Flint Hills Trail Biking Adventure, October 21-23, 2025
This was a trip that Brian wanted to do, it took a little bit of work for him to convince me. I mean, after losing 5 toenails I didn't really want to return. We negotiated. Bikes were an obvious must, for both of us. We have electric cruiser style bikes, no equipment for long trips. . . we really didn't know if our style of bike would survive that kind of trail. I wanted to make sure it was plausible to even ride our bikes 180 miles before we made more investments into gear. So, on a nice sunny day, we decided to try the nearby Ruby Jack Trail. We told ourselves we wouldn't use our battery on the bikes, 30 miles of all manual effort, and if the bikes survived and we could still ride our bikes around the block the next day without our rear ends protesting too badly, then we would try it.
Well, of course that trip was a success. So we went to Springfield and bought some pannier bags for our bikes and eventually a couple of other smaller accessories from Walmart. We really didn't know what we needed or what we were getting ourselves into. Once we got our new gear, we decided that now we needed to test our bike battery. So, on another wonderful, sunny day, we went back to the Ruby Jack trail and repeated it using our bike battery the entire time. Fully loaded and 30 miles later, we still had battery power left, quite a bit actually. This confirmed that we could make it at least 30 miles on battery, which meant we were going for the gusto and trying the Flint Hills Trail again.
On Tuesday morning, October 21, we loaded up and drove to Osawatomie Kansas. We had packed our bags the night before (our previous backpacking experience was a tremendous help with this), arranged a dog sitter for Archie, contacted the Osawatomie High School to make parking arrangements, made a reservation in Osage City for that night, we thought we had it all worked out. What we failed to do was check the weather, or at least seriously look at the weather. We did look at it enough for me to switch out shorts and tank tops for capris and long sleeved shirts and to thankfully throw jackets into our bags as well, but we really didn't look at it very close.
We got to the high school around 8 that morning and I think the temperature was in the mid 50s, with strong winds blowing from the West, which of course was the direction we needed to travel. We unloaded our bikes, put on our coats (Brian was smart enough to bring a stocking cap), and set off for Osage City - 51 miles away. We had already decided to ride our first 10 miles without battery, just to help conserve our power. We had assumed that there would be charging stations where we could top off our battery along the way, but you know what happens when you assume something. We stopped in Ottawa for lunch (close to 20 miles in) at a ballpark we had scouted out the previous year. Brian was already cramping and feeling pretty badly. He took some ibuprofen and tried stretching, but I was pretty worried he wasn't going to make it the rest of the day. By this time, it was close to noon and my hands were finally starting to thaw. We went to the pavillion only to discover that the electric was not turned on, the bathrooms were locked, and we didn't even see water fountains. We hadn't been on this part of the trail yet and we had expected to have charging stations, vault toilets, and water faucets along the way. That was dumb. So far, this was not turning out to be such a great trip.
Another dumb thing we did was to not take more frequent breaks along the route. 20 miles into the trail, the wind blowing 20 to 25 miles per hour right in our faces, and only about 2 breaks, my husband was already trying to curl up in the fetal position and give up. I wasn't miserable, but I wasn't exactly happy either. Luckily, we're not complete idiots. We had plenty of water with us and, while not as experienced as Brian, I am still a pro at peeing while standing up, as the couple that we met after lunch can attest to. They were from Arkansas, had been biking the trails in Kansas for a week, they were travelling East, and they had also just caught me peeing on the trail. Great way to make a first impression. They were obviously pros, with nice equipment, weather appropriate gear, and smiles on their faces. They were happy, chipper, warm, had the wind in their favor, and they were also almost done for the day. Yay them. They were very nice people, but basically said "It sucks to be you!" as we parted ways and we headed back into the wind.
