Two weeks ago I did 240 miles up around St.Joseph, Missouri. I had such a great time I couldn’t pass up the chance to give it another go, so I went back last weekend and logged another 220 miles. I left at 10:30am...the latest I was willing to wait for it to warm up. Temps were in the high 30's the whole way there and I was running 70mph+ on the interstate. Needless to say, I was frozen when I arrived in St.Joe. I molested a hand dryer in a gas station bathroom for ten minutes and then I was off and running.
I noticed that there's a California Trail sign right there in the tiny town of Wathena where I stop to air up my tires. It's at the intersection of HWY36 and Treece. I hopped on there and tried to wind my way along the river. Topographically, the loess hills are tallest around the Missouri River Flood plain and that’s where the fun riding tends to be. The stark contrast between the hills and the pancake flatness of the flood plain are fun to look at on a topographical map.
I'm fascinated and a little fixated on the rutted roads up around the California Trail. I always thought of rutted roads as just an uneven road surface. But these roads have been rutted and cut into the landscape over generations. They look like cuts that the railroads used to make back in the day. They're taller than a 2 story house in some spots. I've only ridden through them with vegetation off the trees. I can't wait to see what those roads look like with full growth.
It had rained in St.Joe two nights before my ride. I didn’t realize that wouldn’t be enough time for the low maintenance roads that I enjoy so much to dry out. It was mostly dry, but my inexperience showed in the muddy stuff. I didn’t drop the bike, but I got mired in the mud a few times. I caught myself treating it much like driving in the snow….making sure to maintain momentum, not making any sudden course corrections, etc. There were a few roads that I opted out of because they just looked too muddy. I could blame it on my slick tires that need to be replaced or I could claim it was good judgment. But passing up what appeared to be some of the most entertaining "roads" because they looked a little too gnarly in their muddy state.....well, that didn't set well with me. I can't wait to get back up there to have at it again.
On the plus side, it wasn't overcast this time and I didn't feel lost at any point in the day. I don't think I looked once at the GPS on my phone and yet I was able to meander my way methodically up in the general direction of White Cloud. I'm finding the Map My Ride Android app to be very helpful for tracking exactly what roads I've been on. It does a much better job even than Google "location history" reporting. I'm learning that - unlike sport touring on a street bike - dual sport routes are examined and scrutinized after the ride.
We've got freezing rain here right now, so there will be no third weekend on the KLR. Womp womp. But my new Shinkos arrived this week, so that should keep me busy in the garage preparing for next time out. I also went out and bought some fork oil today. I was going to just drop those new Progressive fork springs in, but now I am thinking I may as well go ahead and change the fork oil while I'm at it. I've got a new rear shock spring that came with the bike too, but I'll need spring compressors for that job.
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