I was able to bug out of the Lab around 12:00 on Thursday. I swung by Vienna to drop off Pauli and have my teeth fixed (I did not want to be inhibited in any way for turkey day). After that it was off to JC. In Jeff I rode a couple of Laps round Binder Lake. The trails were slightly moist so conditions were prime for railing turns and maintaining serious speed.
That evening I headed up to Columbia to hang out with some friends. Friday morning I awoke to a beautiful morning and headed for Rhett’s Run in Columbia’s Cosmo Park. This was a fun inner city trail that incorporated everything the area had to offer to make for a short but interesting loop.
After a couple of laps around Rhett’s Run I headed out to Rock Bridge monument park. I rode a few laps on a couple of trails. Rock Bridge had some short climbs and decents over rocky and rooty wooded trail (but don’t get me wrong, the rock and roots made the ride interesting). Some of the hills here were quite challenging, so a good work out.
I returned to town to get cleaned up and headed out to eat with my parents who happened to be in town for a Mizzou Basketball game. I went to the game with them where they won by a large margin, because it was an exhibition game, it was pretty boring.
Saturday morning I awoke to another beautiful day. I headed to my car to jimmy the locks (I locked my keys in there the night before). As the locks popped open with minimal effort, I knew it was going to be a good day (and that I should never leave valuables in the car).
I met Kirby at Landahl Park outside of KC Saturday morning and hit the trails. Landahl was absolutely amazing. They don’t get much better than this. Trails were well marked, well traveled and in great shape, there was ever and gall with a leaf blower clearing the trails. The difficulty ranged from a green trail which was just an easy going multi track, to a black trail which had rocks, ledges and cuts to challenge even the most skilled rider. I didn’t fall too much, but I did scuff my sholder on a rock face. The would totally looked like a gun shot grazing (and there’s even a shooting range in the background).
After about 1.5-2 hrs of riding, Kirby and I were debating on how to finish up the rest of the ride, when coming down “Dave’s Maze” was I biker I recognized at Chris Sholls. Running into this guy was completely random but a lucky occurrence. Kirby, who needed to hit the road, took Will’s Wonder back to the trail head, while I remained riding with Chris. We rode for a couple of hours then headed to Overland park to Chris’s town house for some beers and pizza.
I stayed the night in the luxurious guest room of Chris’s apartment. Sunday morning I headed to Shawnee Mission Park to ride the little trails tucked away in the woods there. I rode for an hour or two while Chris and Lauren had some pictures taken by ex-pro downhiller/photographer, Sean. Trails were exciting.
Later that day, Chris and I met up with another single speeder (Walt’s ex mechanic known today as “Darby”) to ride Miner Park, aka BRP. We rode for a couple of hours here and nearly killed ourselves. All of us were having the damnedest time staying on our bikes. I found Miner Park to be a challenging trail with plenty of variety.
Monday, Joe and I headed up to Lake of the Ozarks and rode Bittersweet (a local built and maintained trail) and Honeyrun. Bittersweet was an elaborate network of interconnecting neighborhood “green space” that winded through and around drainage creeks. I blew out my right shoe on Bittersweet and had to visit Tim at Ozarks Outdoors and Cycling. Honey well was a fast non technical rolling trail bench cut into the Ozark hills.
Check out photos at: web.umr.edu/~dmwbnd
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