COLUMNS

Biking across Kansas is goodwill on wheels

Ben Goggins
bengoggins9@gmail.com
A Biking across Kansas cyclist takes a break in the Kansas countryside. [Ben Goggins/for savannahnow.com]

“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Well, for me that was just a hypothetical until last month, when I found myself in Kansas for the first time.

I was following a procession of bicyclists, west to east, from the Colorado to the Missouri border. It was the 45th year of Biking across Kansas. It’s an almost mystical event, like the great migration of wildebeest, zebras and gazelles across the Serengeti every spring.

Over the course of eight days, more than 800 riders covered 501 miles. Riders came from 31 states this year and ranged in age from 7 to 86. It’s a logistical tour de force.

Riders depart every morning, leaving their gear next to BAK trucks. When they arrive at the day’s destination, their gear has been unloaded there. They stay at local schools, many sleeping inside, many camping outside.

Along the route there are support stops for refreshment and camaraderie. Local groups also set up spots with homemade pie and ice cream. I learned that pie is prime fuel on BAK, and I felt duty-bound to sample, for research purposes, many slices of blueberry cheesecake, cherry, peach, peanut butter, strawberry rhubarb, chocolate, etc.

The route weaves along back roads, and the BAK riders often double the population of the small towns where they stop. Local civic and church groups give warm welcomes and raise funds by selling breakfasts, snacks and dinners.

Director Stephanie Weaver explains, “We’re not just focused on bicycling; the towns are not just pit stops; they are as much points of interest on BAK as the bicycling part of it. We really do care where we are.”

Cyclists ride as couples, as small teams, as families, as individuals. There is a family reunion spirit, seeing friends from rides of the past. Rides through beautiful terrain, rides in fair weather and foul, rides through golden wheat fields and over rolling hills, rides struggling with headwinds and crosswinds, rides joyous with tailwinds and clear skies.

I met folks who first rode with their kids or grandkids in tow, and whose kids and grandkids now ride with families of their own. Many folks who no longer ride come to celebrate the efforts and the passage through this time and space of the current riders.

What a way to discover the Sunflower state, totally immersed in the environment! We started in Goodland under a towering giant easel displaying Vincent Van Gogh’s “Three Sunflowers.”

Every town and hamlet was a discovery. The gracious ladies of Hoxie brought wheat farming history to life in the Mickey Museum. The Cottonwood Ranch in Studley celebrated the industry of British sheep ranchers.

It was stirring to explore the pioneer town of Nicodemus, the only remaining western community established by freed African Americans after the Civil War. It was wild and wooly to walk the streets of Hays where Wild Bill Hickok was marshal and to visit the original Boot Hill.

It was Oz-like to see from miles away the Basilica of St. Fidelis spires in Victoria rise above vast wheat fields. Poignant to see monuments to Volga Germans who immigrated to Kansas in the 1870s. Dazzling to pat the sunny side of the world’s largest Czech egg in Wilson.

I ate plenty of yeasty German bierocks, green-bean dumpling soup, and bratwurst. And lots of Czech kolaches with their poppy seed and apricot fillings.

The George Washington Carver Museum in Minneapolis celebrated the town’s favorite son, who “grew into a man of science whose curiosity and faith found in the humble weeds a bounty for all humanity.” In Abilene the Dwight Eisenhower Museum and Home were especially inspirational on Flag Day.

I was impressed by the large group of Mennonites who biked. One young girl rode the 501 miles barefoot; not to prove anything, just because she “lives life barefoot.” A high-school shop teacher said how happy he was thinking of “who can I assist, not who can I pass.” And “what a joy it is to be outside and use the legs and lungs God gave you.”

I saw that BAK was a community moving through communities. A chorus of bikers visited and sang in nursing homes in Hays and Clay Center. Welcoming towns held evening block parties.

This is the heartland. This is decency and drive. This is personal bests and helping hands. This is riders leaving only their tire prints and, like the freshening wind over amber waves of grain, the pure hum of 1,600 wheels.

Ben Goggins, a retired marine biologist, lives on Tybee Island. He can be reached at 912-547-3074 or bengoggins9@gmail.com.

On the web

• See the route and towns along the way for Biking across Kansas: bak.org

• See photos and posts at the BAK Facebook Group: facebook.com/bikingkansas/