Early September 2024 in the pursuit of connecting my Kansas gravel heatmap, I decided to create a loop from Eskridge to Alma and back. This route connects to the 2024 Rock Ridge Gravel “Lightside” ride and extends my heatmap east and south.

The weather forecast all week had been bothering me, showing steady rain in the day leading up to my planned Saturday ride. All estimated rainfall totals were around an inch, not a ton, but not zero. In the lead up to Unbound this year, which ran the “North Course” on many of the same roads I’d be riding, many commented on how well the rocky roads up north shed water so I wasn’t terribly worried.

I had already pre-loaded the Rover so I could just hop in and leave when I was ready. Having set my alarm for 3:00 AM to provide myself enough time to eat a bit of food and… evacuate… I hit the road around 5:00 AM. When I was leaving Olathe the weather was dry, but as I headed SW on I-35 the rain began to pick up. I began to get a little apprehensive, about 90% of my drive to Eskridge was through steady rain. Thankfully the rain stopped about 10 minutes before reaching my destination.

Eskridge Park was my chosen starting point. After faffing about checking and double-checking all of my gear I set off into the unknown. Almost immediately upon hitting gravel I was covered in a gritty, milky detritus my tires had flung up from the packed gravel road heading out of town. The first nine miles were pretty flat and uneventful, at mile nine I encountered the first of many challenging MMR’s (Minimum Maintenance Road) I would ride that day, Nighthawk Road. Surprisingly, Nighthawk was rideable for roughly the first half… and then the mud hit.

Earlier in the week I had installed some 700×50 American Classic Krumbein tires. The official max clearance on my Lynskey GR300 is 700×45 so I knew I was really pushing it. The rear triangle has plenty of clearance for the chunky tires, but the fork has zero clearance. Within about six feet of hitting the mud I ground to a halt. I decided to shoulder my bike and hike the rest of the way till I hit more solid ground. At the end of the MMR section there were plenty of puddles and sticks for me to clean up the bike and my shoes. After about ten minutes of scraping, cursing, and stomping around in a puddle I was up and rolling again.

Things rolled pretty smoothly for the next eight miles or so. At some point along the way my rear derailleur hanger had bent. I didn’t realize this until I hit a climb on Skyline Road and my chain was thrown over the top of the 44t low gear on the cassette and jammed in between the cassette and spokes. Flipping the bike over I wrestled with the chain for about ten minutes, but it wasn’t budging. I finally decided to break out the multi-tool and I loosened the rear thru-axle. This provided enough slack to free the chain and get rolling again. Briefly.

My next turn was on to Jaketown Road, I approached cautiously as I had just been burned by Nighthawk but the road surface appeared acceptable, and I was rolling along at a decent clip. And then I found the mud… again…. and I was once more brought to a dead stop. Deciding to turn around from whence I came (unfortunately bypassing a string of MMR’s I really wanted to ride), I dunked my feet and bike in a roadside puddle to clean things up and headed east back down Skyline to meet up with Snokomo Road and head north. At around mile 27 I encountered the combination of Boothill Road and Prairie View Road. Neither of these roads were very rideable for more than a handful of ~50 ft. sections. It was here that I began to really question what I was doing out here. Finally escaping hike-a-bike hell I was treated to the greatest descent of the day, Clapboard Ravine Road down into Alma, my mid-point food/drink stop. Out of an abundance of caution I avoided getting too “sendy” with the roads being a soupy quagmire, but it was still a blast.

In Alma I grabbed a honey bun, a Gatorade, and a Coke to refuel and rest a bit. At this point my attitude had shifted from anger and frustration to that of hilarity. “What am I doing here? This is idiotic. I might be the stupidest person on earth… oh well at least it’ll be a good story right? RIGHT?”

Right.

Leaving Alma I headed south on K99 towards a road with a now-familiar name, Skyline. Skyline Road is nice and wide, almost like a gravel freeway. In fact, the climb (and only the climb) heading east from K99 on Skyline is paved, presumably because it’s considered a “Scenic Drive” and many a motorist had been stranded on the steep gravel attempting the drive on bad weather days. Climbing Skyline is no joke, I slogged along, missing my lowest two gears thanks to the bent hangar. I took a photo at the top, but it just doesn’t do the view any justice. Absolutely amazing, even on a dreary day like this.

From mile 37 in Alma to mile 50 things moved along quickly. Then I hit the most difficult stretch of the ride, the final 14 miles taking me two hours to complete. First, I hit a mud section on Nehring Branch Road, then my turn south back to “Cadillac” gravel turned out to be a private ranch road so I had to make a decision. Do I double-back on my tracks or re-route north to Skyline? I decided on the latter, after all, the road north didn’t look THAT bad…

That road north was Dawsons Hill Road. I have never been on a road so gnarly before in my life. Sure some parts were relatively smooth and mud free, but other sections were scattered with huge, sharp, loose boulders. I walked about 90% of this road. I was able to coast the final descent to Skyline (this road again?) before turning east and heading to the final challenge of the day.

If you are familiar with this area, or with Unbound’s North Course, you have no doubt heard of Divide Road. When I first turned south off Skyline heading down Divide I didn’t think it was so bad. Then about two miles in, you go past Blue Heron Road and the MMR warning sign. Like the other dozen times, I made it about 5-10ft into the mud before I had picked up too much debris and ground to a halt. At this point I was bordering on a complete meltdown and considered hammer-throwing my bike into a nearby field. Instead, I decided to take a deep breath, chill out, and sit down for a bit to clean out my cleats and gather my thoughts.

The final six miles of my route included four miles of miserably slogging over the hills of Divide Road with my now (very heavy), clay encrusted gravel bike. The final mile or so into Eskridge was blissfully uneventful.

After everything I went through on this ride, I want to go back and re-ride this route. Badly. There are several roads I bypassed that look absolutely epic (Jaketown to Bobcat to Woody Creek). Hopefully I can get back out here in the summer next year during DRY conditions and give it a go. I don’t mind walking when the terrain is too gnarly, I do mind walking when crunchy peanut butter is jamming up my bike, clogging my shoes, and making my bike the weight of a small mountain.

On the positive side, I had zero punctures and my new saddle continues to impress!

Until next time Wabaunsee County!