54.7 miles, 885 ft ascent, 5:02 riding time.
Johannes and I started the day with a breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon at the exotic animal farm while we waited for it to stop raining. It did stop around 0930, at which point we went to the grocery store in town to pick up food for lunch because there were no towns between Nickerson and Great Bend. It was overcast, with temps in the upper 60’s, occasional rain and a wind of about 10 mph that changed direction during the day. We rode from primarily farming country into prairies and grasslands with grazing cattle.
The cattle must have thought we came to feed them. This is big sky country with loooong straight roads. We are gradually going up. By the time we reach Pueblo CO we will have increased our elevation by 2,000 ft. About the last 15 miles into Great Bend the route turned North directly into a headwind with gusts of about 13 mph.
Our route took us along the edge of the Quivira Wildlife refuge, which is 22,000 acres of marshes and grasslands. There had recently been a fire (or perhaps a controlled burn). I learned that there are no trees in the grasslands because most of their biomass is above ground, so they cannot withstand the occasional fires, whereas the grasses have half of their biomass below ground, so they can survive.
The city of Great Bend has many beautiful murals painted on the sides of buildings. This two are from an artist that I particularly liked.
Tonight we are staying at the Central Baptist church. The Pastor, Victor, was kind enough to let us sleep indoors in the fellowship hall, and we went to a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner.
Comments
Post a Comment