Days 9-12: Done with KS, Into MO

Sadly behind on posts. Apologies to anyone who cares.

Days 9-12 saw me pass from central KS into MO.  It is hard to fully appreciate the subtleties of the Kansas landscape when one is so preoccupied with the wind and sheer monotony of the lack of topography and trees.  But easy of Hutchinson I began to notice more diversity in vegetation.  Still miles and miles or sorghum, soybeans and corn (the wheat has pretty much disappeared) but much more dendrology to occupy my mind. Osage orange everywhere (locals just call it "hedge").  Also more walnut, bur oak and some other oak spp., honey locust, catalpa, black locust, and massive eastern cottonwoods.  A beautiful region in east south-central KS is the Flint Hills, supposedly the finest grazing grass in North America. I say it described as the largest unbroken extant short/tall grass prairie that was never broken by plow.  It was beautiful, in part because it's where I encountered the first real hills.

After Hutchinson I camped in a succession of town or state parks: Cassoday (where trains went by about every 15 minutes all night, but I have no trouble sleeping to trains); Cross Timbers State Park, where I had the entire campground to myself, kind of eerie; and Girard.  The economy has been unkind to this part of Kansas and there was not much vitality in any of the towns I passed through. I am quite certain this region of rural America is depopulating. I saw very few young people and "brain drain" must be a huge issue.

Day 11 saw me leave KS for MO. In Golden City I had the first recommendable dining experience at Cooky's Cafe. They keep a log of bikers passing through full of commendations on the pie. I had blueberry and it did not disappoint. Shortly after leaving Golden City you encounter the first hills of the Ozarks. The topography was a welcome relief, but slowed me down. The dreaded Ozark hills are really not that bad: lots of steep ups and downs but few climbs of more that 200-300'. Lots of hardscrabble farms and abject rural poverty. Many abandoned homes. There was a dairy industry but from the looks of things it died between the '80's and '00's.  Even a few attempts at large herd were all boarded up. What will be the resurrection of this rural economy? I don't know.

Two more town parks in Ash Grove and Hartville (actually camped on courthouse lawn with sheriff's blessing). Oak and hickory now dominate the forest, and forestland has overtaken farmland in percentage of land use. Saw my first loaded log truck - oak sawlogs.  Not much true forest management - mostly high grading, and the condition of much of the forestland showed it.


I keep hoping I will overtake an east bound rider and have a riding companion for an hour or a day, but no such luck. I did run into a westbound rider, An Austrian named Roman Lorenz. We both are convinced we are the last rider through in our respective directions, and we both agreed that this is a lonely feeling. He is going to run into snow in the Rockies and on the western express. Good luck Roman!