After all this, we started re-evaluating the situation. I was worried about Brian being able to make it, and frankly, I was starting to feel pretty rough myself. We even discussed calling it and just heading back home the next day. We were kind of stuck. We had non-refundable reservations in Osage City, but still had about 25 miles to get there. If we turned around, we still had to ride another 25 miles to the truck, so we decided to just keep on going. Luckily the ibuprofen kicked in along with a decent lunch and Brian started feeling better. Unfortunately, our bike batteries were draining quicker than we had expected, and Brian's was already getting dangerously low. We assume that his battery drained quicker because his bike had more weight on it (there is about a 50 pound difference between the two of us). We also hypothesized that our batteries were draining quicker because we were going into a strong wind. We also knew that we needed to start taking more breaks. So, we finally got smart, started taking breaks about every 5 miles, and we switched the batteries out on our bikes. By the time we reached Osage City that afternoon, both our bodies and our batteries were done, but at least we had made it. Brian had experienced a rough morning and had overcame it, but for me, the pain was really just beginning and my knees were screaming. Thank goodness we had decided not to tent camp and had reservations somewhere with heat and a hot shower!! We took some tylenol, licked our wounds, ate dinner, showered, checked the weather, and went to
bed trying to come up with a better game plan for the next day.
Even though our derrieres were sore, we managed to get back on the bikes Wednesday morning and head out to Council Grove, 40 miles away. Magically, my knee pain had vanished in the night and I was feeling much better, as was Brian. The day was warmer than the previous and the wind was much more mild, and even though my hands were still frozen that morning, it was still a much more pleasant day. We rode our first 10 miles sans battery, took breaks every 5 miles, switched batteries periodically, and in no time made it 20 miles to Admire Kansas. There we found a park that had a pavillion with the electric still turned on and, even though our batteries were still doing well, we still spent about 30 minutes topping them off. We checked the weather again and became increasingly worried about the weather on Friday, when we had planned to ride the 51 miles back to Osawatomie. Rain and strong winds (of course blowing from the East, straight into our faces again) was in the forecast and neither of us wanted to ride our bikes in that.
From Admire to Council Grove we actually really enjoyed our ride while we also brainstormed on what to do and how to get home without riding our bikes in a cold, windy rain.
We decided that we would get to Council Grove, find a restaurant and charge our batteries while we ate. If we could get them fully charged by 3 p.m. we were going to head back to Osage City, with a pit stop in Admire to re-charge. That meant 80 miles in one day, which was a lot, but with a full battery and wind in our favor, we thought it we could make it by dusk.
It didn't matter, because we couldn't find a place to charge our batteries. We asked at the restaurant and they were "unable to find an available outlet". So then we decided to rent a u-haul, store our bikes in the u-haul, drive to Osawatomie to pick up our truck, return the u-haul and drive home. We rode our bikes to the nearby u-haul office with an ominously desserted parking lot, and was informed that they had nothing to rent to us. We called car rental places in Emporia to rent a vehicle but they wouldn't drive to Council Grove to pick us up. Finally, out of ideas, we just decided that we better suck it up, get a room, and prepare to ride as far as we could the next day.
Once in our room, we plugged in our batteries at about 4 p.m. to start charging them, curious about how long it took them to completely recharge and if our first plan had even been feasible. We cleaned up and walked a couple of blocks to a beautiful brewery on the Neosho River. Brian jokingly told me he was going to find us a ride home while we were there, and I knew him well enough to know that he wasn't joking and was actually going to try, but I was already coming to terms with the possiblility of a hard next two days and even bought gloves at Dollar General in preparation.
When we arrived at the brewery we were pretty much the first ones there, we ordered our drinks and went outside to sit and enjoy the views and sunshine. After our first beer, we went back inside to order another round and we were shocked to see that the place had filled up. Before I knew what was happening, Brian had turned on the charm and was telling some poor old lady our tragic story. I have to say, charm is a skill my husband has and I severely lack, I couldn't even watch him tell our tale. I took my topo chico and sit on the couch and pretended to be otherwise occupied.
Of course the lady said she would help us, so I made myself become involved so that I could start ironing out the kinks. At first she said, "well, just throw your bikes in my car and I will drive you to your truck!" Great idea, but when we asked her what kind of car she had and she replied, "A Lincoln!" Brian and I looked at each other and then at her and told her we weren't going to take the chance of scratching her Lincoln with our bikes. She argued and said it would be fine, we could put the back seat down and they would fit just fine. At this point I am starting to catch on that she may not be all there. I asked her what kind of Lincoln she had because unless it was a Navigator, that idea wasn't going to work. Her reply was, "Well, I don't know what kind it is! It's a Lincoln!" I looked at her key chain and it still had the car dealer tag on it (which I thought that in and of itself was odd) that said Lincoln MKZ - even if our bikes were collapsable, 2 of them and 3 adults were not going to fit into that vehicle. First big clue right there. We explained that the only way it would work is if she drove us to pick up our truck and we came back to Council Grove to get our bikes afterwards. We told her to really think about things before agreeing to help and that we would go back outside with our drinks for a while.
