The pre-ride revealed some course changes from last year. Gone was the long climb in the middle of the loop, which also meant no long descent that I liked so much. We still began with a road climb that is quite steep at the bottom. Then it was rolling singletrack for several miles before the course deviated from previous routes. The big climb was replaced by a much smaller one and then we did about three miles of different trail that was full of gentle grades up and down along the hillside. Nothing overly hard, but nothing super fast either. It looked like one of those trails where getting away from the group might be hard to do. The single trip down the big descent to the finish was still in place. The changes made the course easier. I miss the big descent and honestly I liked the big climb even though it hurt me every lap last year. But gone was the two-way section where I was so frustrated last year when people were crossing the center flags and riding straight at oncoming riders. I won't miss that!
Shannon enjoying the pre-ride lap on Saturday afternoon.
I felt really good in my pre-ride. I did two laps to loosen up after the drive and a hard week of working the farm, unloading cookie dough and packing the van. We weren't just packing for this weekend in Brown County, we also were packing for vacation as we were leaving a few days later to head out west to visit Gma in Utah with several stops planned along the way out and back.
My legs were not good when I started my warm-up on Sunday morning, but they came around after a few minutes of spinning on the road and I was able to put in a few efforts to get ready for a tough race start. I was pretty excited to get my DINO Champion jersey for last year's series championship win, but I couldn't wear the dang thing. It was the weirdest cut I have ever seen. I have tiny arms and this jersey was so tight it literally cut off circulation in my arms. I had veins popping out of my forearms after just a minute of having it on. I looked ripped, but I couldn't feel my hands. The whole thing wasn't tight, just the arms. Actually, the torso was quite loose. So weird. Even Chris Froome wouldn't fit into this thing with his strange alien-arm body shape. We will have to make some modifications before I can ride in it.
We sat on the start line in the sun. Even though it was early, the sun was hot and I was feeling it. We had nine Elite starters for three laps, which gives you a little over 24 miles of racing by the time you go to and from the main loop for the start and finish.
Elite rider on the start line
photo by MoFlo Photography
We shot off the line across a grassy field for a right turn onto the road and then immediately up. I felt sluggish in the grass and was the last one onto the pavement. I had trouble hanging onto the back of the group as we started to climb. I lost about 10 seconds up the first steep rise. My legs just wouldn't go. Once at the top of the steep part, I settled into a pace and started to reel the group back. I was almost back onto the end of the line when the road tilted up again. One rider was laying down an attack and that made the others follow. I had no answer and could only watch them ride away, entering the woods about 15 seconds behind the last rider on the line of eight. It was alarming, but I stayed cool as I know I can make up time on singletrack even with bad legs.
Elites starting the road climb with me already falling off the back.
Photo by MoFlo Photography
I was expecting to see riders once in the woods, but they were out of sight the whole first section. I didn't see anyone until about three miles in when we hit the main climb. Even then they were almost at the top when I was about 1/3 of the way up. I was feeling better, but far from strong. I pushed it up the climb and the following fast descent to enter the new loop for this year. I rode hard, but could feel myself fading already. My legs didn't feel tired, they just wouldn't put out any power. I asked, but they weren't listening today. By the time I ended the first lap I was feeling the same in other parts of my body. That was my signal that it was a dehydration issue. That was so frustrating because I thought I had been better about drinking this week and weekend, but apparently not. Dehydration is not something you can just recover from in a race, so I was basically in survival mode now, trying to do what I could to get points for the series. I had to stay as close as I could so I could catch anybody who popped off the main group. I was already 1:30 back after lap 1. It was going to be a long day.
Things got worse on lap 2. I began to get caught by Expert riders. I couldn't even get onto their wheel when they went by. I felt helpless and super slow. Brown County made me feel brown, like a rotting banana peel. Between the middle of lap 2 and the middle of lap 3, I saw about 20 riders from classes behind come by me. Some of these people I usually beat by 15 minutes! I think some of the Sport class leaders passed me as well.
The final few miles I felt a little better and at least stopped the bleeding. I managed to catch one Elite rider, while another dropped out. The suffering was worth it as it gained me a few spots and a few points. I ended up 7th on the day in Elite, and outside the top 20 overall. The overall finish is what was the most important as that is what both payout and series points are based on. It was the first DINO race I have ever been to where I didn't get any payout. And I wasn't even close to being in a money spot today. I was just a few seconds short of 16 minutes behind the winner, which was Tomasz Golas. It was Tomasz, Chris Bowman and Rick Mezo the top three, the inverse of the top 3 at Winona Lake so they are now all tied for the series lead. What a crappy day. My average heart rate was about 10 beats lower than my normal for a race, which shows I just didn't have the juice to even make my heart work hard. I'm in quite the points hole now after a 4th and a bomb for the first two races, then I will be missing the next round in Terre Haute while we are on vacation. That means my two drop races are already set and the final three races of the series will have to be perfect for me to have a shot at overcoming the 4th place at Winona.
