Backroads Touring KS - Randolph mud and dust

[malsin]

Luc, aka: Gagnaou, put together a long route of little/minimum/no maintenance farm access roads starting and ending in Randolph, Kansas, located north of Manhattan, "The Little Apple", KS.

The area got some rain Friday night so the ride Saturday had some mud, but also had some dust. Temps near 90oF and winds gusting to over 30 mph dried some of the high roads out by afternoon.

The trip plan, pre and post, with others' pictures.

Here are my pictures:





The road my look dry, but it wasn't. The riders are off to the side for a reason! Note the fresh tracks in the "dry" road ...












































Not sure what was wrong with the horse, but it didn't look good.




Our route leader, Luc, with a 15' bison sculpture/statue in the background.


And some movies of bypassing a brush pile blocking the exit of one of these "no" maintenance roads:

IMGP0491.MOV

IMGP0492.MOV

IMGP0493.MOV

[Johnny Dakar]

AAAHHH AAAAHHH KANSAS!!! KANSAS!!! AAAAHHH AHHHH KANSAS!!!

[gagnaou]

I committed myself to lead this ride for the Backroads Touring of Kansas group in Riley and Clay county earlier this year. My goal was to find roads that were in the poorest conditions that would take us through pretty nice scenery.

While scouting the route, I did not encounter much mud, but once after it snowed. I knew that if rainy the roads could be challenging, and they were! One of them split the group in half and we lost quite a bit of time there that we had to change lunch plans as well of the reminding part of the route.

We still enjoy great company, nice landscape and fun riding!!!

Here are a few pictures I was able to take.

Mike



Doug:



Larry O.:




Larry M.:



Troy:



Mike making it look easy:



Justin on the throttle:



The most mud we found was right here

Dorian:





Mike being the smart one:



Kevin bypassing the brush pile:



Troy making it look easy:



picture of the 16 ft tall buffalo statue

[Gadget Boy]

Looks like a fun day

[Chanderjeet]

All good :)

[malsin]

Originally Posted by gagnaou

Dorian:

Mike (that's me!) is stuck back on the side of the road. I thought that the grass would provide a bit more traction and support, but was wrong on both counts. I gladly waved Dorian by ... not really sure how he was floating and steering on the quick-sand like alluviam we found ourselves in.

Much of the group turned back here and bypassed what Dorian and I were in. You can see many of them stopped behind us. They made the correct choice!

My pictures of the low-water bridge were taken just past this section.

[katbeanz]

Hey, I've ridden with these guys! Looking good Radical!



Howdy Troy.



Troy making it look easy:



Looks like a good time.

[Speaker]

that was really cool. Neat seeing all the riders line up to tackle the mud. And holy crap, did the V-Storm make it through all that too?

[malsin]

Originally Posted by Speaker

that was really cool. Neat seeing all the riders line up to tackle the mud. And holy crap, did the V-Storm make it through all that too?

The V-Strom, on DS tires, not knobbies of any sort, bypassed the deep mud. He rode the dry stuff and gravel as fast as the rest of us.

The 300 lb bikes were enough of a workout through the deep stuff ... of course Luc on his KTM 640 ADV made it all look easy, while standing up. (We wonder why his bike has a seat!)

[gagnaou]

Larry O. just emailed me a picture of the buffalo. After most of us left, they went to the farm and asked for the permission to go and take a closer look at the statue and here it is.

[TroyWolf]

Great ride, guys! Nice riding with you again.

[gagnaou]

As usual, great pictures Troy!!!