Day 25: Dodge City to Great Bend

Today’s Highlights:
Today we cycled from Dodge City Kansas to Great Bend, the city named for the bend in the Arkansas River as it turns from a northeast flow to the southeast. We have followed the Arkansas since Salida Colorado, and our route will leave its path now. Our ride continued along US 50 for the first thirty six miles, then onto US 56 for the next fifty. The latter is more rural and pleasant, although it also has significant truck traffic. Other than a few small towns we passed through, the landscape consisted of farms stretching to the horizon. And in these flat plains of Kansas, the horizon is a long way off in every direction. There were places where the scent of wheat filled the air, and one stretch where I enjoyed the smell of fresh cut grass – something not experienced in the desert climate we were in for nearly three weeks. We are seeing more trees too, including large oaks, and it’s nice to see so much green. No trees line the roadway yet to provide any shade.

For many miles, maybe twenty, there were windmills on both sides of US 50. Like the wheat and corn, they stretched far to the horizon. I was surprised at the immensity of the power project.

We had our first rest stop in Kinsley where there was a museum of local artifacts and a sod house like those built and occupied by the early settlers. One could have spent a couple hours there, but we took a quick look and then got back to our cycling. It was only 9:30 AM and the temperature was already in the nineties, and we wanted to keep moving to reduce our time out in the heat. With fifty miles left to go, we still had several hours left.

We passed through the town of Garfield, which was named in honor of the 20th president of the USA. If you blink driving through Garfield, you will miss it. The town of Larned was larger and had a nicely restored railroad station. Pawnee Rock was another tiny town with a main street that was still a dirt road with a few buildings that looked like they hadn’t changed in one hundred years.

For the last two hours of my ride, the temperature was over 100 according to my bike computer. I was less aware of the landscape, although it doesn’t change much anyway, and more focused on drinking and keeping my pace up to finish as quickly as possible. It was an exhausting finish, but another accomplished challenge.

This evening, after dinner, we celebrated Tom Evan’s birthday with cake.

Pictures Of The Day:

[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000V58XQz7WTnk” g_name=”Day-25″ f_show_caption=”t” f_show_slidenum=”t” img_title=”casc” pho_credit=”iptc” f_link=”t” f_send_to_friend_btn=”t” f_fullscreen=”t” f_smooth=”t” f_up=”t” f_topbar=”t” f_bbar=”t” f_htmllinks=”t” f_mtrx=”t” fsvis=”f” width=”400″ height=”300″ bgcolor=”#000000″ btype=”new” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” crop=”f” twoup=”t” trans=”xfade” tbs=”5000″ f_ap=”t” bgtrans=”f” linkdest=”c” f_constrain=”f” f_bbarbig=”” f_enable_embed_btn=”f” f_show_watermark=”f” target=”_self” wmds=”llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.Y5fFucmU8XIF0IaSFtIoScgNL9mCAp9gk2940e7futBoIb3aOIA–” ]

Go to full Cross Country Bike Trip Gallery

Statistics:
Zoom and pan the map to explore the route. Click the name or ‘View Detail’ to view more information at Garmin Connect.