This is Major Drop reporting. I have returned from a lovely voyage on the Elkhorn and Platte Rivers and a possible unconfirmed side excursion into Xenoica! I went with my friend Todd and his son and one of Ben’s sons: 3 single-person kayaks and our 2-person and gear inflatable kayak. The trip we initially planned was West Center Road down to Linoma Beach, as outlined here. Unfortunately, there is no longer any public access at West Center (don’t worry, I intend to inform paddling.com about this situation so others can hopefully have an easier time planning their trips). So, we had to improvise. Although I am not at liberty to disclose the exact locations, we enlisted the aid of some professional/personal contacts and were able to get a last-minute route, pretty similar to the one we read about, dialed in.
Although I was initially hoping for a Sunday trip, I am so glad that it turned out that Saturday was better for others in our group - I needed a day to unpack, clean and stow gear, and recover! The forecast for Saturday wasn’t great on Friday, but we figured what the hell. Here are a few things we experienced:
The weather turned out to be fantastic!
The rivers were a bit higher than I’d experienced previously.This was nice because it is kind of a pain to get out of our inflatable kayak when it got stuck on a sand bar and pull it along and then climb back in and repeat, as needed.Also, Snot Jr. isn’t getting any lighter and sometimes I’d be trying to pull with him in the kayak because he got pretty tired in the latter part of the journey.But anyway, as I was saying, the water was higher than what I was used to.Snot Jr. didn’t really want to be in the boat, so he floated along, sometimes being towed by the kayak and other times floating freely in the current.Initially he offered to be a tug boat and pull each of the kayaks into the river.However, once our kayak was out there, we just grabbed onto the back of our kayak, Floaty, and kind of floated/walked/ran along behind.During the parts where it was shallow enough to walk he would sometimes provide commentary about the depth of the water, which was sometimes kind of handy.He’d say things like, “Major drop” or “Oooo, look out!Getting pretty shallow!”At one time he decided he’d only provide updates when requested.Although he didn’t go along with my request when I asked for auto-updates every 2 minutes or so, he eventually agreed to provide updates if depth changed by more than 6-inches.For a while I was calling myself “Major Drop” and Snot Jr. “Corporal Current.”
We went through some faster parts of the river that we dubbed “Nebraska rapids”, surviving solely by our wits and reflexes.Although photos would be underwhelming, I did not have time to snap any because I was too busy “reading the river” in my not-very-fluent riverese.For a while I was also calling Snot Jr. “Muskrat Lad” because I thought we looked kind of like a playful muskrat frolicking along in the water.
I may have been inspired to provide the “Muskrat Lad” nickname because we saw so much wildlife out on the river.I think it was due to the cooler weather and the earlier forecasted rain/storms, but the animals seemed to appreciate the cooler, cloudy weather and we didn’t see another boat outside of our group during the entire, approximately 11-mile trip!It was amazingly tranquil and beautiful out there!Here is a list of some of the animals/animal parts we saw:
deer
raccoons (an endearing group of 3 youngsters playing/scampering around on the shore)
bald eagles (there were many of them).
softshell turtle (snout and eyes only)
fish (lots of jumpers! One time a couple of us seemed to corner them and there were dozens, possibly even a hundred of them thrashing about above the water and even landing up on the sandy shore!
great blue heron
duck decoys (?) (they looked so realistic!The only reason I eventually concluded they were decoys was because they did not move at all.Even then, at first I thought they might just be stoic ducks.)
a bovine vertebrae, weathered to a lovely brown color, as shown here
some type of creature that sent up a single dark gray or black stalk, very much like a periscope, that quickly retracted back under the water when it sensed our presence.Todd had initially mentioned something with long eye stalks that I speculated might be a very rare (possibly mythical) creature known as a giant freshwater crab (distant cousin to the fighting land crabs, mascot of the University of American Samoa made famous by Jimmy McGill of Better Call Saul).For a while I thought we might have traveled through a worm-hole of some type into a place called Xenoica.However, I didn’t encounter enough evidence on this trip to be able to support this temporary hunch.