Dina also had a rough day. The distance increase for her moving into Expert has been tough, but she didn't feel great today either. With all the weight she has lost and additional riding she has done this Spring, she is frustrated because she isn't really riding any faster and she doesn't feel as good on the bike. She took 5th on the day, almost 30 minutes behind her class winner Lily Peck. Both of us were ready to be done with Brown County today!
Once back home from Brown County, we frantically planted the remainder of our peppers. The hottest of the hot like Carolina Reaper, Trinidad Scorpion and Ghost can be a bit temperamental when it comes to temperature. They like it to stay above 70 degrees, so you have to wait a while to plant these guys compared to other veggies as we can still see nightly lows in the low 40s well into May around here. Peanuts are the same way. They can survive lower than 70 degrees, but once you go below 60 it really hampers their growth. We would like to have planted a week or two earlier, but it has been raining quite a bit and the ground has just been too wet to work.
We worked hard and got it complete before rolling out on our main trip for the year. As usual, Utah would be our destination to visit Gma and Amber, with plans to do some exploring on both ends of the drive. Kansas caught our eye on the drive home last year. We didn't see much of the state as we passed through at night, but a tourism book at a rest stop showed some interesting things within the state. Things that I never would have guessed were in Kansas like beautiful lakes, twisting singletrack mountain bike trails and large rock formations. We made a list of things we wanted to see and planned to spend the first few days of the trip this year seeing things near I-70 as we worked our way west to SLC. Every single person we talked to before the trip said we were crazy that Kansas was the most boring state in the country, but I had hopes we would find some awesome things. At the very least we could cross off Kansas after this trip and say we did not want to stop there again.
We departed around midnight on Wednesday, rolling through Kentucky and Missouri in the morning. We were to Kansas City by the middle of the day. Eastern Kansas was actually quite beautiful. I think of the state being flat and covered in wheat, but the whole state is not like that. The eastern side is rolling green pastures dotted with wildflowers. Color abounded with every view. Our stopping point was at Wilson State Park in Sylvan Grove, KS, which is a little west of Salina. We got there in the afternoon, setting up camp before I headed out to the attraction in the park that caught our eye: the Switchgrass Mountain Bike Trail.
Tent set up and bike ready to roll at Wilson State Park.
View from our campsite. The lake is right across the street.
Beautiful day at Wilson.
The trail descriptions were spot on. The trail was twisty and had a good amount of climbing, especially when you think about being in a state everyone thinks about as being pancake-flat. The trail traverses the prairie with tall grasses and wildflowers hanging into the trail at times. There are rock outcroppings throughout the park and, like you would expect from a good mountain bike trail builder, they aimed straight for each one of the them. Some of the sections were actually really rough and surprisingly technical.
Early in the Switchgrass Trail on a section of trail that looked freshly made.
My favorite section was in the middle of the 22-mile trail system, which gets the Epic status from IMBA. The section was called Post Rocks. The trail was fast and flowy in this part, rolling along Wilson Lake and weaving through post rocks. The park is full of post rocks like most of the surrounding area. I did not know what a post rock was before this trip. As you might imagine, trees are not plentiful on the prairie, but cows are. In order to make fences when wood was not available for posts, the early settlers used rocks. Limestone was busted into rectangular slabs and stuck into the ground as a post. It worked really well. So well that the posts are still there. Kansas has numerous highways labeled as Scenic Byways, including a Post Rock Scenic Byway that follows some of the old fence lines, passing by Wilson State Park along the way from I-70 to its northern terminus in the town of Lucas.
About to drop into the Post Rock area. There is snaking singletrack everywhere.
Down by the lake
I rode about 3/4 of the main loop before it began to get dark. Coyotes were everywhere in the park. They seemed to follow me through the last section as I made my way back to the campsite, their howls getting a bit too close for comfort at times. We heard them often during the night as we slept next to the lake.
Sunset from the trail.
The next morning we were up before the sun. I set out on the trail as soon as it was light enough to see. It was a cool morning with a few clouds in the sky, but the clouds quickly disappeared as the sun rose and it got hot in a hurry. I went out for a full 22-mile loop of the entire trail system. It was a fun loop. The section I missed the night before was more remote and had some tougher climbing. I saw lots of wildlife. There were geese along the lake, coyotes in the valleys, buzzards on fence posts and lizards all over the rocks. I saw my first Collared Lizard, something I had only seen in books. There were also flowers literally everywhere. They were much different from those I see at home in Tennessee, so I made a few stops to check them out. Even saw a few cacti along the trail.
