October 2, 2005 ... An early Fall ride into the Flint Hills of Greenwood and Chase counties. Ten riders gathered at the "Biker Breakfast" in Cassoday to enjoy a colorful day in the little-traveled region. Those making this ride included: Tracy Ropp - Goddard - KLX650, Doug Bump - Wichita - DR650, Stephen Burden - Haysville - XR650L, Steven Baker - Wichita - F650GS, Mitch Albertson - Towanda - DR350, Richard Sobba - Towanda - DR650, Ken Seidl - Wichita - XT350, Ken Meyer - Goddard - DRZ400, Barry Hoofer - Wichita - DRZ400, and Roger Baugh - Wichita - KLR650. Leaving the large cruiser crowd and noise behind, we rolled out of Cassoday towards the southeast, working our way towards the ghost town of Lapland. Along the way, we were fortunate to see several small wild mustang herds at close range. From Lapland, we rode to the ghost town of Teterville, where we had an unrestricted view of several more mustang herds. From Teterville, we rode north to the ghost town of Elco, and enjoyed a number of areas of open range riding. In time, we worked our way to the town of Cottonwood Falls, and lunch at The Emma Chase Cafe. Following lunch, we rode backroads to Bazaar, then rode south along the Sharpe's Creek valley. We then turned back to the west and ended up in Matfield Green, our "end of the trail". We enjoyed seeing some great scenery on this ride, as well as wildlife. White tailed deer, red tailed hawks, and turkey vultures were seen in abundance. Once again, another enjoyable day on the backroads of the Flint Hills! * Sidenote: Many of the photos appear to be in "soft focus". Actually, what you are seeing is the grasslands in constant motion from a 35-45 mph wind. No attempts to shoot close-ups of wildflowers this day ... they were dancing all over the place! The extreme crosswinds also meant that riding loose gravel at speed produced elevated adrenaline levels ... several of us were practically blown off the road on a couple of stretches! 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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