 41.088

I have been to Jolly Mill many times. It is a very neat place to visit. Bowers Mill, I believe is only the site. Turnback Mill's coords is suppose to be near here. It is in ruins. I have not visited that mill.

[katbeanz]

Thanks Eddie! Did I mention Marty's wife bakes state fair winning pies?

[ajayhawkfan]

Thanks Eddie! Did I mention Marty's wife bakes state fair winning pies?

If you have an interest Mound City, KS is having a Car Show on Saturday. I think I'm going to check it out.

I went to my first show last weekend in Blue Mound: http://advrider.com/forums/showpost.php ... ostcount=8

[ajayhawkfan]

Thanks Eddie! Did I mention Marty's wife bakes state fair winning pies?

If you have an interest Mound City, KS is having a Car Show on Saturday. I think I'm going to check it out.

I went to my first show last weekend in Blue Mound: http://advrider.com/forums/showpost.php ... ostcount=8

Another reason to go to Mound City. http://advrider.com/forums/showpost.php ... count=3387

[kendall_smith]

Awesome job on the tracks Troy! All in all, I would consider the ride a success. We showed up Friday afternoon after some delays in getting our new trailer ready to go. When we pulled up, my wife and I both thought that the campground was really nice. Many of the campsites next to ours were waterfront and the views of the lake were beautiful. We even picked out the spot that we are going to reserve next time we are down there.

As for the ride itself, it was a good loop. We got a bit of a late start (10:00), so that combined with stopping fairly frequently for pictures and lunch made it impossible for us to do the entirety of Troy's loop. I guess that's just an excuse to go back! The roads were mostly smooth gravel, and there wasn't really anything technical, but the scenery and views were pretty impressive.

Thanks to Brian for organizing the whole thing and Troy for planning out the route even though he wasn't able to make it on the ride. We'll definitely have to explore this area again.

[troy]

Kendall & Allisa, thanks for posting! I was wondering if my route ran you all off a cliff or something!

That campground looks beautiful in your photo. I take it you did not get a chance to try the short loops to the N--the one that hits that dirt road with 3+ water crossings?

Where did you guys eat those burger--where Alissa is holding kittens? Is that the joint in Bennett Springs?

If you guys cut the long loop short, you probably cut out the Macks Creek area...mistake!

We'll get back out there and ride some more.

[kendall_smith]

I was going to post up a little earlier, but work (where I do all my internet surfing ) was CRAZY yesterday.

I'm not sure what parts of the loop we hit and didn't hit since I was just following Brian with his GPS, but I think we did miss a fair bit. There were plenty of water crossings and we even found one that wasn't on your loops when we made a shortcut to beat the sunset back to camp. Hopefully, Brian can chime in and answer the questions about the route.

The burgers were at Hillbilly Burger in Bennett Springs and they were really good. It's a neat little place with outdoor seating only, so we got lucky that the weather was good.



The kittens were in a little tub in front of the Amish store and thank God we were on motorcycles, or I may have a 4TH cat at home! Alissa was not wanting to leave them there, but we had no way of getting them home.

On a side note, the Amish store is expanding for anyone interested in riding this area. We talked to the guy running the store part and he said they were hoping to open a restaurant side of the building complete with an outdoor seating deck in the near future. We told him we'd pass the word on to the motorcycle community to help him out, so if anyone rides the area in a month or so be sure to stop by and get some food. If I had to guess, it should be pretty good food. He was in the process of making the menu and asked if we had any requests, so I told him to make sure pecan pie made the dessert list- it is my favorite!

We'll get back out there and ride some more.

Let me know when! We are ready to go back soon!

[KLRed]

We arrived Friday a little later than expected, so Mark and I went to fill our tanks with gas and goof off a little before anyone else showed up. It rained a little coming down to the lake so we were wondering if we were going to have a decent weekend.

Saturday was awesome, with a few sprinkles thrown in. We had low 70's with cloud cover all day. Excellent weather.

Troy's tracks couldn't have been any better. Red rock roads on most of the gravel roads. More water crossings than what you would think in this area. The elevation changes were great.

Hillbilly Burgers was really good and highly recommended. The Amish Store had just about anything you could want. They even had Amish hats, who would've thought. According to the fellow behind the counter the restaurant will accommodate 30 people inside, and 20 outside. He said it will open in about two weeks. We mainly went there for ice cream but they don't start that til next weekend.

The four of us all thought the ride would be better off starting at 8 or 8:30. There is a lot to see and do on this trip.

