Riders:
Randy Megli (Super Tenere)
Derek Smith (Africa Twin) rode sweep
Marty Johnson (KLR)
Marc Browning (DL650)
Travis Imel (Vulcan 900)
Paul Minor (FJR1300)
David Woodward (Africa Twin) rode lead
The first segment of our day began with an all pavement ride to Elk City Kansas for the Masonic Lodge monthly breakfast buffet, which I personally have found to be the best breakfast buffet around by far!
Leaving Wichita we headed east on 47th to Santa Fe Lake Road where we headed South to 95th St. then east out through Douglass Kansas to Latham Kansas. At least then we headed south via the wonderfully twisty road to Cambridge Kansas! At Cambridge we found Highway 160 and proceeded East all the way into Elk City Kansas.
At Elk City, after an incredible breakfast we were greeted by several Backroads riders from southeast Kansas Who then joined us for our journey South and West out of Elk City. Travis and Paul on their street bikes chose wisely to return via pavement without us! Lol, great having them ride along with us!
We left Elk City on gravel headed west to that funky little work of architecture affectionately referred to as the "Hobbit House" where we stopped and wandered around the perimeter of the house and grounds marveled by the incredible craftsmanship and intricacies of the hand laid stone and roof tiles!
We then ventured into Sedan Kansas for a brief stop and a fueling opportunity.
From Sedan we rode West to the Bill Kurtis owned property of Butcher Falls to view the incredible falls and Stone pool surrounding them! I personally had never seen the falls flowing anywhere near as heavily as they were Sunday due to the recent rain falls in the region. It was indeed a beautiful site and an incredible sound coming from the falls.
Leaving Butcher Falls with our friends from the Southeast region still in tow we proceeded south to the nearly ghost town of Elgin Kansas. Elgin is always a popular stop with this incredibly wide red brick paved Main Street and it's very cool old and mostly abandoned architecture which there are only a few left of these days! I am told that Elgin was once the largest cattle rail yard in the United States prior to Dodge City Kansas is getting a rail line! It is also the town with the title "the town too tough to die" which so far it appears to be living up to!
Our ride with the riders from the Southeast region came to an end at Elgin as they decided to continue their journey back East. I did fail to get all of their names and bike information so unfortunately I cannot list them here but we definitely enjoyed the camaraderie and company of our newfound friends! Thank you all for joining and riding with us. By the way there was in Africa Twin in that group which for the first time Derek and I witnessed three Africa Twins riding together!!
Heading north out of Elgin we took a brief loop north and west and viewed some incredible vistas looking over the border and far into Oklahoma and the hills of northern Oklahoma before catching Dalton Road West to a point where we then headed north up to Cedar Vale Kansas.
From Cedar Vale heading North and West a bit towards Dexter Kansas we ran into several private property roads that we ended up turning around and coming back on but each and everyone of them was actually a very cool little section unto itself so we kind of considered that just little bonus segments!
After running into a low-water bridge with some fairly heavy water flow and what appeared to be quite slimy, muddy untraveled road on the other side we decided to turn around and find another way out of Dexter. West out of dexter we found a couple nice little views and some great road segments heading towards the east side of Winfield Kansas.
Derek Smith then took the lead for a while and took us on a nice little gravel journey back to Rock Kansas where I once again assumed lead and we rode back to Douglass Kansas and then we pretty much went back to the exact same way we came out with riders peeling off as we approached Wichita to their destinations of home.
All in all it was an incredible day with beautiful weather and fantastic companionship and absolutely zero drama, zero incidents, zero breakdowns which makes in my opinion a perfect day!!! My personal mileage count for the day was 308.. Thank you to each and every one of you for coming along for the ride and spending the day together and I can't wait till we can all get together and do it again!
Peace....