On one large sandbar I decided it would possibly make a pretty good place to live (or at least a few days worth of camping), so I boldly proclaimed, “I claim this island for the Muskrat Kings!”to which one of my traveling companions on the other side of the bar responded “Booga Booga!” and did some type of dance to which I responded with a similar ancestral dance.
This voyage felt adventurous and important. The interaction with nature was somehow soothing and inspiring. It felt like a much-needed balance to the usual day-to-day human-crafted world that I live in most days. It was also kind of physically tiring. I came to the conclusion that it is time for Floaty to retire. Floaty has been great! She's been a stalwart companion to Snot Jr. and I for 7 years and I will always cherish the time we had with her.
However, her structural integrity ain't what it used to be and neither Snot Jr. nor I am getting any lighter. Therefore, the next time we head out to the river I will either be taking my inflatable SUP (it’s big enough that Snot Jr. could latch onto it and float along, if needed) or else the SUP and a regular kayak for Snot Jr. (I feel like he might not dislike paddling as much if he had a lighter, faster, more maneuverable boat. This is kind of like people that buy cheap bikes that don’t have good parts. It’s not surprising that they don’t like to bike when the bike that they’ve got makes bicycling a chore, with parts not doing what they should!).
Well, I’ll be sure to get back to the river soon and back to my bicycle even sooner. Let me know if you get a chance and we’ll try to meet up and catch up.
Whew! That last entry was long! Here’s something different.
Friday I decided to get out for an afternoon cycling excursion. It’s not that common for me to have such an opportunity, but you see here in North America’s mid-section we are on the backside of the national holiday we call Independence Day or, colloquially, the Fourth of July. This time I had some free time and so I hopped on the dusty, prematurely aged Wear-Yellow-Ride-cycle.
seen here in younger days
It’s fun because it goes pretty fast on flattish routes. It’s prematurely aged because I leave it out back under the canopy where it’s kind of sheltered but still gets a fair bit of dust and moisture and, hence, character-enhancing rust. So I filled her tyres with a bit a ye olde aire, strapped on a couple of gear bags with one of the few tubes lying around that seemed like it might be the right size, and spent some downhill time trying to re-familiarize myself with the feel of the skinny-tyred single-speed. It felt quite nice to get out on the trail. I had a tail wind as I headed southeast on the West Papio Trail (I hopped on at around 132nd & Q, by the big Tyson plant). I was probably going about 14 miles per hour (around 12 knots for the nautically minded, more on this later) on the way out. On that leg of the tour I noticed a relaxed looking fellow walking his dog whilst reading a book. Sorry, no photo, I was too busy going fast. I did refocus my ambition relatively soon: first I was ambitiously bicycling out and then I was ambitiously riding back towards Pint Nine brewery. As part of this shift; however, I did snap a photo of this intriguing sign.
I couldn't find out anything about the Iron Riders Tribute Bicycle Ride 2024
On the way back, there was a headwind to contend with, but this only served to sharpen my thirst for a fermented beverage. Eventually I was comfortably perched on an outside bench at Pint Nine. A fellow with a computer was sitting at the table with a 4-glass sampler and we conversed a bit about various topics, including bicycle- and travel-related things. It turns out that Seth was into bike-packing and had bicycled across South Korea! Apparently they’ve got a great trail that traverses the entire country and is mostly paved and well-maintained. You can get a passport-type book to collect stamps at TARDIS-like stations along the route and if you collect them all you can take your book to the trail HQ to collect a golden medal of some kind! How awesome is that! Plus, the US dollar is pretty good over there right now and you might meet some convivial K-pop stars or at least some of their fans. If I ever ride this trail, I would like to attempt to do it in a track suit that celebrates some type of K-pop group or maybe even just K-pop in general.
