There's no place like...Kansas?!

Ah, Black Friday.   The sights, the sounds.   Gravel crunching under tires, crisp late autumn air,  hazy hills rising over an impressively blue lake.  Not exactly the scenes that were unfolding on CNN, but that's how I was fortunate enough to spend the day.   I have to say, the idea of going to Kansas for the long weekend seemed more than a little crazy when I first came up with it.  However, sitting on top of a rocky hillside looking over the Smoky Hills, I was glad a little crazy is pretty much par for the course for my life right now.

How on earth did I end up in Kansas, you ask?  The week before Thanksgiving, I was suddenly seized with a strong desire to be anywhere but my apartment over the long weekend.   And, I thought, if I was going to escape, it might as well be south, in search of more temperate weather.  So, I started searching.  The IMBA Epic rides page is my new go-to spot for travel ideas, and after looking through my nearby options, I settled on Switchgrass, in central Kansas.   Destination set, I needed to convince someone to go with me.    Fortunately, I have acquired a number of adventuresome friends as of late and one of them, Randy, was willing to pass up the turkey-filled coma of Thanksgiving for some mountain biking (and a lot of driving).

Naturally, we started the holiday off right with a quick race in Faribault, the IRIS Turkey Trot.   With that under our belts, we piled into the car and started our 9 hour drive through what may well be the least interesting part of the United States, the I-35 corridor.    We made it the many many miles to Russell, KS in a reasonable amount of time and then promptly collapsed to rest up for the next day.  

We had pulled in after dark, so when dawn broke I was treated to my first sight of Kansas.   It was flat.  Like, really flat.  Flat like no one who has ever called southern Minnesota flat could possibly understand.   I felt a flutter of unease--how on earth could there possibly be a trail worth riding here??  I reminded myself that it was an Epic and crossed my fingers that I hadn't just convinced my friend to drive 9 hours for a loop around a prairie.   Switchgrass is located in a state park that is approximately 20 miles from anything of note, so we headed to the local grocery store to pick up some provisions for the day before heading out.   While I have more or less become accustomed to wandering about in spandex in Minnesota, I did feel more than a little out of place in Russell.   Everyone was very friendly, though, even if my rear end was getting a bit more attention than I am comfortable with.  

Stocked up and ready to go, we made the quick drive to Wilson State Park.   The geography of this area is hard to explain.  It is called the Smoky Hills, and it is very hilly, in a short, squat sort of way.    From the interstate, you would never know this place existed, but suddenly these rounded hills rise out of the land, and you start to see lovely rock formations jutting out  of the landscape.  One local quirk:  apparently the original settlers, seeing a distinct lack of trees for fence posts, instead carved posts out of the rock.  Many of these fence lines still stand and are a point of local pride.  

Once at the trail head, we unloaded the bikes and got rolling.   It was quickly evident that this was going to be a different style of riding than I was used to.   The soil was a rich reddish color, and stones of varying sizes covered much of the trail.   Where the dirt wasn't hard packed, it was a loose sand that would sap speed, usually at the worst possible time.   The uphills were generally short, but they were made difficult by sharp turns and large rocks that needed to be cleared.   While there were sections that were mostly riding through the grass, it was just long enough to catch your breath before being presented with another rock garden or perilous climb along the edge of a stone cliff face.   I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the rock garden portions of the trail.  While they were definitely a challenge for me, I found myself beginning to understand how to maintain momentum through the sections.   Of course, this would promptly be ruined by some drop or descent that scared the willies out of me.  Small steps.



The landscape of the ride was beautiful, prairie covered hills with exposed rock faces colored with rich striations of red and brown.   The vegetation was fascinating to me, especially once Randy pointed out a cactus!   I didn't see any large game, but birds were everywhere.   I have never seen so many hawks in such a short period of time.    Also, there were HUGE flocks of birds that would rise up out of the grass like an undulating wave of black over the landscape until they disappeared over the horizon.   The centerpiece of all this was, of course, the lake.  It is billed as the clearest lake in Kansas, and I believe it.   Along the edges, there were various inlets, and naturally the trail followed some of them.  The water here was a deep turquoise that I typically associate with springs, a lovely color that contrasted fantastically with the rock faces.   I think that taking the kayak there would have been good fun, as there were many caves and other interesting features worn out of the walls of the basin.

A well earned break

Switchgrass is a 22+ mile trail from start to end.   While not super technical, there is a fair bit of climbing and riding over difficult terrain.  As such, I was pretty much dead in my saddle at mile 11.   I felt awful, because I could tell that I was getting slower and slower and poor Randy was spending more and more time waiting for me to catch up.   I asked to stop for a breather, and that helped, but it wasn't long before I was running on fumes again.  In retrospect, I should have brought something more substantial to eat on the trail (and some caffeine!), but I had never been out on something that long on the mountain bike, and I honestly had no idea how hard it would be.   Helpfully, there are stone markers every mile, so I could count down the end to my ride in agonizingly slow intervals.    As tired as I was, I knew that I needed to be more careful riding, as I was starting to make dumb mistakes.   Unfortunately, careful only counts for so much and, perhaps inevitably, I crashed out.   It was near the end of the ride, on the easy section of trail, but I hit a greasy spot on a corner and crashed hard.  

Initially, I thought I was just banged up, but otherwise OK.  However, once I got back on the bike, I found I couldn't grab my handlebar with my left hand.   In fact, every time I tried, I had pain shoot through my wrist, highly reminiscent of the pain that my ankle had given me after I sprained it.   As the post-crash endorphin rush wore off, the pain got worse and worse, until I finally stopped trying to hold the bar and all and just asked Randy to give me a heads up on any trail features that would require two hands.   In the midst of this, we finally hit the 22 mile marker.   I made Randy take a picture of me for posterity.

22 Miles!  (Notice the pained smile...)

Impromptu bike maintenance

The next day, I was more than a little concerned about my riding capabilities.   However, I had other matters to attend to first.  As I'm currently training to run a 1/2 marathon sometime in February/March, I needed to get my long run for the week in.   So, after some parking lot bike maintenance, Randy took off for a speed lap around the trail and I went for a trail run.   I took off along the EZ trail, tracing back along the path I had biked the day before.   I had a really fantastic run, and even added an extra credit mile to the end to make it my longest run ever.   I only tripped three times, and caught myself all three times.   (I'm not certain if I'm really clumsy or really agile - for the number of times I trip I certainly don't fall very often.)  After my run, I decided to give the hand a workout and after quickly switching clothes (just before some dude pulled in!), I headed out to give the rock garden another shot.

My second trip on the rocks went better than the first, even with a banged up body.  I was relieved to discover that I was able to hold on to the bike despite the injury, so I set about trying to get better at riding on rock.   Better is, of course, relative, and the fellow who pulled into the parking lot caught up to me just as I was attempting to navigate an intimidating section called the "Causeway".   There are several shortcuts built into Switchgrass that allow you to skip over the more advanced terrain.  Apparently, I looked like I needed advice, as this fellow "helpfully" pointed out to me that I could have skipped the section.   Hmm...thanks but no thanks.     I finished my loop (only 9 miles), and made it back to the parking lot shortly before Randy finished up his pounding of the 22 mile loop in what must have been some kind of beast mode riding effort.

Randy, triumphant

Well, this ended up longer than I thought it would!   Switchgrass was an awesome trip, and I feel very fortunate to have a friend willing to go do crazy stuff with me.   As I was running the trail, I had a moment of profound gratitude that somehow my life is now this - where I go to these amazing places and experience everything that there is on offer with friends who share my passion and joy in this amazing opportunity we are given.