August 1-4, 2003. What a delightful long weekend! Five BT Kansas riders made the ride to Wray, Colorado to join up with two more trailering in from St. Louis, MO and Lawrence, KS. Making the 400-525 mile overland trek were: Jim Foley - KLR650, Allan Patton - KLR650, Jeff Jelinek - Triumph Tiger, Don Morgan - KTM 640 LC4, and Roger Baugh - KLR650. Our pavement highlights included stops in Lucas, KS to visit the Garden of Eden ... and Damar, KS to see a beautiful church located at this French-Canadian settled community. Aside from some spectacular lightning displays and light rain early in the pre-dawn morning, the ride was very easy and uneventful. Arriving in Wray, we were joined by Chris Greenhoot - KTM LC4 620 RXC, and Sean Noll - KLR650. Being fresh on arrival, Chris and Sean went reconnoitering into the thules before dinner, and returned with some great photos and stories. Thankfully, Jim Foley (aka: Mr. Wizard) was along on this ride. Strange noises were heard coming from Roger's engine after the long ride to Wray .... and Jim was able to quickly isolate and correct. Many, many heartfelt thanks! Saturday morning marked the beginning of our adventure into the Beecher's Island historic site in Colorado, and the Arickaree Breaks area of Kansas. As the images below show, it was fantastic out there! Also, towards the end of the day, Roger picked up a large nail in the rear tire. "Slime" works .... and no repair or tube replacement was made and the bike continued all the way back to Wichita with no loss of air pressure. On Sunday, the party split up. Earlier the evening before, Jeff continued his journey to Sturgis, SD. Jim decided to ride east to visit some areas in northern Kansas. Chris and Sean had found an area north of Wray that deserved additional exploration, and would spend Sunday morning in that area before heading back east. Allan, Don, and Roger decided to head home, as well. During the home stretch for Don and Roger, who should we encounter near Gaylord, KS ... but Pat Conrad and his wife out for a leisurely Sunday ride. Small world, isn't it? It was a great 1,000 plus mile ride for most of us. We saw much, and experienced some great camaraderie. Be sure to mark this one as a "must do" in 2004! Click on a thumbnail to view a larger image. Use your browser's "back" button, or the "left" arrow in the navigation bar to return to this page.

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