When asked about his bike-packing rig, Seth stated he had a Giant hybrid that he currently uses but that he’s got his eye on a Poseidon. I was not hithertofore aware of this brand, but it sounded like they have some pretty great deals, so I looked at their website and here’s one of the bikes that they had that I thought might be good for bike-packing. https://www.poseidonbike.com/products/flatbar-redwood?variant=41091788963991
Mrs. Snot and I were both not sure that Poseidon was a good brand name for a bike company. My wife has a deep understanding of mythology and she pondered the many facets of Poseidon. He was full of surprises. For example, you might think that Zeus or some land-based god created horses? Nope - Poseidon did! Mrs. Snot suggested that the website might have an origin story. So I looked around on their website and found the following: https://www.poseidonbike.com/pages/who-we-are
“Poseidon Bike takes its name from the God of the sea, a place where you can find serenity and stillness and discover the sea's strength at a moment’s notice.”
So I guess they are stating that bicycling is like being at sea? Maybe that is true in some ways, but I don’t think it’s common to get motion sickness on a bicycle? Anyway, I couldn't find any other specific reason for their brand name. As a direct-to-consumer bike manufacturer there are a few things I think about:
1. Not good for your local bike shop. But money’s pretty tight these days… tough decisions
2. Not sure where frames are made.
3. To keep costs low, some parts are probably not the greatest.
Nothing really jumped out at me when skimming specs, but a few reviewers stated that they upgraded brakes or wheels (possibly these were on older versions). I also feel like spending more on a bike up-front is typically a good way to get good components that can take some abuse and perform reliably. It looks like the Redwood, sorry X Ambition, would probably be my pick for a bikepacking rig. If you use any kind of ride-tracking technology, I'd recommend switching from km/hr or mph to knots just to honor the god of the sea and avoid angering this jealous deity.
Seth also recommended the Superchief. It was strong, so I got a mini!
So the weather is pretty good for bicycling these days, unless you want to do some riding on dirt, which has been kind of soggy lately. Hopefully I’ll be able to get out for some mountainous bicycling in the near future and I’ll let you know how that goes.
Sometimes I think it is easy to get a bit lost in the daily grind or, as thrash band Anthrax might have put it: caught in a mosh.
What am I doing with my life? What are my priorities? These are questions that I probably should ask myself from time to time. Instead, I sometimes just feel like I’m being tossed wordlessly around upon the waves of circumstance. Here is a quotation that I recently viewed at the Library of Congress during my recent vacation to Washington DC:
Reading maketh a full man
Conference a ready man
And writing an exact man
Not only do I find this quote true, but also inspirational. I like to distill some of my experience into words to try to communicate some of the things I find to be true. It can be easy to describe what happened matter-of-factly, in a sequential order, but that’s not always as relatable as when you express your feelings, strange thoughts, and extravagant goals/delusions. Plus, as shown in this fresco, from time immemorial: the ladies love the writers.
So I will try to use that preface as a guiding star as I relate to you many of the things that I’ve been fortunate enough to experience lately.
Before moving on to the vacation to our nation’s capital, let me regale you with a story of a charity ride I went on lately called “Bike with Mike, Walk with Mae.” This event took place on June 1 out on the Wabash Trace Trail. It was a fundraiser for mental health awareness via the local nonprofit Community Alliance. My uncle had purchased a couple of tickets but was unable to attend so he handed them off to me and I invited by stalwart companion, Rich, shown below fiercely improving his mental health.
How is your mental health, these days? Good, I hope. It can be a stressful world and probably the best way to deal with the stress is to get out on some kind of a bicycle expedition. Also, I think it’s good to talk about and channel your feelings instead of suppressing them. If no one wants to hear about your feelings, you can always write them down and/or let me know about them. Although they can be inconvenient and we might want to ignore them for pragmatic reasons, feelings drive our thoughts and actions in many ways so it’s best to at least try to have a vague understanding of our feelings and others’ feelings so that we can try to help ourselves by talking to someone and help others avoid unhealthy actions fueled by feelings we can’t come to terms with by ourselves. Unfortunately Mike and Mae died due to suicide. I met a woman who had attended school with both of them and had been a part of the event since its inception 4 years ago. The event has grown by leaps and bounds since it started and this particular event was well attended and organized. There was even a special speaker, Sam Eaton, who had written a book about mental health entitledRecklessly Alive: What My Suicide Attempt Taught Me About God and Living Life to the Fullest. We started out at the trailhead for the Wabash Trace Trail at Council Bluffs and rode out to Tobey Jack’s in Mineola (i.e., same route as Taco Ride) where many festivities were had and a build-your-own taco bar was enjoyed by all participants, or at least all the ones I talked to. There were many raffle prizes, drinks, Sam Eaton, and a live band. The weather was great and Rich and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Don’t worry, I kept the shirt, but did remember to send my uncle a thank you letter.
