Stage 13 Report: Flint Hills and Tallgrass

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Start: Flying W Ranch, Cedar Point, KS

Finish: Concordia, KS

Total Bike Mileage: 2.5mi

Cumulative Bike Mileage: 1109.1 miles

After a very comfortable night sleep in our cabin we awoke to a beautiful high blue ski morning in the Kansas Flint Hills region at the Flying W Ranch. Happy Api fixed us all a nice mug of coffee, we relaxed a bit on the cabin's front porch and then sauntered down the road through the ranch entrance and over to the saddling area.

Morgan "Punchy" Pudden was waiting for us. This young "cowboy girl" (a more honorable term meaning that she's "a girl who can work right along with the guys!" as she described herself during our ride, has been working on the ranch for the past few years and been involved with horses (a horse is known as a "stick" in these parts and your saddle is your "wood"), her whole life in one capacity or another. Heck, she was even named after a horse breed. Training them, rehabilitating neglected horses, breaking wild horses, going on cattle drives with the guys... her other passion in life-working with foster children to give them an opportunity to improve their lives through volunteer work with horses in exchange for riding lessons. I could see Punchy (meaning self-reliant, tough, able to do the job well) in that role. How cool is that!

So Ironhands (that's me) and Sweet&Sour (yup, Mr Higgins) with our Blaze sidekick, Happy Api hopped onto our sticks, grasped the reins and held our wood as Punchy corralled us and then led us horseriding Blazers onto and around this magnificent Kansas Foithill mountain ranch, across streams, around the cow-pastured pond, all while seeping ourselves in the fresh cool air and tall grasses below. Ox, Lippy, and Midge generally obliged our irksome nibs at their side haunches and tugs on the reins, with an occasional uphill gallop to jostle the morning joe as Punchy described the scenery before us, our senses fully engaged, the Buffalo wallows (see below), a horse whisperer's nature, and shared her future dreams. After almost two hours of ridin' we were back at the stable. Couldn't resist a great photo op as Sweet&Sour and Old Ironhands changed our boots for bike shoes, donned our bike helmets, and had the real cute cowboy girls in our midst take our classic Blazing Saddles attire. A wonderful fulfilling r d to a fine KS morning. Thanks Punchy!!! For these suburban folks our ride with you will be unforgettable. It was like savoring a small slice of blueberry pie and then longing to devour the remainder in entirety. If ever in the KS Flint Hills, please visit/stay at Flying W Ranch and experience a taste of this magnificent land! Who doesn't have some cowboy, or cowboy girl, in them?!

Reluctantly, we needed to journey onward from the ranch. Still Punchy-high, we packed our bags, loaded up our own "sticks" (er, bikes) into the van and headed for a put-in spot long Rt50 in Strong City, looking forward to circling the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve as we cycled a mere 2.5mi there. Gorgeous sunny day, chirping birds, and a sense of happiness in our midst. We scouted the preserve's maps, took a peek and realized these trails were fitted for our mountain biking cousins (not suitable for our delicate fine-tuned thin-tired racing bikes) as crushed gravel or simply squished Prairie grasses were beneath our feet. We dismounted and decided to search for buffalo instead on foot, for an 8mi four-hour hike to enjoy the mid-morning in a dreamy spot. Tall grasses, wild flowers of all colors and designs, sweeping valley views, wild buffalo shading off in the distance, this preserve-a partnership between the National Park Service and the nonprofit Nature Conservancy, has set aside a piece of land that is inestimably breathtaking! Trading bike miles for hike miles (I'd estimate the equivalent energy ratio as about 15 bike miles for every hour of exertional hiking) we thoroughly enjoyed a long walk as we cross-trained a very different set of muscles on our already fine-tuned biking frames.

Another feast for our hearts and souls! Kansas, you have knocked our biking socks off in sheer beauty of the land.

