Stockdale WalnutWoods

I went to the Stockdale-Walnut Woods trail yesterday.
http://stocksdalewalnutwoods.blogspot.com/

When I hear the name "Stockdale", it always reminds me of Will Stockdale.

At first I wondered if I was in the right spot because there were a lot of cars at the park, but no bike racks. This suggested the trail was full of hikers, but at 8am on a 16 degree morning. I noticed a car bumper stickers that said "VIP, Very Important Pitcher"

and underneith said Horseshoepitiching.com.

There is a building off to the right of the trail entrance with a lot of clanging going on inside. An indoor horseshoe pitching league was going on. I was welcomed and shown around, told the rules, and shown how some people pitch the horse shoes.
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Back to the trail enterance. It is clearly marked with a map from Earthriders.

The board shows the trail is open to Hikers, Trail Runners, and Mountain bikes. This is nice to know because sometime not all the trail is open to mountain bikes, just hikers.
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Trail marker 1. This is one of many markers. This markers shows that section 1 can go either left, or right and both are rated a green skill level. Some are rated Blue.

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If you go Straight or East, the trail will bring you to what appears to me, older sections of the trail system. These trails are faster (not much) than the trails to the north.

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If you go off to the left or North, this section is the newer sections. These trails are more technical, tighter and twisty.
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There are a couple of these tress out there. Beware don't get a face full.

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This is about maybe 85% of the trail. In my experience the trail system is a cross between Lawerence River trail and swope park. I never left the middle ring (32). Nothing out there so steep you had to ride the small, and nothing wide open enough to run the big ring . . .

. . . . other that the section outside the woods.

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WATCH OUT! . . . Low Bridge!

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Planks-O-Joy! . . . Planks-O-Plenty, just one of many of these

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Decisions, Decisions . . . Rocks or Log-O-Joy!
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It's a nice little trail. I'll come visit it some more. It's very well maintained.
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Found this lttle guy on my way to work Friday. It's a 12mm Snap-On combination open/12 point box wrench. It's a little scatched up from being run over by cars on the road, but as far as I can tell all, what littel damage there is is just cosmetic. Too bad I can't think of anything that uses a 12mm. I supect this wrench is worth a dollar or two. I noticed the jaws of the wrench. now there is attention to detail. Too bad I don't have anything 12mm to try it out on. Oh yea this will go nice with the Snap-on Standard screw driver I found a year ago, as well as the Snap-On 3/8 drive. . . . Who says riding doesn't pay?

Trolleys and Folleys

Trolleys

I decided to take the trolley trail into work today. The trolley trail starts in the Dodson Industrail District. About 85th and Prospect is a bar called What's Happen'n Lounge. Just to the Left you will see the start to the Trolley Trail.

The trail is 6.5 miles long and ends in the Plaza. There are different zones. I didn't see an explanation, about how the zones are defined, but I'll assume . . . Yep ASS u ME, the zones go from Green, Yellow, Orange, to Red.

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This is the Orange Zone. Perhaps the Order of Orange ride these parts.

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It's a nice route. I like it a lot. Lot of interesting stuff to see. The ride seems longer than 6.5 miles.
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Yellow Zone . . . Also it's a cell phone zone. Will I be getting a call from Ed McMahan reguarding my publisher clearing house prize.
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Red Zone? I'm not sure why this would be reguarded as a red zone. Just to the right is BB's Lawnside Barbeque. If you get a chance to eat there, I highly recommend it.
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Hmmm Made it to the Green Zone

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It's like the All Seeing Eye . . . but not!
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When the trail enters Waldo is where the trail switches from pavement to fine gravel.

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. . . and where it ends.

The Plaza.

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Up Main Street to 39th and I'm at MidWest Cyclery

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The top floor of the building across the street has always caught my interest.

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Folleys

Sign Say Bridge Out, didn't see anything about crossing anyway you can . . . Bridge Schmidge

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Getting down to the bottom was easy enough.
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Am I headed for a meeting with a contemporary version of the Seven Blocks of Granite, the Four Blocks of Granite?
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Telephone pole . . . That's one way up.
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I think is see my line.
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Ahhh . . . One of the virtues of the fixed gear bicycle. No derailleurs to mess up. It's the perfect hiking bike.
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In the rain this is a bit too steep to be climbing in cycling shoes as well as carrying a bike up. However I can perch my bike up far enough to get it where once I'm on top, I can then reach down, anf then pull it up.
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To the telephone pole we go.
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We're Up
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Bike's not . . . Arrrgh . . . bar tape and seat in the mud.
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Here it's just a matter of hitching the bike while get out from under the pole.
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Success!

A morning at Swope Park Trails

Rode the last two mornings at Swope Park Trails, in Swope park. Here is the enterance. You might be confused if you have never ridden Swope Park trails. While at the same time it's the enterance, there is also a sign that says, "Trespassing Prohibited". Mmmmm Jumbo Shrimp?

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I like the maps, and direction signs on the course. Rancho D-lux or WudChuck Run? I always go Rancho first, then hit WudChuck on the way back.

What's a WudChuck. In short the WudChucks are a team of Expert MTB racers here in Kansas City, that are involved in all facets of the Kansas City, MTB experience. Chances are if your riding a trail in Kansas City, Your benefiting from there sweat and tears. Most noteably Scott Capstack, and Craig Stoeltzing. There are more people involved, and deserve aknowledgment, but those two are the one's who got these trails developed and off the group. If you notice of the Swope Trails site. They are the "Trail Hermits".
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Ohhhh here's the map.

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This is a cool little rock tile part of the Rancho -D-Lux.

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It should take you about 10 minutes to get to this point, you can go back WudChuck, or keep going to "8 Pin -Alley".

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Keep left for Rancho, or right for WudChuck.

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JawBreaker!

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XXX . . . It's not that bad if your familiar with it. I wouldn't recommend just charging down it sight-unseen.

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Ahhh . . . There's the danger . . . The Cat of Caerbannorg . . . Huge Sharp, Pointy Teeth!

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Why is it called 8-Pin Alley . . . Don't know . . . Kind of a pain, . . . a little technical.

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a lot of root and rock formations like this you have to ride over.

on the way back you can enjoy the part where the trail goes between the hugh rocks.

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or to the side.

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All in all I think it's kind of a techical course. You just have to watch out for some of the rocky sections. I tend to push the course's integrity. I've hit the deck out here a couple of times on the rocks. It's not pleasant. For the most part it's rocks, and not dirt. It's not forgiving. I hit a rock with my front tire plowing throw a rock garden, punctured my front tire, and here are the results.

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Yep . . . That's gonna leave a mark!

You want to ride fast on the rocks? Be prepared for the consequences. This made the last 2 miless of the ride exponentionaly harder.

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Next time I'm going to be wearing one of these. A Six-Six-One Presure Suit.