And now, back to our trip to DC. Rich was there too! (to provide continuity and stability, among his many other talents). My friend Tyler showed Rich and I around town.
Tyler is an aficionado of the Capital Bikeshare system. And now, so am I. The three of us quickly formed a bicycle gang,
hopped on some bikes and cruised around town and accomplished many things, some of which were:
told CVS we needed a prescription
went to another CVS because the first one didn’t have the prescription
got some drinks and appetizers at a nice local watering hole while waiting for prescription
experienced a spiritual encounter with the rare/potentially sacred albino/leucistic squirrel of the capital area
stopped at Supreme Courthouse
stopped at the tired U.S. Grant statue
stopped at the Round Robin Bar at the Willard Hotel (intriguing architecture - my stroll to the bathroom felt a bit like a trip through a fun house hall)
stopped at VUE Rooftop at Hotel Washington
ride by of the Watergate Hotel, which was larger than I would have expected.
felt awesome about riding around so much
ate Mrs. Snot’s leftover chicken wrap from Subway even though I normally subsist on a vegetarian / pescatarian meal plan
At the Round Robin bar I drank my first, and possibly last, Manhattan.
The drinks were served in chilled glasses and were delicious. I felt instantly more cultured, sophisticated, and generous (granted those aren't my best attributes to begin with). I might make it my last Manhattan because I’m guessing they’re normally not usually quite as exquisite. The Round Robin is reportedly the bar where all presidents-elect, except Trump, met up with the current presidents (i.e., predecessor) to have a drink and for the predecessor to share some insider tips/wisdom with the president-elect.
Here is a view from the VUE Rooftopbar at Hotel Washington where they had some delicious drinks as well.
I had a “That Tea is so Fetch” (Strawberry infused gin, bergamot, hibiscus, lemon, vegan foamer, and Peychaud’s bitters [because no one else’s bitters are nearly so bitter]) and Rich seemed to enjoy his Power to the Peaches (Grey Goose Botanicals, Cointreau, Chandon Garden Spritz, chamomile, honey, and lemon). Ye Gods! I felt like I got an injection of pure and uplifting B-12 vitamin along with my buzz! Tyler had an IPA (why does he drink those things? They taste kind of good but they tend to leave me feeling bloated and, eventually, kind of hazy and hung over). No offense Tyler! Thank you for the tour! That was a night to remember!
Further details about my DC experience: Nice bike share! I rode around a lot. Unfortunately I got kind of overconfident and eventually I dropped my cell phone and didn’t realize it until I had ridden a couple more blocks. Fortunately a kind soul found it quickly and eventually was able to return it to Tyler, who kindly drove out to pick it up from the Wunder Garten for me. I made it to Tyler’s place for a dinner party but I have to say I was even more socially awkward than usual because:
My confidence level was reduced due to losing cell phone (I should be able to keep track of that thing!)
Everyone at the dinner party knew each other and DC culture so I didn’t always have much to contribute (I learned a bit about DC Gogo music).
Despite my self-critique, all the partiers were quite jovial, I had a great time, and I wish I could have gotten to know them all a little better (maybe in smaller groups).
To prevent the dropped cell phone experience, if I ever take a similar vacation I plan on investing in some kind of strap-to-handlebar phone holder, possibly like this one:
After our time in DC, we rented a car and drove for about an hour to the northwest where we enjoyed a beautiful stay in the tranquil hamlet of Lovettsville, VA, that included a nice hike up to Maryland Heights
at Harpers Ferry with my cousin-in-law and Calvin.