I really enjoyed this piece of trail by the lake.
Wilson Lake Marina just across the water.
Nice view of the bridge into the park.
Cacti
Hell Creek Loop
Collared Lizard. He posed for me.
Prickly, but nice to look at.
These coneflowers were everywhere in the park.
Buzzard on a post.
Waiting for a rider that bit off more than they could chew on this trail?!!
I then swung by the campsite where Shannon was getting ready. She had been visited by a little turtle while I was gone.
I then took her out for about 10 miles, mainly hitting the Post Rocks section. We stopped and played on a few features and sat along the edge of the lake for a snack. We also ran across a tiny Horned Lizard. I have always wanted to see one of these! Two lizards checked off the list in one day! We cruised down a different part of the lake on the way back where there were more collared lizards. They almost come upright when the run away, definitely putting more power through their back legs than the front. We also had an encounter with a rather aggressive momma goose that though the trail was a perfect place for her fluffy babies.
Totally love this shot!
Snack break
Barely saw this little horned lizard. He blended in well.
After a quick lunch, we piled into the van and headed south to do some exploring. First on the list was weird rocks. Check. Mushroom Rock State Park is full of weird rock formations. You drive through typical Kansas terrain with prairies on both sides of a road that changes to gravel just before you reach the park. Then BAM! Weird rocks everywhere. It might as well have been Stonehenge with how out of place it looked.
Kansas prairie
The park is just five acres in size, but features several strange rocks. They range in shape and size from small round boulders to giant mushroom-shaped formations, hence the name.
One of two large, mushroom-shaped rock formations standing in the open.
Carvings on the base of the rock.
Made it to the top of this giant boulder that sat near a cluster of trees.
The main mushroom rock. It looks like it could fall at any time.
This rock had a hole in it...so I went in.
Out the other side.
We then headed east and ended up in a town called Lindsborg. It was settled by Swedish immigrants in 1869 and features some Swedish architecture. About 30% of the residents today are of Swedish descent. There were several little shops selling traditional Swedish and Nordic souvenirs, including some really cool carvings. The town is dotted with decorated Dala Horses, a style of decoration brought over from Sweden. They are painted, wooden horse statues. We enjoyed seeing all the different dalas as we walked through town.
Most of the dalas in town were themed, like this one in front of the fire station.
On the way out of town, we saw a sign for the Coronado Castle. I had seen some pictures of the castle during my research before the trip, but didn't really know where it was. We decided to follow the signs. It was a bit of a drive to get to the castle, all along rough dirt roads, but we found it. Again, it was quite odd. The castle sits atop a hill called Coronado Heights, which is actually a sandstone bluff. It's one of a chain of seven bluffs in an otherwise flat area. There is a park at the top with picnic tables. The castle is actually a shelter with a viewing deck. It is quite a good view from the top of this 300-foot hill. The Coronado name comes from Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, the Spanish explorer who went on a famous quest for gold. He came to the Kansas area around 1541 searching for a Native American community called Quivira, where he was told the "trees hung with golden bells..." He didn't find any gold and legend has it that this was the end of his quest for gold.
Coronado Castle
Inside the castle
Platform on top with nice views off all sides.
One view from Coronado Heights.
Looking north from Coronado Heights.
We made our way to Salina and grabbed dinner at Hickory Hut BBQ. Kansas barbecue is good!
Great food at Hickory Hut.
We then went back to Wilson State Park. It wasn't quite dark when we got back so we decided to drive on down the Post Rock Scenic Byway. There were some nice rolling, green hills with post rocks all along the road. A few were carved with faces. We had to stop and check some of them out as they were super detailed.
Looking over Wilson Lake from Lucas Park.
One of those detailed post rocks.
Sunset on the Post Rock Scenic Byway.
Another carved post rock.
The plan was to get up early the next morning and begin to head west. We had several more places we wanted to stop at, with a few camping options ready in western Kansas. When we said early, neither of us meant in the middle of the night. I woke up at 1:00am when the tent collapsed on me from a sudden increase in wind. I noticed distant flashes in the sky. They were so faint I couldn't tell if they were real or if I was seeing things. I dozed off and then was startled awake 30 minutes later by thunder. This time I could clearly see the flashes of lightning. Shannon woke up too. After listening to the thunder for another 30 minutes, we started talking about what we should do. Stay put and likely get soaked before dawn, or get up now and pack up. We decided we didn't want to get wet. The weather had been so perfect we didn't even unpack the rain fly. It would be just as easy to pack up the tent than find the fly and get it in place with the howling wind. We tried to be quiet as we packed, but it wasn't long before our campsite neighbors were up as well, tying things down and readying for the storm. By 2:30, we were on the road. The lightning was bright now as the storm was getting closer. We hit I-70 and put the hammer down to try to get ahead of it.
