Biking Across Kansas (BAK)

As most of you know, Deb, Deb, and I, along with Estelle and Sally from Sacramento joined in and rode the yearly Biking Across Kansas (BAK) event. Every year is a different route and there are about 800 participants. Even though with all the wind and heat this year the attrition rate was down to about 600 or less by the end...

This year was 522 miles starting from Tribune in the west and ending at Leavenworth in the east.

Day 1
72 miles, 100 feet elevation gain (at +3000 feet), 98 degrees, 20-30 mph side and tail winds.
Photo: cows and sunflowers

Day 2
76 miles, 1000 feet elevation gain, 100 degrees, 30+ mph side and tail winds. Still at about 2,500 feet elevation.
Photo: rest area

Day 3
61 miles, 1000 feet elevation gain, 87 degrees when we finished, got up to 100 later.  Winds were less than the previous days, about 15 mph side winds. Lots of fun rollers. Food has been a little challenge for the vegan in the group, luckily we brought enough food! We are drinking every 15 minutes and eating every 45! Staying on top of hydration and energy.

Photo: Turkey vultures over the campground. Waiting for expired cyclists?

Day 4
OMG today was brutal. 72 miles, 1200 feet elevation gain, 103 degrees on the road and now.  Winds 30 mph side and head, being blown off the road all day was crazy.
Photos: the wheat fields and helping fix a flat

Day 5
We thought yesterday's adventures were over, but about 9 pm the winds picked up - even more and we got a lightening show. We also heard the winds were going to get to 50 miles an hour. Well at 10 pm the organizers came around and told everyone we had to evacuate our tents, move into the gym, and take all of our bags too. After a huge ordeal of dragging air mattresses and bags in the wind, we settled in the media room (of a high school) with about 6 others. In the morning we found out that about 65 of 70 tents (from the company we are using) were destroyed and the manager, who weights at least 250 lbs, got tangled in a tent and the wind threw him about 30 feet!

Today:
75 miles, 1000 feet elevation gain, only 98 degrees on the road! Winds were "normal". Even though we were fried from yesterday we road well today!

Here is a photo of some lightening taken from our tent. I was too slow to get the bigger lightening strikes.

Day 6
Adventures are not over!

So yesterday the humidity started now that we getting closer to the Missouri. We had a lovely new tent since ours was destroyed and all was well except we got a ton of bug bites now that the humidity is  higher.
We would be riding through Fort Riley today and it would be open to us at 9 am with only 16 miles to get there, so instead of getting up at 5 we decided to get up at 6. We also looked at the weather and said shoot the high was only going to be 94 and we are way used to that now so we can start later.

Well..... it was hot and humid from the get go, we usually had 1-2 hours of "cooler" weather in the morning before the sun got too high in the sky, not today, it was already 85 at our 7:15 am start! And did I say humid, like the standing still dripping kind.

And it only got hotter, so we took longer and more frequent to cool down when we saw shade. Other than pulling over there was NO shade at all, a strong side wind and my watch said 103 degrees. The weather service said 95 degrees, but feels like 108! And gosh they were right. Many heat problems and sickness for many riders. Some even got ambulance rides.

Now here comes the amazing part, we get to the camp and they told us they were moving us to the school from the get go because there was a storm brewing. We get moved in and an announcement says the winds will be to 80 mph with hail, heavy rains, thunder and lightening. The food trucks were outside and they were moving tent food in. And they had you move your bikes closer to the building. We got ours under a truck, hopefully the truck stays upright. Phew!

So we are hunkered down in the gym with howling wind, thunder and rain making a incredible amount of noise!!!

Today:
75 miles, 1100 feet elevation gain, finally hills to 8% and over 103 degree temps. Winds were strong but helped cool us.

Here are photos:
Deb, Cheryl, Estelle, Deb, Sally
The three of us in our first Starbucks since last Thursday!
Under a fire truck sprinkler 8 miles from the end of this day.
Cheryl doing her exercises at the top of the bleachers......

Day 7
So we woke up to dry grounds and cooler temps, the storm took away most of the humidity.  Our coolest start of the whole week at 67 degrees.  It stayed cooler for a little bit, then got more humid and hot, maxed out around 101 on my computer.

Must say the day was, finally, uneventful. Even though they moved us indoors because another storm is on the way! And finally we had some hills, some great rollers, we were in heaven, well at least I was 😉.

Today:
65 miles, 3000 feet elevation gain, hills to 10% and 101 degree temps. Winds were reasonable.
Such an uneventful day we didn't even take a photo!




Day 8
Well good thing they moved us inside last night because it seemed like the biggest storm of them all. There were sky lights in the gym and the lightening woke us up around midnight. There were downed trees all along the route this morning, even a big trampoline was over turned in the ditch.

Today the 25 miles with 800 feet elevation were in only 80 degrees, but the humidity was thick enough to cut with a knife. We touched our wheels in the Missouri as a ceremonial end to the ride. It was a long and hard week, but we did it and are ready for a couple of days to recovery.

Photo: finishing in the Missouri and a sign on our breakfast restaurant door that says: "CAUTION! Please hold on to the door!!! The wind will catch it and it may blow completely off it's hinges"