Calvin and my cousin-in-law, Terry, often spoke of their enthusiasm for hikes. Calvin is an avid hiker who travels to many places on hiking expeditions, some of which involve pack animals and elevated temperatures. Calvin said that one trail he'd like to experience is the 211-mile John Muir Trail in the Yosemite area. This does look like a great backpacking trip. Terry and Calvin's frequent use of the word "hike" reminded me of this quote that first part of which Facebook is often inserting into my feed:
I don’t like either the word [hike] or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not ‘hike!’ Do you know the origin of that word saunter? It’s a beautiful word. Away back in the middle ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going they would reply, ‘A la sainte terre’, ‘To the Holy Land.’ And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not ‘hike’ through them.
After enjoying the peace and rejuvenation of Lovettsville and its environs, we headed out to the Jersey shore to get in some quality beach time at Wildwood, NJ. I rolled the dice with an Airbnb which turned out to be quite nice. It even had a few bikes in the garage. The beach was not too crowded and we ate a lot of food. I spent a lot of festive time with my college friend Pat and his friend Sarah. It turned out that Sarah grew up in DC. We talked about music from DC, including Fugazi, Bad Brains, and a band that I was not heretofore acquainted with: The Blackbyrds. Famous for their slice of life song: Rock Creek Park. Sarah estimated that 75 to 95% of individuals who grew up in the DC area lost their virginity at RCP. Pat generously supplied me with a patch that allowed me to drink more but feel less drunk and hungover. Maybe we could have just drank less? Easy to type now, not so easy to do when you’re experiencing a BEACH PARTAYVACATION!
Pat also recommended creatine to help build some muscle mass now that we're both quinquagenerians.
Seems like a great idea, especially with my vegetarian tendencies. Thanks Pat!
To get to Wildwood I initially planned on taking a train/bus combo to get there from DC. I thought about getting this booked early, but it wasn’t that easy so I figured I’d just buy tickets at the train station. However, this turned out to be logistically problematic and more expensive than I would have liked. So we ended up renting a car at somewhat elevated prices, but it was still less expensive and a lot faster than train/bussing it. And, as it turned out, it was kind of nice having the car around to get some grocery shopping done. Sorry public transport, not impressed in this area. If only the Double Dutch Bus ran from DC to Wildwood.
One unfortunate thing I noticed in DC: Google Maps sometimes seemed confused as to which quadrant of the city I was headed. Once it tried to autofill a Massachusetts St NW address when I wanted to get to Massachusetts St NE. Maybe it was worse because my phone was on low power mode? Don’t worry, it eventually all worked out alright.
So now we are back home and back to doing our regular stuff. However, I feel my mental health levels have improved and I've "recharged the batteries" as they often say. I hope your summer is going well and that you are able to enjoy a nice vacation or at least some quality relaxation with some reading, conference, and/or writing.
I hope you are having a worthwhile 2024 thus far. How was your 2023? 2023 had some good times and sad times for me. A friend of mine and a former college roommate, Ben Kroeze, died last year.
He was 50 years old. We had a lot of fun times together. He and I did a bit of biking together: Indian Caves back in the 1990s, el Nacho Ride and un Taco Ride in 2011 (con accentes, por favor).
Also just around town.
More recently we’d been out on a few local rivers with kayaks and my inflatable SUP.
Ben was the best story teller I knew and he always had a unique perspective backed up by personal, intelligent ideas. He enjoyed outdoor activities and expertly completing home improvement projects for himself and others. When he and I became roommates, we needed a place to keep our bikes. I showed him a few options we could have mail ordered through a bike catalogue, but Ben was having none of that. He looked over the designs in the catalogue and then we headed over to the lumber store to grab some 2x4s and then over to his family garage/shop. We had ourselves a nice rack put together within a few hours. It’s heavy and reliable and I’ve still got it on our back porch where it typically supports one old bike and several garden hoses, although it could hold up to 4 bikes, if needed.
One of our most memorable experiences was a trip with the Outdoor Adventure Club back in college. We went spelunking at Devil’s Icebox near Columbia, Missouri. It rained a lot on the way out, but it was clear by the time we got to the park to set up our tents. Ben and I stayed up late smoking and chatting with a few of our fellow spelunkers.
