Visiting Kansas: flint hills June 23rd-25th (Day 1)

Kansas. I was finally able to do some bikepacking on my trip there. I've ridden thousands and thousands of miles of Kansas gravel, but never made the time for bikepacking. We had talked about it years ago, but it never happened and then I moved to Finland. 

So I flew into the U.S. on the 19th, but didn't actually make it to Kansas until the 20th (I don't even want to get started on delayed/cancelled flights) which was a Tuesday, and we were scheduled to meet up on Friday the 23rd. The original plan was to meet Friday, hang out that night, and then leave Saturday morning to a friends family farm in the flinthills for a night of camping.

I have a redline 29er that I leave at my mom's house which I was suppose to use for the trip, but Jesse just got a used GT karakoram that he had done some modifications to, so I ended up volunteering to be the test pilot for its maiden voyage.

I have to give a plug for Eclectic Bikes in Emporia, Kansas. They provided us with many of the new parts on the GT including an awesome deal on a set of WTB tires to replace the mismatched old ones. I have and always will recommend a trip into Eclectic bikes to visit Ron, he is a knowledgeable and super cool guy with the best shop in town. 

When I arrived in Emporia to meet up with my friend Jesse and his neighbor/buddy Brad we decided that it would be more fun to leave out Friday night and make it a two night adventure. We just had to wait for the fourth guy Dave to show up from out of town. Dave arrived around 6:30-7:00 and we double checked our gear and headed from Emporia to Olpe lake, which is an easy 13 mile ride straight south. 

Jesse's wife took our photo and dubbed us the "railer crew", as in derailleur, but it's too easy to bend that into many other meanings..... especially with this squirrelly bunch.

The evening weather was perfect for the ride out to Olpe. Dry fast gravel is something I had been missing for some time, so it was particularly awesome for me. 

At Olpe lake you have to pay a fee to camp, which we expected, but when we arrived there was a little confusion with the camp host as he thought we each wanted a spot for ourselves, and wanted to charge us each individually. But we got a great deal once we explained we all had small tents/ hammocks and wanted to share an area. Once we found our camp area the host came by to make sure everything was ok and to see if we had everything we needed, of course we know he was just making sure we only took one spot, but never the less he was a friendly guy. 

Our camping spot was pretty nice with a picnic table, fire pit, neatly mowed grass, and trees so Brad and Dave could set up their hammocks. It's safe to say on the first night we weren't exactly "roughing it", but we hadn't even planned to be out that night anyway, so it was better than sitting in the living room watching television. Four guys tend to spread out pretty fast, and we quickly covered the picnic table with stuff. We had some snacks, made a fire, and opened up some rootbeers. 

Thanks to the neatly trimmed grass and flat area I was able to set up my tent in record time. I don't know what time we went to sleep, but my tent is incredible, without the rain fly the bug net has no obstructions when looking out. It felt like I had nothing between me and the vast night sky. 

For a short time I laid in the tent looking at the stars and listening to some drunks out on there boat talking and I think doing shots. I'm not sure, but they were having a good time and didn't stay out there too late, so it was all fair. After that I fell asleep listening to some weird sounds of something moving near the shore.