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Monday, June 29: This sand just got beyond worse today, and I mean so bloody ridiculous that there was no way in hell that I’d have had Judy driving on some of these roads. They were equivalent to driving down the beach on the dry beach sand. My van would have been spinning rear wheels  in some of those uphill spots sure as I’m stupid enough to be doing what I’m doing right now!


I had to come up with an alternative strategy today, what with the problems I had with riding on the sandy roads yesterday - kind of like a backup so to speak - so we were not going to be way the hell out in nowhere land if we ran into deep, treacherous sand. So I had to deviate from my original itinerary which was going to take me some 5-7 miles off of a main road parallel with Judy. I needed to be just one grid mile from a main road. So first thing in the morning I kind of briefed Judy of the changes and decided that we’d go just about 10 miles for the first stretch, and then 10-15 miles at a time after that. 


So Judy dropped me off at the junction of Sterling and Long View, and I got going west on Longview which was just one grid mile from an asphalt parallel. This stretch had some sand, but nothing just crazy thick, so I made some good time - until the road ended - like just ended and was gated off. So I went around the gate and continued to ride for about 3/4 mile, until I came to the reason why the road was gated off - a bridge was out! Now this was just a little stream, but it was not something I could hop over. I’d have to either ford the stream, or ride back 3/4 mile, then go another mile north or south to pick up a detour, and then ride west, then go north or south again to pick back up on Longview. Rather than ride an additional 2.75 miles, I took off my cycling shoes and socks, walked across the stream, and continued to the other gated side, whereupon I had to climb the gate and hoist me bike up over my head and then bring it over the gate. It wasn’t so easy. Then I was back on track. 


Made it to our first check-in point at the junction with Rt 50 in Sylvia a bit on the late side due to that creek Xing. Hell, I’m not wearing my good mt biking shoes, and there was no way I was going to tramp through a creek with these guys when I only just started wearing them 3 days ago! Yea, I’ve been wearing my old Sidi mt bike shoes, and right about now they’re just about toast from all the creeks, streams and shit I’ve trampled through. Next up I did a mile of berm on Rt 50 and then got on Brownlee and went south for a mile to junction with Red Rock Rd, and went right, west, hoping to take this towards Stafford. Problem was that within a mile, Red Rock just died out in this gas-oil area with about 4-5 wells. I mean the road just died, not even a gate for this one. Gazetteer did not indicate this, gps did not indicate this…nothing. It just died. So I went back to the next junction, went L on Raymond for a mile and then got on the next west trending road - Greenfield. So now I was two miles south of an asphalt parallel. Crossed into Stafford Co. where Greenfield turned into 20th. 


Again, sandy road but no real problems. But I was still worried that I was going to get in a pickle with this sand. I mean it was gradually getting more frequent and thicker as I moved west. Made Stafford on 20th, got hydrated at the van, and then we decided to make Macksville our next support stop, some 16 miles west. Got going on 20th west and wow, the road really started to get super thick with sand in spots. I’d have to shift into the little cookie and then just spin like hell through the best tire track. Within another mile I was “sand surfing” through the thick stuff - just building up speed and then letting it go to kind of slide over the thick sand. I had to really focus on keeping inside a tire track, other words - you sol! This continued until I just started to have deeper and more unconsolidated sand for nearly the whole mile between between junctions. 


I was still dead set on trying to make this work, so I began a third mile and it just went to hell nearly from the beginning. I though I’d just have a rough spot to get through, but this thing was just a sea of sand, so bad that I finally had to dismount and begin walking through the ankle deep sand. Managed to get back on the bike at the end of that mile and I decided to be a glutton for punishment and go for another mile. Ditto, this thing was even on a climb with a short little ots climb. Back off the bike, and this is when I let out the shout that was hear round the world. Remember the movie, Christmas Story, where Ralphie says the F word? Well I said it to, and it wasn’t Fudge, and I yelled it so loud that my sister tells me she heard me back in Lakewood, OH. It was a cry of total frustration. And my damned voice hurt afterwards. I mean I was beside myself. So I declared then and there that I was getting the F off of the sand and onto the berm of the next asphalt road. I was lucky because the very next road I crossed was asphalt. I was on the berm like stink on a skunk. So I took 503rd road north on berm to the junction with Rt 50. Then I got on Rt 50 and rode on it’s berm all the way to Macksville.  Now the berm of Rt 50 was great in some spots and just junk in others - BUT I wasn’t walking the damned bike through ankle deep sand.


At that point I was thankful that I’d changed the itinerary to what we were doing. Had I not, I’d have had a long, ugly ride back up to Rt 50. And as I rode on 50, I’d occasionally get on a north-south side road to check out the road surface…sand, sand, sand…deep and wide for every one of them. It was not a isolated thing - all the roads out in this part of KS are either asphalt or sand. Nothing in between. And the sand is just so thick now compared to yesterday. I mean we’re talking like over 100 miles so far where the roads are really more of a sand matrix than anything else. And here, shoot they’re just nothing but beach sand, fine grained and unconsolidated. 


Well, after the support stop in Macksville, just for &%&$ and giggles I decided that I’d give it another try, like as if out of nowhere this sand thing would dissolve into great gravel. So I went a mile south on 528 Rd and junction with 10th for a 8 mile stretch to meet Judy in the small town of Belpre. Well, 528 was ok, sandy, but rideable, and then 10th was good for about 5 miles, but then went to hell the last 3, where again I had to do some walking. No F word this time - my voice was still pretty sore from the first time. I did manage to get on the very periphery of the road and find some solid surface that hadn’t been broken up by the truck and tractor traffic. But these sections were fleeting, and eventually all turned into unrideable crap. 


Once I slithered into to Belpre, I vowed I was done with sand for the day. Berm was in my future and that was the end of the story. I rode Rt 50 berm to Lewis for a final support stop for hydration, and then continued the rest of the way to the town of Kinsley. We got this little motel in the town called the Do Drop In - no joke! I mean this is small town America if there ever was such a place. Great people, some environment and very simple amenities. Like there are two liquor stores in town, and they’re both about the size of a small garage. And the supermarket, it’s just a little place that still has the baggers carry the groceries out to your car. 


So I made it 70 painful miles today, and I’m just beat from the sand riding. Now I could kick it up to 14 mph on some of the good berm sections on Rt 50, but hell, my whole plan was to do this thing on backroads - not on the berm of state and federal routes. Yet these are the cards I’ve been dealt, just like the flooding situation. And I’d be out there like some kind of madman in the desert if I were to try to traverse all those miles of unridable sandy roads. I have to roll with this until I find that the backroads are not these gruesome sand traps as I rode on today. Thus, my gameplay for tomorrow is the same as today: try to ride the backroads, but keep them within a mile of asphalt just in case. We’ll be heading south to Greensburg tomorrow, and I’ve a very distinct feeling that I’ll be doing at least half of that 20 miles on berm. 


As a side note, we ate at this little hole in the wall Chinese place in Kinsley, and Judy was rather dubious of this from the get-go. But she went along with me nonetheless. And tell you what, this little place was amazing. We were both just beside ourselves about how wonderful the food was. It’s this dine-in-self-serve place, with a one page menue, but the food - incredible! And the entrees were 4 to 5 bucks! No kidding, and that’s for a full plate of food. I got 2 entrees and Judy one, and we both walked out of there totally satiated. Great little find after a rather frustrating day in the saddle. 


Right now I’m going to crack a beer and just forget about sand while we sit on our camp chairs in from of our little motel room right off of Rt 50. Ohhh I hear an amber ale calling….Late!