Late afternoon now. Hiker hungry. We packed in the van and headed for a late lunch in Council Grove, KS just up the road from the Preserve along Rt177, Flint Hills Scenic Byway. Classic Santa Fe Trail town in its 1800s splendor Council Grove looked like it was drawn from a western movie. Easily closed my eyes and I was transported on horseback down Main Street to a hitching post.

We found the Trail Days Cafe and Museum, an 1861 national landmark home and now a lunch/dinner spot for curious travelers particularly interested in our country's migration on horse and buggy through the heartland, ever expanding Westward. We were greeted by Shirley McClintock in period garb, seated, and, with acid-churning empty stomachs, listened intently to her ruminations on the meaning behind each menu option - Native American salad, Buffalo or Elk, German, Ukrainian, Italian and Jewish influences on the menu, old fashioned soda concoctions and ginger cookies, that reflected Council Grove's settler immigration waves. A tearfulness in her eyes from fond memories of person's history has passed by. Clock ticking, blood sugar waning, she went back to the grandma's old fashioned kitchen as we strolled the restaurant musing over the history displayed before us. Here was a photo and story about David Wood, a 10yr old boy from Council Grove, KS who enlisted alongside his father as an orderly in the Union Army Cavalry (KS was a northern state). His claim to fame was being shot at by Confederate troops while rescuing a horse. After contracted malaria in the Missouri swamps he was honorably discharged-returning home to hopefully some more childhood. And so we ate our meal quickly and hungrily (note to reader: the Museum was far more tasty than the cuisine), bid farewell to Mrs McClintock, and darted from town. Had an appointment to catch-I had arranged a little surprise for our own troop morale. I gave Api a much-deserved rest from driving and took the reins of our Dodge Grand Caravan minivan as we gently accelerated through the countryside, horsepower meeting modern gaseous peddle power as ETA logbooks were re-worked, an air of Formula One fumes coursing through our bronchioles. A brief tornado later, passengers a bit frazzled and soaked in adrenaline, we arrived at the Maxwell Wildlife Refuge on 2565 Pueblo Rd in Canton, KS. A beautiful evening by 7:00pm arrival. Met Stan and his lovely wildflower-knowledgeable wife, Manilia. A small museum to survey inside but the real gifts are out there on the refuge, acres and acres of unspoiled preserved grasslands, where the buffalo truly roam! We gathered up into the pick-up truck for our Jurassic Park-like experience. What's out there, what danger lurks, how large are the beasts?!...

Stan is a walking encyclopedia of everything buffalo and grassland. Retired from a career in the oil rigging business, he is absolutely passionate about buffalo and Prairie, a gem found for our personal tour of the range in the setting light. Buffalo herd bedded down yonder under a shady grove we studied them from a few hundred yards through telescope. Wallows in our midst (circular denuded grass patches where the buffalo lounge). Brown-black globs of paint demarcating animal from tall grasses for my near-sighted squinting eyes. After many questions and teaching from Stan we headed over to another side of the range. Appearing was a sight of brute grandeur before us. A massive bull buffalo, grazing on the tallgrasses, ruminating on its dinner. A careful stare at us, just a few yards away now, friend or foe, 2000lbs of almost reachable msssivity. You stare into a buffaloe's and you are transformed into a Native American, a clutch of buffalo steel-wool like fur still in my pocket (a find from the Tallgrass Prairie hike earlier in the day). How these animals aided the survival of the nomadic Native Americans, how they were slaughtered to near extinction - the elementary school lessons harkening back to my early childhood mind. Satiated by the thrill of our close encounter, were turned to the refuge center for some more lessons and bid farewell to our extremely generous hosts. Stan, you are the man! It is my sincere hope that you and your wonderful bride continue to educate us all, and especially the young kids who visit here! Be safe and delight in knowing that your personal tour will surely remain as one of the highlights of our journey across America.

Consumed by happiness and darkness approaching we vanned our way to Salina for dinner and then on to our hotel in Concordia, KS.

An unanticipated day-off from cycling but the returns were inestimable for our bodies and spirits. "This land is your land, this land is my land..." Folks-go and see for yourselves the beauty of our land and kind people. I remain in awe.