Sat 6/23/07 Lawrence> Atchison> White Cloud, 250 Miles

[carlrf]

Yeah, but all your doing is riding up to Atchison, then riding home. I think if you don't ride the whole route from Lawrence your a sissy-girl.

Dude has a point. I'm so busted. I'll wear a dress on the ride.

Riding "side saddle" should make up for it!

[tp_cracker]

Can't wait to see how that Wally World Special seat covering will do on this trip. Haven't been able to test it on my 15 mile commute to work everyday.

[Duck1]

I got one for my KLX and thought it helped a lot. Still am happy to stop and get off the bike for gas every 100 miles or so, but the miles are more enjoyable.

[The Harm]

Troy already has several pics of me floundering in the mud from the last time we attempted this route I don't really want him to expand his collection. I hate to be a weanie though but I really hate picking my bike up out of the mud but I love a good story too!

[katbeanz]

I plan to ride to my buddy Larry's just south of Lansing, then into Leavenworth to pick up Lee and his buddy and start on the River Road at 10am.

Where is the lunch stop in Atchison?

Edit: Readin is hard, Paloucci's, duh!

[bluehawkpilot]

DAMN DAMN DAMN, I wish I'd have learned about this before the 23rd at 1:10 AM, even if I went to bed right now i'd only get 6 hours sleep and I need a tire, DAMn

[troy]

DAMN DAMN DAMN, I wish I'd have learned about this before the 23rd at 1:10 AM, even if I went to bed right now i'd only get 6 hours sleep and I need a tire, DAMn

Sheesh, dude...it's been posted for 2 weeks. Here and on AdvRider....what hole you been living in?!

[troy]

I've been home from the ride now for a few hours, but the boys that went up to White Cloud are surely still out on the trail somewhere! Can't wait to hear the reports!

139 miles today for me, and it was a really good day to ride. My day started when Kevin arrived at my house at 8:30. We rode the short haul over to Daryl's house. From there, we did a short sprint down I-435 to cross the river into KS and headed West to explore some roads I'd not seen before. In particular, I wanted to check out a possible abandoned road that was named on "4WD Rd" on one source I had. It is now a guy's long driveway and ends (for the public) at a gate between his house and barn. It was beautiful back there, but obviously private property now. So we continued North.

We rode a fun twisty road SW of Leavenworth and finally connected with the River Road somewhere in the middle between Leavenworth and Atchison. The parts of the road that were purely dirt looked to be very muddy and very difficult to ride, so we skipped those parts today--our planned route was not on them today anyway.

Daryl, Kevin, & I were the first to arrive at Paolucci's in Atchison. We arrived about 11:15. At about 11:30, 8 more riders showed up. Then a lone rider appeared on a big BMW. He was from the KC area and had never met any of the local backroads riders. Good guy!

So we were up to 12 riders for lunch--and the group that started in Lawrence had not arrived yet! They finally showed up in 2 groups totalling 8 riders. So 20 dirty dualsport riders took over the upstair's lounge/bar at Paolucci's. We had plenty of seating allowing us to be loud and really have a good time.

After lunch, the real men headed up to do the full "KS Dakar" while others went their own way. Daryl, Kevin, & I headed to the East side of the river and explored the gravel roads back to KC. We came across "the oldest church in the county", and I included a picture of it in my photo album.

We never got rained on, and while it got a little muggy in the afternoon, it stayed wonderfully cool while riding. I had a great time!

View my photos

[BadCompany]

I'm back home in leavenworth. Hit four state lookout.

[BadCompany]

I also hit the ground at one point.

[flashstromer]

Romping stomping muddy good time....glad to have met more of you crazy folks. Chris, Thanks for such a great route.

Photos will be posted to Smugmug tonight.

[carlrf]

Chris, thanks for all your efforts setting up the ride and especially thanks for helping me pick that pig of a motorcycle up out of the mud. I couldn't have done it without you! I am sorry we lost contact with you and hope we can tie up again, I am going to hold you to the KTM ride offer!


I think Terry and I clocked around + or - 250 miles total from and back to Liberty. He may have an accurate number as I reset mine twice watching my gas.

[safiri]

Tracy and I made it back to Prairie Village about 4:30 p.m. We left Atchison with Greenboots and Electrician. We took the "river road" to the north of Atchison and got into a little mud. Nothing like the morning.

At Wathena Tracy and I headed to St. Joseph, While G and E continued on towards White Cloud. Tracy and I then tried to find gravel back to KC on the MO side of the river. We were pretty successful. Just north of Weston, MO a few miles we found a pretty cool stream crossing that kept us entertained for several crossings (and helped clean off the bikes).















































And a movie of the stream crossing:
http://home.everestkc.net/malsin/Motorc ... GP0414.MOV

[katbeanz]

Romping stomping muddy good time....glad to have met more of you crazy folks. Chris, Thanks for such a great route.

Photos will be posted to Smugmug tonight.

Did you guys follow us on down the muddy hill? I was at the top and felt the back end break loose, it looked dry. The further I went the worse it got and I finally found a place to think about turning around. From where I stopped you could see gravel starting again.
My chain broke not too long after that, one of the guys said it looked like I had picked up a rock but luckily I had two spare connecting links.
When we got to Wathena we decided we'd had enough and White Cloud could wait for another day. The chain deal had me a little freaked out, and not getting much sleep last night, a beer and a nap was just the ticket.

[carlrf]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the pictures. They really make the ride that much more fun!

[flashstromer]

This was turn around #3 for us. Looks like someone else had to pay hell down this section....those are not our tracks.

[flashstromer]

Some of the detours did not work out as they should. That is Red's KLR sleeping, KC and the big GSA are still at the bottom. My strom was at the top of the hill after fish tailing all the way up. Gotta love them TKC tires.

[kcstrom]

I had a great time today! Many thanks to Chris (and whoever else was involved) for putting together such a great route.

Also, a big thanks to Gordon (flashstrom) for leading us big, slow, new guys around.

It was really nice to meet all of you. A great bunch of guys.

I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow. I'm way too tired right now.

kcstrom

[carlrf]

This was turn around #3 for us. Looks like someone else had to pay hell down this section....those are not our tracks.

I am willing to guess those tracks are from Dave H. Terry and I.????

[flashstromer]

[i

This was turn around #3 for us. Looks like someone else had to pay hell down this section....those are not our tracks.

I am willing to guess those tracks are from Dave H. Terry and I.????

Who ever it was dumped it twice....it is hard to see in the pic, but there are two crash marks in there. There were even deer tracks where they were sliding trying to get up the hill.