With a working bike I continued along the trail again today, travelling from Great Bend to Newton. The weather in Kansas is on a warming trend, next week is meant to get quite hot indeed. In a bid to beat the heat I started well before sunrise today, rolling out of Great Bend in the dark using my bike lights. It was totally worth it, I spooked a few deer and racoons, possums, skunks, or whatever they were, they went running, but the relative lack of wind and moderate temperatures made for a pleasant ride, and I watched the sun rise from the saddle of my bike.

Great Bend is named, predictably, because it’s where the Arkansas River bends to the south. The trail loosely follows the Arkansas River today, but then heads east, while the river continues further south to pass through Wichita. What I’ve been told about Kansas is true, it is flat, although it rolls, it is hot, and it is windy. The whole state seems to be laid out in a grid system, when you don’t have geography limiting you I guess there’s no reason not to.

The rural farmland punctuated by small towns continued, but it felt less desolate than the western part of the state which had few dwellings and few features, as I continue west there are more houses, more trees, but still lots and lots of fields of crops. There were also idyllic fluffy clouds punctuating the sky.

Tonight I’m staying in Newton, a medium sized town with some cute streets with well maintained houses. Tomorrow should be slightly warmer again than today so I’ll look to try and beat the heat again as much as possible.