I'm not sure what happened when we were outside, but when we came back inside, she was still willing to help us out. I checked with her friends to see if she was serious, what I really wanted to know is if she was stable and not nuts. Brian went over to talk to her husband to get his two cents and see what he thought about the idea of her driving us to Osawatomie the next day. Brian told him that his wife had offered to drive us and asked if he was ok with that and if the two of them would take us the next day. . . they chatted for a while and I don't know exactly what the husband said, but the part I heard was "My wife is bat shit crazy and I don't give a damn what she does." Lovely. That's what I want to hear. Brian talked to the wife some more and she said she would do it for a full tank of gas, coffee, lunch, and a bottle of good vodka. I tried to get her attention to trade phone numbers, just in case she was serious, but she was kind of all over the place. She asked us where we were staying and what time we wanted to leave and said she would be there in the morning to pick us up and then more or less stumbled out the door, leaving her husband behind.
Brian and I looked at each other again, ordered another drink, and wondered what the hell just happened.
We got back to our room by 6:30 that evening and our bike batteries were still not completely charged. So, at least we knew now that our first plan was not feasible. We wondered what the chance of the lady coming to pick us up the next day was, we hadn't even gotten her name or phone number. We decided to plan for a hard day of riding and try to make it at least 60 miles the next day, but to at least wait until 8 to see if she actually showed up or not. I gave it a 50/50 shot and Brian thought there was about a 20% chance.
Surprise, surprise, the next day a Lincoln MKZ pulled up right on time and a little old lady jumped out of the car looking like she had literally just rolled out of bed, hair uncombed and eye makeup smeared all over her face. (Second big clue.) So far, she was not proving her husband wrong. Her friends may have been concerned for her welfare, but we were starting to become concerened about ours. Did that stop us? - nope, I don't think we even gave it a second thought, it was still better then riding our bikes in the cold, windy rain.
We went to the local coffee shop a block away and got the promised coffee. She said she had never been there and didn't even know what a latte was, but since that is what we were getting, she would have one too. She said hello to everyone in the coffee shop, and knew the owner by name. We ran into the same friends from the night before, they still thought she was crazy for taking us, but said that they never really knew what she might do. (Third big clue!)
She gave the keys to Brian and we got back in the car to start our trip. She had to move her "water" out of the way to put her latte in the cup holder and we started the drive towards Osawatomie. Along the way we finally made our introductions and heard her life story (repeated 4 or 5 times). I am not going to lie, it was very tragic, one stillborn, one child that died 4 hours after birth, another at 3 months. A child that died at age 23 from an asthma attack, another one that killed himself immediately after because he couldn't save his brother, a father that died when she was freshman in high school, and an alcoholic mother. Then suddenly, Ding! Ding! Ding! The light went off in my head and I realized that the apple didn't fall far from the tree and that it probably wasn't "water" in her cup. But really, after all that, can you blame her?
I won't go into details about the rest of the trip, but rest assured, she never proved her husband wrong. When we got back to Council Grove, we ate lunch, exchanged numbers and addresses, filled up her car, and she picked out the largest bottle of vodka (not the best) and a bottle of mudslide, we paid, she hugged and kissed us and we parted ways. She had tried numerous time to get us to go home with her or stay one more night and go out to the bar again, but we had declined. We literally sighed in relief and started prepping to go home, thankful that we had survived the morning. Truthfully, I am a little hopeful that she will misplace our contact information. I plan on sending a thank you card, but am also hopeful that she will be wondering who in the world sent it. While we are very happy that we are not riding our bikes home on this miserable, cold, and rainy Friday, there were definitely some times that we were second guessing ourselves yesterday.
Like I said, I won't go into details about our trip to pick up the truck, but we will remember that part of the story much more than we will ever remember what we saw riding our bikes on the Flint Hills Trail.
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