The next morning we canoed into the cave system for maybe a quarter of a mile or so and then left our boats to explore the mazy subterranean realm. We slid, waded, and climbed through many tight passages. We found a seedling growing in this place devoid of sunlight.
I think we spent half a day or so underground before we paddled back out into the surface world. I emerged with a deeper appreciation of the natural world and caves in particular. Because of that trip I try to include a visit to a cave in family vacations whenever possible. There are caves on the moon, Mars, and possibly on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
As you are likely aware, it is now the Year of the Wood Dragon! 2024 is expected to be a time of visionary leaders, innovators and problem solvers. 2024 is also predicted to be a great year to start new projects, explore new opportunities and create value for yourself and others. It is a year to pursue your dreams, express your ideas and expand your horizons. It is also a year to be generous, compassionate and loyal to your friends, but shouldn't every year, Ebenezer Scrooge? There is apparently a Dragon bicycle company in Seattle. Here is a photo of Woody Harrelson riding a bicycle.
Although he’s not really dragon-related, as far as I know, he was in a movie called “Out of the Furnace” that could be considered fire-related.
Taylor Swift also has been known to ride a bicycle.
As she may be the most famous person in the world, there are also many predictions as to how she and the Year of the Wood Dragon will get along. Apparently her song “Long Live ” refers to fighting dragons, but she enjoyed it, so it could be a good challenge/opportunity for her.
Here are a few things I might try this year:
Retaining wall work (the contractor quote was way too high so I will attempt to accomplish some/most of this as a DIY with help from friends.
Maybe a few other DIY projects around the house/yard
Some mountain bicycling now that I’ve got a pretty good setup in place for the Santa Cruz Superlite I’ve been using lately.
Now that the streets are snow and ice free I've been enjoying some nice bicycle riding and quite a bit of Pokemon Go playing. I hope you have been enjoying some quality outdoor time too.
Whatever it holds in store for you, I hope the Year of the Wood Dragon provides the opportunities and challenges necessary for you to grow and thrive. And hopefully a nice cave visit as well.
Many blessings to you and your loved ones. We'll miss you Ben.
Many molecules of water have flowed under the bridge since I’ve given you an update on some of the events I’ve experienced lately. It’s been a pretty busy summer, what with popcorn growing and harvesting, my first attempt at hard peach cider, and my aunt’s 90th birthday party, among other things. One of those other things was the Middle Loup River Challenge! The Loup River system is in central Nebraska and is a tributary of the Platte River. I was lucky enough to spend some quality time tubing on the Middle Loup River during my last BRAN and it was one of the highlights of that experience. I also have been enjoying some stand-up paddle boarding lately and I figured it would be worth the trip out there to enjoy the peacefulness and also improve my SUPing skills. I have gradually become better at SUPing, and I have developed a preference for river SUPing, although then you’ve got to have a way to get a vehicle down to your take out point. The MLRC provides a shuttle and plenty of other river enthusiasts to commune with. Although I knew I wouldn’t be able to have a beer on the river whilst paddling my SUP, I was still looking forward to a nice casual trip down the river. We got a chance to visit some of the local businesses during the pre-event hours. After a busy day at work and about a 3.5-hour drive, I arrived a bit late, so I didn’t get a chance to kick back at the Sandhill Corral where packet pick-up took place, but I did pay $10 for a breakfast sandwich and some coffee that I could pick up the next morning.
Then I zipped over to the camping area and set up my tent right next to the leisure float division starting point. It was a nice spot, although the cockleburs also seemed to like it. I got my iRocker iSUP inflated with a nice Polotrag electric pump Mrs. Snot had recently gifted me. It is really nice not to have to manually pump after a busy, tiring day of work and driving a few hours out to an adventure location. It took me a few trips with the iSUP before I realized I needed to pump it up to a much higher pressure than I had previously used with our inflatable kayak, Floatie. The electric pump has a digital readout which makes it pretty easy to get to the right pressure. I talked briefly with a few of my fellow campers, many of whom talked about some glorious kayaking adventures to various exotic locales, including the Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River. We were close to the railroad tracks, so I popped in some earplugs and I was off to sleep.