Shannon slept while I drove. I saw a sign for the Cathedral of the Plains in Victoria, KS, so I pulled off the road to see it and stretch the legs. It was a nice little church, even at 3:30 in the morning. Despite the name, it is actually not a cathedral as there is no seat for a bishop here. The proper name is actually The Basilica of St. Fidelis. Shannon was still asleep, so I hopped out on my own, walking around the church and taking a few pictures. The church was in the middle of town, which was dead at this time of the morning. Dead except for me standing on the street corner taking pictures of a church, and a police officer on patrol. I had to look super suspicious. He slowed down as he came by, but didn't stop. I just knew I was about to be questioned and probably get to blow into the tube. He drove around the block. He probably would have stopped if I had still been standing there when he came back around, but I booked it to the van and got out of there.
The Cathedral of the Plains. Not bad looking even at 3:30 in the morning.
Our first scheduled stop for this day was Castle Rock. This area is in the middle of nowhere and not well known. It was hard to find the location online before we left. I had a pretty good idea of where to go, but didn't know for sure which road it was on. We would have to navigate on our own, without GPS on gravel backroads. It was still dark when we reached our exit from I-70. We pulled off at a gas station and slept for a while until the sun started to come up enough we could begin to navigate. It took about an hour on gravel roads to find the area where I thought it would be. As we got close, we could see rocks rising up out of the fields. Then we saw an old sign directing us to Castle Rock. No mention of it until the last turn, but alas we had found it!
View from the top of Castle Rock
Those black dots are cows.
Castle Rock Badlands
We were there super early, so we had the place to ourselves. I don't know that very many people even know about this place. We only looked it up because it was in that Kansas travel magazine and it took a lot of work to figure out how to get here. Castle Rock, and the surrounding Badlands, is a cool area. The land drops about 100 feet in elevation all in one spot to form the badlands area with Castle Rock standing up alone at the bottom. The rock was a landmark on the Overland Trail which was a Wagon Train trail across America in the 1800s. Again, this area was something I would never think of being in Kansas. And again, it did not go with any of the surrounding terrain. There were a few other tall rocks standing alone along the bottom that we drove around before finding a spot to park and cook some breakfast.
One of the taller rocks at the bottom of the bluff.
Castle Rock
Our view for breakfast.
Hiking around while waiting for the food to cook.
Great Horned Owl checking us out.
The next few hours were spent on a mix of dirt and paved backroads through flat nothingness. Then we saw a hill in the distance and even had a few curves along the road near Scott City. That hill hid Battle Canyon. In this canyon, the last battle in Kansas between Native Americans and United States Troops took place at the Battle of Punished Woman's Fork. The Northern Cheyenne and U.S. Troops met here September 28, 1878. The Cheyenne fortified positions within the canyon, some of which are still visible. Some of the women and children hid out in a cave called Squaws Den Cave during the battle. The Cheyenne were able to escape by night, fleeing to Nebraska, where they were pursued until most were killed or captured. It was an interesting area with a nice view and historical significance.
Battle Canyon Memorial
Battle Canyon
Squaw's Den Cave
Just over a mile to the north we stopped by Lake Scott State Park. We wanted to stop here to see some old ruins and possibly camp for the night. The El Cuartelejo ruins were not the kind of Pueblo ruins we saw in southern Utah last year. They were just foundation stones and weren't original. It was a little disappointing.
El Cuartelejo ruins in Lake Scott State Park
Lake Scott
It was only lunch time so we grabbed some food and hit the road. With only one more planned stop to make, we had plenty of time to keep moving through Kansas and into Colorado. Our last destination was just north of Lake Scott at Monument Rocks. Again, it was a dirt road adventure, but this one was better marked. We saw prairie dogs as we crossed the open fields. You could see the towering Monument Rocks sticking up from far away. Again, they looked very out of place. That seems to be the theme of the interesting places in Kansas.
Prairie Dogs
Monument Rocks in the distance
The formations were in two groups with the dirt road going between the two sets.
We decided to just go the rest of the way to Gma's house. We crossed Colorado on I-70 in the afternoon, stopping a few times to take in the views and stretch the legs. We didn't get to see many of these views when drove through here last year as it was storming with snow coming down in the higher elevations.
View from I-70 rest stop in Colorado, just west of Denver.
We hit up a quick dinner at Freddy's in Grand Junction, CO. It got dark about the time we reached Price, UT. We were tired, but Shannon had enough juice to get us to West Jordan to Gma's house before 10pm. What a day!
More from the Utah portion of our trip in the next post.
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