After last weekends debacle (when my wheeled sled fell apart) I was determined to head back to the Prairie Spirit Trail to finish what I had started. This time I would take a rucksack to carry my kit the 30 miles to Garnett and the campsite.
The 100 mile drive East to Iola was completed in time for my 7am start, all snow had now melted from the trail and the weather was cool, clear, dry and with a useful tail wind.
Sunrise
The trail is maintained by the 'Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks', again I filled in my details on the trail permit envelope, provided my $7 for 2 days use of the trail and placed it in the pay station. The park authority wont take in too many funds this weekend, I did not see another person on the trail over the 2 days.
I passed through Raymond at 10 miles and then Welda at 18 miles, still at 3.2 mph so on target to get to campsite before 5pm.
The old station at Garnett is now maintained as an R&R stop for trail users, its a grand old building with memorabilia covering the walls.
These were the only utilities open on the trail at this time of year with water, toilets & heating. I was tempted to bivi on the floor, I guess it would have been locked at dusk and opened at dawn.
I got directions in the town for a general store to get some supplies. After 10 minutes of walking the directions were not proving very useful. Just as I was being threatened by an angry dog the police appeared and asked me to get control of my dog.. they then chased it down the street (without leaving the car). In the Dollar General I bought bagels, cheese, crisps, cola, lemonade and trail mix, 1 mile to go to the campsite.
As the light faded I got the tent up and built a fire, fuelled by a generous splash of coleman fuel and the strong wind the fire lit easily. A few seconds later a siren sounded across the park, this was quickly followed by the sirens of emergency vehicles, I was convinced that the local fire department were about to join me but they did not. I presume the siren was to inform park users that it was dusk and time to head home.
As I was heating water for dinner an animal walked toward me from the woods, it stopped 15 yards away to check me out and then wandered into some trees. I could see from the glow of its eyes lit by my headlamp that it was still watching me. It was a wild cat about the size of a medium dog, I considered packing up and leaving but figured that if there were dangerous animals here the policeman would have warned me. I now find on-line that there are cougars and mountain lions in Kansas (!!).
Even though the camp site was at the far end of the park, cars still passed by the site for much of the night, the police also circled passed several times, maybe to check if the cats had got me.
I was up and away by daybreak at 7am, I headed through the small city and back on to the trail.
7 hours into the return journey a storm blew in and put down an inch of snow, the wind was blowing hard and the trail quite exposed. Good weather for testing the race kit.
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