The next morning I was up at around 6 to get my gear organized, get some food, and head over to the take-out location and catch the 7 o’clock shuttle to the race starting point and then back to the leisure float starting point.
The proprietress at Anthem Coffee was gracious enough to provide me with a delicious egg and cheese vegetarian sandwich. The coffee was very hot and tasty. Once we got to the race starting point we got a nice introductory/inspirational talk from the organizer, Cay (pronounced Kye) Ewoldt.
We got to see racers start out and various heats for the 28 mile competitive event.
I chatted with a few other people, including a fellow camper, Ryan, who had organized a Facebook group called Dirty Oars, to try to encourage some interest in paddling trips near his home in North Platte. I snapped a few photos and then we got shuttled downstream to the leisure float put-in location.
I was honestly a little nervous about the challenge because the current looked faster than either the Platte or Wisconsin Rivers, the only other two rivers I’d SUPed on before. Once I got out there, though, it was great! i had to stay focused to try to stay in the main channel (i.e., the fastest part of the current) and the time went by pretty quickly. Kind of like that Dragon’s Lair video game where you had to move in the right direction at just the right time or meet a entertainingly gruesome demise. After a couple hours on the river I kind of felt like I’d attained my river legs! The river seemed to get progressively shallower as we worked our way downstream. My center fin is maybe 9” long and would frequently scrape the bottom of the river. At first, this was quite disconcerting, and once I even fell forward onto my hands and knees (but still stayed on the board!?). I gradually got better at being able to anticipate when this was likely to happen and stay balanced and even occasionally kind of hop/scoot forward if I thought it was just a short section of shallowness. Towards the end of the course I blundered into some barbed wire that I didn’t scan ahead for well enough. I got a small scratch and a tear on my shirt and, later on, a tetanus booster shot. Also, after the coarse there was a delicious picnic-style lunch provided by Ewoldt Grocery Store and even some ice cream! There was an award ceremony / festive dinner scheduled in Halsey that evening. Unfortunately, the weather forecast called for high winds and chance of thunderstorms that evening, so all of us tent campers packed up and headed out that afternoon.
I had a great time and definitely gained some confidence on this trip! I also found out there are retractable fins and also shorter (4.5-inch) center fins available, which would be nice if I’m on a shallower river like the Middle Loup again.
The biking’s been pretty good lately, but hoping to get out for some mountain biking soon, since I’ve mostly just been using my 2-wheeled accomplices to commute, complete chores, etc. I hope you’ve been able to get out to enjoy some outdoor fun and, if not, it’s now fall so the weather should be perfect for some great biking, hiking, running, etc.
I hope you are enjoying some excellent summer spinning. Here is a summary of some spinning that I enjoyed on the Fourth of July. I met up with my friend Rod who has recently relocated to the thriving hamlet of Springfield, NE. We were excited to get out to the pedestrian bridge (aka the Lied Bridge across the Platte River), and i was curious about the current status of the MOPAC Trail. I asked him to meet me in the trail parking lot just east of Highway 50 (144th St) and Platteview Road. It was an appropriately patriotic place to start a 4th of July bike ride.
There was also a nice bike repair/maintenance station:
We started off in some nice cool weather down to the Platte River
and then over to the Lied Bridge
We scooted across the bridge over to the outskirts of South Bend where we found some informative signs. I found out that there is a gravel road route that connects the following two parts of the trail:
(northern part) the part that goes from at least the Springfield Cemetery to South Bend
(southern part) the part that goes from Wabash, NE to Lincoln, NE and from there you can get on a few other trails that 99 miles meandering with mazy motion through hill and dale runs to Marysville, KS
This connecting road is called 334th St.
