We said our good byes to Mary and she headed west towards home. We had heard about a gravel bike event in Hermann and decided to participate before heading to Nebraska and the Cowboy trail.. Some of our friends have done these events and they always have fun. It is a two day activity with several loops each day. One can do as many loops as they want. They are all timed from when you start to when you finish. We tried to stay at the city park in Hermann where the event started, but it was booked by the bikers who were going to participate in the event. Doing a little research on where to find a campsite we came upon the Daniel Boone Conservation area. It was a free site with no facilities, but we are used to that and decided to go check it out. It was perfect, plus there were gravel roads everywhere to ride. We found a site, took out the bikes and went riding. The next day we did some more riding on one of the loops in the event. We also studied the route that the event will be on. We decided that we are going to do two loops the first day which would be 60 miles of riding and 50 the second day. Both days have some mileage on the Katy Trail before heading on some back roads. We also drove on one of the loops to get a feel for the up and down hills. The trail Katy got us ready for the flat but not so much for elevation. When we were on the Katy Tail we met someone who recommended the Adam Putchta Winery. When we saw it we decided to pull in and check it out.

May 1st. The first day of the Hermann Gravel Challenge begins. There is a lot of energy in the air. The serious competitors move to the front and Don and I move to the back.

Masks/buffs were required until we spread out!

We soon were in a rhythm and enjoying the pace. The first major hill had quite a few walkers so we didn’t feel bad when we joined the crowd. The route was a good mix of flats and elevation, along with great scenery. We completed the first loop and Don had gotten back to the van first. He thought he would wait for me at a corner but alas I had already passed it and in reality was quite close behind him. Eventually he figured that somehow he had missed me and headed back to the van where I was not very patiently waiting. Since we both had a rest we started loop two with energy. Another 30 miles and we completed day one. Total mileage 60. We enjoyed this day and plan a little strategy for tomorrow,

Day two was 50 miles or 100 miles if you wanted to go that route. We opted to do 50. The first 5 or so miles were on the Katy Trail as well as the last several miles. It is amazing how quickly the bikers dispersed. A lot of people had downloaded the route on their devices which made it quite helpful as the route was not always marked well.

It was a fun two days, and we got to put our bikes thru more challenging terrain than the Katy Trail

After the race we headed to Graham Cave State Park where we were able to take showers and enjoy some of the spring flowers.

We started the road trip to Norfolk and spent the night in a Walmart Parking lot in a major thunder/wind storm. We were glad that the shopping carts were well secured. We drove to Norfolk with the wind howling, This would not be a good day to start biking. We found where the trailhead for the Cowboy Trail was located. It didn’t seem like a great place to leave a vehicle and after checking a couple of other places we decided to drive to Valentine which is the other ending or starting place for the trail. We had decided to do the trail both ways so it didn’t really matter to us which was the recommended direction. When we arrived to Valentine we checked some parking places, when nothing struck us as good options we headed to the visitor center. Fortunately the receptionist was quite helpful and suggested that we could leave our vehicle in their parking lot. We headed down to the City Park, which had camp sites. Looks like we will be doing our first bikepacking adventure starting tomorrow.

We awake to temperatures in the mid 20’s, the heat in the van feels good. Soon though the sun is up and we begin the organization of putting our backpacking gear minus the backpack into various bags on our bike. It all fits.

We head to the visitor center where we park the van and then to the trail head.

This trail doesn’t seem to be quite as organized as the Katy Trail, but it is nice to see the official start.

The cowboy trail is 187 miles of crushed limestone surfacing. It is maintained by the Dept. of Transportation and is not on the priority list . Most of the trail was in descent shape, but when it rained some of the sections became quite soft. we were glad we had wider tires. There were also several bridges out from the flood of 2019. This meant detours on the highway. Fortunately the berms are quite wide and it was no problem to do road riding.

Within the first several miles we were riding over a very long trestle. (180 feet to be exact.) This trestle is well known on the Cowboy Boy Trail.

When we were driving into the town of Valentine, we saw this trestle. It was impressive from the road,

Today we saw antelope, wild turkeys, owls, a very large coyote, swans, geese and numerous ducks. We also saw the yellow headed blackbird. When we had peddled about 50 miles we pulled into the town of Ainsworth. We found the camping area, but it didn’t seem very open. a women who was parked there said she wasn’t sure if it was open but gave us a couple bottles of water before she drove off. We saw a maintenance man who was closing up a garage. He said that they were open and there was no charge for bike campers. He pointed us in the direction of a covered picnic area that had bathrooms close by. We ate a good dinner, set up the tent and soon were fast asleep. We get the feeling that we are on the early side of doing this trail. We heard that the temps got bee quite hot in the Sumer so we would rather deal with the cold. On another note when we pulled into the campsite last night we notice that we had picked up several thorns in our tires. We were thankful that we had tubeless tires and had no problem with flats.

The rain started falling about 5 and lasted till about 7. It was a very hard rain so staying in our tent felt appropriate. We felt fortunate that our bikes were in the shelter staying dry. We packed up and were on the trail about 8:30

There was a detour around some of the trail as a trestle was out. Unfortunately we didn’t see a sign to get back on the trail so we added some distance by riding some other dirt roads. The plus side was that we got to see some beautiful very large ranches and the start of oh so many cows.

