Last thing I expected to do today was to have a 52 mile bike ride. And, Eureka, I did find the trail. Now I am confused about a different location. But first:
ryno - it was a pleasure to meet and ride with you. Hope to do a lot more.
MajorMavrick - welcome, looks like quite the group assembling.
At 89th, go left (east) to Ratner Rd. Take a right (south) At the bottom of the hill, the entrance will be to your left. There is a large tree that has fallen across the trail. I passed by there in the pickup at least twice and didn't see it.
From there it is pretty rough going. Lots of places with deep ballast that riding is impossible. The concrete on the bridges looks pretty fresh so I know that they are working on it. You ride in the middle of nowhere for quite some time with no place to bail and then you finally get to Shawnee Heights Road and everything ends. I couldn't find rail bed on the other side of the road so I don't know if I missed something or that is where it ends. I was too tired at that point to do any investigating.
At Shawnee Heights, take a left (south) end up in Overbrook. Take a right (north), easy way back to civilization, or at least the more established trails. I goofed, I went left, was introduced to Puke Hill. It is appropriately named and even is painted on the road showing you where to puke. Went to Overbrook with the intention of heading west to old 75 and riding the wind back to Topeka. Ryno can tell you that we fought a hard southerly wind while we were riding. I also told him that I thought I would get caught in the wind shift and have to ride against it on the way back. That's what happened. It started shifting in Overbrook so after a diet Dr Pepper and small bag of peanut M&M's, headed back north on Shawnee Heights that turned into Shadden that ran into 89. West on 89th back to the trail. Missed the trail, ran into some thorn bushes. Legs and fingers where the half gloves didn't cover were pretty scratched up. Got back to Topeka and to my Grandson's school with 5 minutes to spare.
Lessons learned.
Take the GSC10 bike sensor off. Useless when it gets rough and it gets moved around and out of sync. Shouldn't be concerned with pace on the trails anyway.
Love my new bike. I couldn't have made that ride with anything else, even with the StumpJumper, although it would have been nice in a couple of places.
I bit off more that I could chew. I'm beat. I'm glad I did it and I'm glad that I made it, but I wished I would have heading north at Shawnee Heights and skipped the M&M's. I did bring some dried apples with me too and finished them off on the way back.
Here's the data. Note the 1600 calories burned and the elevation changes
Landon Trail Ride by mjanway at Garmin Connect - Details