This finding leads me to consider the following: Why do people ride gravel multi-use trails for long distances? I suppose the answers are as varied as the people that ride them. So, if this is something you’ve enjoyed, please provide your viewpoint. The reason I ask is because it seems like it might be similar to the reasons for riding gravel in general: it’s a bit less trafficky and you get to experience a more peaceful ride and take the path less travelled. Also, it’s the journey, not the destination. However, I hope you’re not in a hurry and have a penchant for camping and/or some clever lodging planning.
If a person wanted to undertake a gravelly bicycle trip from Omaha to Marysville, here is a list of trails (from N to S) as I understand it:
MOPAC (OMA to LIN)
Jamaica North (LIN to SAL [Saltillo], possibly to include Williamsburg Trail in LIN?)
Homestead Trail (SAL to BEA [Beatrice])
Chief Standing Bear Trail (BEA to NE/KS line)
Blue River Trail (NE/KS line to MRY [Marysville])
I discovered the names of these trails on the TrailLink website, which is also apparently a free app. I may give that app a try and see if it satisfies my appetite for devouring trails! Highdy-ho, mofos!
What I am most curious about are good places to stay along the way. I’ll probably do a little digging before potentially planning this trip. My friend Rich has mentioned riding from Omaha to Marysville in a long day, but that doesn’t sound appealing and I am not in that kind of shape right now. Maybe by Fourth of July 2024?
Here is what I found out about overnight options for a trip starting on the MOPAC from Lincoln, NE to Maryville, KS. It seems a person could do a bike packing-type trip with camping at a few places along the way to make a 4 to 6-day trip out of it.
near Lincoln:
Wagon Train State Recreation Area, Hickman Rd, Lincoln, NE 68503, (402) 471-0641: this place looks good, but would require a slight departure from the trail
Victory Quest, 14401 SW 15th St, Roca, NE 68430, (402) 794-2102 (Not sure if this is a real option since it sounds like it could be a church camp and there's not much info other than address and phone I could find. If this doesn't work out you may want to just find a college party somewhere and crash the party and fall asleep on someone's couch, what could go wrong? Or maybe just power through to Beatrice?)
Marysville: Marysville City Park Campground, 10th & Spring StMarysville, KS 66508, (785) 562-3101
So there are a few ideas about the possibility of taking the gravel trails (where available, which is probably at least around 95% of the time) from Omaha to Marysville, KS.
Anyway, we made it back to Springfield in warmer weather. I had begun to feel a bit peckish, probably due to the meager breakfast of a single Clif bar I had eaten. I blame those intermittent fasting plans I've heard a bit about these days.
Although that OMA to Marysville trip seems intriguing, for now, I think I’ll just consider signing up for the Middle Loup River Challenge (Sept) and/or the Beer and Bagel Run (late Oct).
Before I got around to finishing up this post, I also had a chance to get out for a nice out and back ride on the West Papio Trail from the downtown Millard area to the Bellevue Berry Farm, with a pleasant stop at the Kros Strain / Pint 9 breweries on my way back.
A couple things I enjoyed seeing along the way:
Great blue heron flapping lazily along above the trail
A woman in shorts and rubber rain boots gathering some of those flowers that have gone to seed and look like huge dandelions. At first I thought they were thistles, but now I don't think so because they seemed poofier.
There you have some meandering thoughts about the summer experience. I hope to get back to you eventually with more excitement. In the meantime, please enjoy the spin.
But anyway, as I was saying, the water was higher than what I was used to. Snot Jr. didn’t really want to be in the boat, so he floated along, sometimes being towed by the kayak and other times floating freely in the current. Initially he offered to be a tug boat and pull each of the kayaks into the river. However, once our kayak was out there, we just grabbed onto the back of our kayak, Floaty, and kind of floated/walked/ran along behind. During the parts where it was shallow enough to walk he would sometimes provide commentary about the depth of the water, which was sometimes kind of handy. He’d say things like, “Major drop” or “Oooo, look out! Getting pretty shallow!” At one time he decided he’d only provide updates when requested. Although he didn’t go along with my request when I asked for auto-updates every 2 minutes or so, he eventually agreed to provide updates if depth changed by more than 6-inches. For a while I was calling myself “Major Drop” and Snot Jr. “Corporal Current.”
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