JD_Shawnee, 2011-09-09 08:28:34
9/8/2011 As a warm-up to the Prairie Spirit, I rode to Osawatomie and back to Ottawa Thursday. Perfect weather; nice ride.

Saw the usual greenery, deer, squirrels, fox, butterflies, late-flowers, birds, crows, and hawks. One hawk flew down in front of me twice with a small catch in its beak. It seemed proud, like it wanted somebody to see its prize. Also encountered one hiker and one bicycler who was taking pictures.

Spiders: ran into several spider threads and webs hanging vertically and horizontally across the trail, outbound. Pulled 3 or more of them off my helmet and shirt. Much fewer on the return ride. 🙂

Trail cracks: most of the trail’s cracks and small cave-ins ran down the center of the trail or down one of its tracks. They were easy to avert. However, the upcoming autumn leaves could hide many of them, soon. Be careful!

Otherwise, the trail is in great shape. Several of the road-crossing gate chains are now covered with plastic pipe, ringed with red reflective tape.

Rantoul. The Soft Rock Café there has posted a second sign for its weed-end hours:
Fri 4pm-8pm buffet
Sat 7am-4pm menu, 4pm-8pm buffet
Sun 7am-2pm menu except 3rd Sun which is a breakfast buffet.

Osawatomie. Rode the extra 2.5-miles from the semi-trailers to the business district, which is nicely done. Didn’t see a walk-in café there at first glance. So, stopped at Casey’s instead for a giant piece of Canadian-bacon pizza and a frosted pinwheel donut.

Now for the Prairie Spirit as a century or two 51’s. 🙂

Timon of Athens, 2011-09-11 09:42:01
It’s good to hear that the trail is in good shape. I plan to do the 44 miler in the organized ride on October 1st.

I also hope to get a century in on the PST in late October.

I can dream, right?

JD_Shawnee, 2011-09-12 08:34:45
Yeah Timon. Dreaming and imagining has a lot to do with it I think. Otherwise, I wouldn’t ride the trails much at all.

More than likely, I’ll do two 51-milers on the PSRT instead of a century. Always constraints of some kind for centuries, like, too much peach cobbler in my diet right now.

Your Oct-1 group ride should be fun. With luck, the trail will get rain before then to help close those fairly big cracks in it. Do watch for them. They’re big enough to cause wrecks or damage bike wheels bad.

Hope you’ll comment on the ride and café. Good riding!

Timon of Athens, 2011-09-13 12:07:18
Well, if Ottawa ever gets its act together and finishes the FHNT through town and connects it to the PST, I am ready to extend the coverage of this site to Rantoul and Osawatamie along with points south as the PST move in that direction.
Note: This is an archived copy of an old forum thread, maintained for posterity. For the latest discussions, check out our new forums!

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