We ended up leaving out tracks G and H of the long route since we wanted to get back before dark. I will get back there to see that part.

Saturday night it rained hard and Sunday it was still not pleasant. Kendall & Allisa had to head for home, so Mark and I took my truck and scouted out the bridges and some of the water crossings. (mud holes)

We took a short little ride to Bolivar and found a real good Mexican restaurant just off the square called El Rodeo, 306 E. Jackson St. 65613. Recommended if you are in the area.

I took some pictures, however due to my lack of know how, those will be posted just as soon as I get further educated on computers.

To sum it up. Killer Ride

Brian

[KLRed]

Ok here's some pics.
Pics of the long route.]
Hillbilly Burgers
Sunday scouting by truck. I will provide more details on these if anyone is interested.

[kendall_smith]

Well, it only took us a year and a half, but Alissa and I managed to get back to Pomme de Terre Lake this past weekend for round two of dual sporting the area. We ended up just riding the same route as the last time since it had been over a year and it would probably look mostly new to us the second time around since it had been a while.

On Saturday, we rode the "long" route that Troy had built for KLRed's April ride for last year. We got a late start on it last April, so we weren't able to do the whole thing, so that was my goal for this return trip. Alissa and I started out around 9:00 or so and were able to cover the whole 190 mile loop without too much trouble. It is ironic that we bailed on riding this area a couple of weeks ago because of rain since it was super dry and DUSTY this past weekend. If I didn't know better, I'd say the area hadn't gotten rain for quite a while. Several of the creek crossings were bone dry and some that had water were just stagnant pools. There were a couple that were flowing and were fun to cross.

On Sunday, we decided that we hadn't had enough the day before, so we rode the "short" route that Troy had built for the inaugural ride and made it through tracks A-E before cutting out tracks F and G. At the end of track E, I noticed that we were close to camp and it was already 3:00, so we decided to head back and make sure we didn't miss the checkout time at Nemo's Landing at 6:00. It was pretty hot and dusty and poor Alissa had been eating the dust off of the back of my bike for over 300 miles, so it was a good time to call it quits.

Overall, we had a great time even though it was a bit warmer than we were hoping. We love the campground there at Nemo's Landing and despite being in a 2-man tent this time instead of our palatial pop-up, we still enjoyed it (although the AC in the camper was missed a little bit ). The "short" route ended up being a good ride with some minimum maintenance thrown in. The section that has the 3 water crossings was fun to ride, but if you are riding the sections in order, the first water crossing appeared to be impossible in anything but a boat. We skipped that crossing and ended up taking pavement to the end of the section and backtracking so we got to see the other 2 water crossings and the fun road. Another highlight of the "short" route was riding through Lucas Ranch- it was some beautiful wide-open country out there.

Here's some pics:

The mighty steeds


Roadside wire fixin'



Cool bridge on the "short" route


What time does the ferry leave?


From the other side after some re-routing


The biggest passable water crossing of the weekend (click for video)


Here's a link to the whole album: http://kendallsmith.smugmug.com/Motorcy ... 098_4tSgcx

[troy]

Thanks for sharing, guys! I'm really glad you did that 3 water crossing min maint section! That route has been nagging me--begging me to come explore. Glad you did it and took pics. That first crossing DOES look deep...and the water is low right now, too. Wonder if there was a better way to cross bushwacking up stream?

[kendall_smith]

When the weekend began I wasn't sure if we would end up riding on Sunday or not. That short route had been nagging me too, so we both decided that we needed to check it out. I'm glad we did, even though we ended up cutting out the last two sections. I guess that will be a good reason to check out the area again one of these days.

As for the deep creek crossing, it might be possible to bushwack and find another place to cross, but as you can see in the pictures the bank kind of drops off, so I'm not sure. When you are on that road, it is pretty obvious that the locals like to go mudding in that area since there are signs of some mud-bogging areas and impromptu fire pits used for camping, so they might have another place to cross. Either that, or the deep part is passable in a lifted jeep/truck. I wasn't going to find out since I don't think Alissa and I would have much luck pulling a 500-plus pound bike out of a mud/water hole!

All in all, it isn't a big deal to re-route around the deep crossing. Right before you get to it on your route, you come out of some nice minimum maintenance road and that last turn before the crossing can be skipped to continue on down more nice gravel to the highway where you just ride a few miles to get to the other side. Then you get to ride down and back, so the fun road gets covered twice, which is never a problem.