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This had been on my to do list for a while and I finally got to get a stab at it, granted it was on the motorcycle related to do list so it was not that painful

Regularly here, or on ADVrider there is somebody that pops up asking suggestion to cross KS beside I70. As you know depending if you want to stay north, or south different paved roads fit the bill.

In any case, I prefer to ride dirt so I just tried to plot out a route that is somewhat interesting, low maintenance, nice scenery but that does not take a week to do. I also tried to think ahead for gas especially out west and for potential camping spots.

In any case, here is a first stab at it:



Link to garmin route
Link to gpx file

In the last month I got to ride everything East of Scott city. West of Scott, I have rode most of it but it has been a while. In any case, the ride could probably be improved somewhat but that is a start. If you are heading to CO and want to check out the western part for me, please let me know.

Also I have to admit that the NE part could probably used some improvements, too many people and houses I guess

Nice effort, Luc!

This TKT would be great to have in the bag for folks asking for an off-pavement route across KS.

Hard to say where most folks would want to enter and exit the state. Part of it depends on where they start from and where they are headed. A rider who looks for a mostly off-pavement path across KS might also be a rider who wants to avoid the KC metro.

I bet ajayhawkfan knows a KS gem or 2 to collaborate a bit on this TKT effort.

While I like riding in KS, I like riding in MO and CO better. This fact combined with limited time means my goal for KS is to cross the state quickly. Personally, I would not want to burn an extra 6 hours getting across KS if it means taking 6 hours away from riding the mountains!

Can you post a link to the map by chance?

Not sure what you mean by "link to the map" if you download the GPS link, you can open it with google earth and see exactly where it goes. I hope it helps.

Yep that was it

How long do you think this would take to ride?

DonG wrote:How long do you think this would take to ride?

i would say about a day and a half, or a very good day if you want to push it. It is about 650 miles

gagnaou wrote:

DonG wrote:How long do you think this would take to ride?

i would say about a day and a half, or a very good day if you want to push it. It is about 650 miles

How fast do you ride? 650 miles of gravel equates to 2.5 to 3 days for me.

ajayhawkfan wrote:

gagnaou wrote:

DonG wrote:How long do you think this would take to ride?

i would say about a day and a half, or a very good day if you want to push it. It is about 650 miles

How fast do you ride? 650 miles of gravel equates to 2.5 to 3 days for me.

You don't know Luc! This is the same guy who thinks a Dusty Butt 1000 is fun! I recall riding with Luc from Wichita to Medicine Lodge and back on deep sandy roads with my old 99 DR350 in top gear and throttle wide-open. I barely kept up with Luc who might have been holding back just to let me keep up.

Also, we are talking about KS where the roads are a grid and you can usually see the cars or at least their dust as you approach intersections, which means you ignore stop signs unless there is actually someone coming. WAY faster than riding gravel roads in the forest.

Personally about 300 miles of KS gravel would be my limit for a day....a day that I enjoy anyway.

You can tell that Luc is French by his outrageous accent!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8yjNbcKkNY[/youtube]

So any one want to go ride this next week? Seriously... Like Monday Morning

How fast do you ride? 650 miles of gravel equates to 2.5 to 3 days for me.

Well, out west as Troy mention you can see forever and I have quite a few stretches without turns so you can make some time. Out east it is slower because of visibility and the number of turns you have to deal with... This is for everybody to ride at the pace they are comfortable with, there are a few places even out west where it is pretty slow because of sand or really low maintenance trails, but all and on it is pretty decent road where you do not waste too much time versus pavement.

So any one want to go ride this next week? Seriously... Like Monday Morning

Which I could, Have fun !

Troy, thanks for the smile that video gave me. Of course now Luc won't wait for you, or me.

DonG wrote:So any one want to go ride this next week? Seriously... Like Monday Morning

Don, you should give us the whole story here any pictures?

gagnaou wrote:

DonG wrote:So any one want to go ride this next week? Seriously... Like Monday Morning

Don, you should give us the whole story here any pictures?

Yeah, so it was a bit shorter of a trip then I had planned. . .
I left in the morning about 9am, made it up to Leavenworth. The trail starts just outside of Leavenworth and was mostly gravel. as I rode further on I started to hit some unmaintained roads and dirt roads. The unmaintained and dirt roads where more fun to ride then the gravel was to me.

I made it down to Rossvile about 2pm, and stopped to get gas and food. Guy at the gas station said to get lunch at the bar near the edge of town. The burger was good, but they were out of fries, and the waitress offered me onion rings instead. So as a great lover of all things fatty and fried I agreed. The onion rings were what I could only describe as burnt to all batter dipped hell.

Anyways, back to the trail.

So I head south out of Rossville, and make it just north of Eskridge. I was going west down Military Trail "road", a unmaintained road, and turned south onto Divide road. I made it through a rough patch of dirt and rocks that was under some heavy tree cover. Got past that, and hot another section of heavy tree cover, rocks, and dirt with some wash outs as well. I'm not sure how fast I was going through that stretch, but I got caught up in washouts and wound up going ass over tea kettle, I land pretty hard on my left side. Hop up and dust my self off, I know what day of the week it is, I can move my toes, nothing on me is screaming in pain. Okay Don, your okay, you can make it out of this. So I try for a while to stand the bike up with no luck. So strip most the crap off of the bike and manage to get it stood back up. Check the bike out: Shifter - check, break leaver - check, clutch leaver - check, break pedal - check, bike fires up - check. Okay, good deal, I'm not walking. Put everything back on the bike, and climb back on. Now at this point, you have to understand that I am on the shorter side of life, and the suspension on the DR is incredibly soft, even after I adjust the rear spring perch. And as such it was sagging pretty good with the full load on it. So my right foot is down hill from my left foot / kick stand, and I don't have have a good purchase with my right. So I rock the bike over to right to get the kick stand enough clearance to go back. And then... I drop the sombitch back onto my right side this time, and as a bonus feature, I trap my leg this time. So after I kick the bike off with my right leg and crawl up out of the ditch I start stripping everything back off of the bike so I can get it back up. So I go through all that, and this time manage to actuall get the kick stand up with out dropping the thing a second time. I get heading down the "road" again and damn near go ass over tea kettle again when I hit a couple more ruts, I think it was in deep gravel, but I can't really recall for sure. So I decide discretion was the better part of valor, plus I didn't want to risk having something I didn't notice getting damaged failing on me further out, or crash a second time and break anything off that may have been damaged in the first incident, plus I was sore as hell yesterday, and knew it wasn't going to get better. So I beat feet home. Kinda sucks, but it could have been a lot worse.

All in all, what I rode of the trail was fun, thank you for the help and what not Luc, I appreciate it.

I didn't take any pics of where I went off at, but here is pretty close to the location, just a little south of here.
https://www.google.com/maps?ll=38.90704 ... 14,,0,17.3

I did take a couple pics. I still need to pull them off the camera, not sure if they are anything special or not.

Knowing that you were mainly unhurt, I was laughing out loud picturing the situation! Thanks for taking the time to tell the story, the second fall is hilarious, because I think we have all done it at some point or another... Heal well!

Here are the only two pics I took that were any good. And I am not sure I am happy with the post on them, I feel I may have went too heavy handed on them..