The day started pretty wet for many of us. We had some early morning communications and delayed our arrival at Beaumont by about an hour. Breakfast was good. The overall turnout at Beaumont was light but I'm sure the weather had a lot to do with that. There were four of us showed up for the Backroads Ride. Myself on a KTM 690, Nick on a Kawasaki KLR 650, Marc on a Suzuki V-Strom, and Vic on a KTM 1190.
After breakfast and some good conversation it was time to depart. We left Beaumont about 10:30 ~ 10:45. Marc opted not to go on the ride as he had a more street bias tire on the V-Strom. Good choice Marc! Vic, Nick and I headed a bit north out of Beaumont and intercepted the Kansas ADV Route. It took us east and then we began a southerly track down through the Flint Hills.
So, at some point I suppose we could have turned around. But once you've slugged your way through some mud bogs a person really doesn't want to turn around and go BACK through it! So, onward we went. We finally broke off our pursuit of the ADV route and set our sights on Howard. We had drank everything we had with us and the heat/humidity was bearing down. We arrived in Howard at about 2:00 PM. We refreshed ourselves and laughed about the ordeal we had came through. No one remembers a sun soaked, uneventful ride. EVERYONE remembers the eventful rides.
From Howard, Vic needed to head for home in Burlington. Nick was having a vacuum problem on the KLR. So we bid ado to Vic and I followed Nick back to his place in Independence. From there I road some dry backroads north to my place in Petrolia. Got home about 5:00 PM. Washed the bike and called it a day. Overall a challenging day but I'd do it again. Maybe not right away!
I should mention that the only one to fall down in the mud today was - well - me. Vic and Nick did a great job navigating the conditions.