The trail is mostly flat but there is an overall down slope to Norfolk from Valentine.

The trail goes by several small towns today. We stopped to buy some fruit at a small grocery store and a local man talked to Don about his family owning a ranch here for four generations.

We appreciated all the historical signs along the trail. They added to learning about the area.

The very small town of Newport had this pool hall along the trail.

There was a sign welcoming one to come inside the pool hall and look around. There were snacks and water available to purchase. It was an honor system to pay what you bought . You just had to leave the money in a little box.

The wind was behind us for most of the day which helps with making mileage. The trail was hardpacked for most of today’s travel. We made it to O’neil and camped at a fairground. They had hot showers which felt good. We are both feeling a little tired and have some sore body parts.

Mileage today was 68 miles

It was another cold morning so we decided to pack up and have breakfast a little later. We met a biker here who essentially lives on his bike and travels all over the country. We were quite impressed with all the places he has traveled on his bike. We also met a woman who was doing up and. backs . She would travel to a campsite, leave her car and return to her car each night. She does a guided tour on the Mickelson Trail in South Dakota and highly recommended it. We may try to do it this fall.

We rode our bikes to Ewing and by the time we got here it had warmed up and we pulled into a park to have breakfast. Some of the trail in this section was quite soft. The highway parallels the trail so we hopped off and rode on the highway for awhile. It was easy to make good time.

We were also glad to see this sign.

We have increased our awareness of the Monarch after a friend gave us a chrysalis and we watched it hatch into the butterfly stage. We also saw the migration of Monarchs in Michigan where they had gathered before flying across Lake Michigan.

Most of the town had these signs when you entered them.

In this section you can see how close the highway is to the trail.

Cows and grain elevators made up a lot of the scenery.

This section had several bridges out and one had to detour to the highway. One made good time, but the trail would have been a lot more scenic. We made it to the town of Norfolk today and camped at the TA-Ha-Zouka campground. With the strong west wind and some highway riding we arrived here today at 4:30

Mileage today was 75

We looked at the weather report when we arrived last night and then looked again. The west wind that pushed us so nicely yesterday was changing to become a very strong East wind. We decided to be ready to go early morning and were on the trail by 6:30. Our warm clothes and mittens felt good. This was the section of detours so back to the highway once again. We arrived to ONeil and decided that it was time for an ice cream.

When we got to the small town of Inman, we took a snack break and a woman in a nearby building came out to talk to us. Her story was quite interesting as well. She had bought this building and wanted to restore it to its original purpose. It was used to weigh hay and coal. She showed us a photo of bringing hay into be weighed.

The inside was full of antiques. It was as if we were just going back in time. One of her ideas was to open a coffee shop here.

It was fun listening to her tell stories of the town.

We continued to use the wind to our advantage and did our longest day ever on the bike. Our mileage today was 90 miles! We were ready to set up camp at Atkinson Mill Race Park. It took us a while to find it, but when we did it was a welcome sight. Very nice bathrooms as well as a covered picnic area. Glad to be here! Thanks to the wind. Looks like we will have more wind tomorrow.

Mileage today 95 miles

We headed out early thinking that we would take advantage of the wind again. We passed by some interesting ranches signs today.

We liked the wagon at the entrance to this ranch.

And then there were the cows. They were everywhere.

They all seemed quite curious when we rode by.

There were black cow fields and brown cow fields.

We had our DaBrim hats on today and they worked as a sail.

This sign was left over when the trails passed by.

We were about 100 miles from Valentine so decided to do 50 miles today and 50 miles tomorrow. We pulled into a small gas station that had a picnic table outside. Don went in and bought some drinks to have for our lunch. When we were eating his jaw went out. This is going to be interesting, Fortunately it went back in place. We found a you tube video that gave some ideas of pressure points to realign it and it worked. Later when we talked to our dentist, he thought it was the long ride and holding his mouth in one position while riding. Glad it didn’t give us any more problems for the rest of the trip.

We made it back to our campsite that we had stayed the first night.

It was a cold and rainy evening so we opted to just sleep in the picnic shelter. Tomorrow we plan to be back in Valentine.

With all the rain that we had last night the trail had turned quite soft. We alternated between trail and highway depending the hardness of the trail.

And of course we saw more cows.

This field was particularly interesting. There were a lot of calves and they wanted to chase us as we peddled next to the fence, This made their mothers try to catch them yelling at them the whole time.The little calves were quite spunky, kicking up their heels and just having fun.

Then we came upon the familiar trestle.

Trestles are definitely a fun part of riding the Rails to trails.

Then we saw the sign and knew that our trip on the Cowboy trail was coming to an end. We were quite happy with our first go at bike packing.

Headed to the visitor center where our car was packed, loaded up the bikes and headed to an RV park where we could do laundry and clean up. It was nice to be out of the weather. On to Wyoming..Oregon and catching the ferry back to Alaska.