Off the trail

You can’t spend all your time hiking, biking, and riding – here are our recommendations for other ways to enjoy your time in Kansas along with upcoming events.

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A Kansas Bestiary: Book review

bestiary_cover_t180For our upcoming book, we wanted to not just give information on how to navigate the trails of Kansas, but some of the interesting pieces of natural history. In our reading and research, we came across the book A Kansas Bestiary by Jake Vail, Doug Hitt, and illustrated by Lisa Grossman.

The book was recognized as a Kansas Notable Book in 2013, and it’s a short and lovely book of fantastic facts and entertaining stories of 15 animals that make their home in Kansas with beautiful illustrations of each animal.

The bestiary is “compendium of beasts.” It’s a book style/genre that was popular in the Middle Ages and the focus was combining natural history information along with illustrations and often with a moral lesson.

The animals included in this book range from the commonplace like the grasshopper and meadowlark and bison to the more threatened, secretive, or even endangered like the black-footed ferret, prairie chicken, and badger.

The descriptions of each animal have a clear dose of scientific research and support with often fanciful and compelling writing, which makes it easy to read and unlike any other book we’ve read about Kansas’ animals. The moral lessons of bestiaries past isn’t really present like bestiaries in the past, though along with natural history, there’s often a discussion of or musings on how an animal has been represented in human history in the past and the intrinsic worth it has to its ecosystem. Here’s an example of a small part of one of the entries:

Badger  “Loose-skinned, low-slung as a surfboard, Taxidea taxus skulks the prairie waves mainly in the dark, skirting the edges of perception while looming large in the subterranean imaginations of Homo sapiens…”

If you’re looking for a uniquely Kansas book to gift to yourself or to a loved one, this should definitely be on the top of your list.

You can buy the book at a selection of local bookstores and tourist attractions around the state, or you can email: kansasbestiary [at] gmail [dot] com for information about how to pay by check or money order.

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What’s so special about Kansas: Interview with William Least Heat-Moon

Whatever else prairie is—grass, sky, wind—it is most of all a paradigm of infinity, a clearing full of many things except boundaries, and its power comes from its apparent limitlessness; there is no such thing as a small prairie any more than there is a little ocean, and the consequence of both is this challenge: try to take yourself seriously out here, you bipedal plodder, you complacent cartoon.

William Least Heat-Moon, PrairyErth

We have to admit, that we have used this series on the site as an excuse and reason to reach out to some of our favorite authors. We heard back from Rolf Potts and Marci Penner, and now, we’re honored that we got some face time, or rather Facebook time, with William Least-Heat Moon.

To start with, yes, we know he lives in Missouri, but he spent a great deal of time in Kansas researching his book PrairyErth: A Deep Map, and he’s an advocate for the prairie and the small town.

He’s written extensively about America and its landscapes in books like Blue Highways: A Journey into America, where he writes of checking out the back roads of the country after his divorce and in River-Horse: The Logbook of a Boat Across America, sets off aboard a small boat named Nikawa (“river horse” in Osage) from the Atlantic at New York Harbor in hopes of entering the Pacific near Astoria, Oregon.

His work isn’t just about travel within America; his most recent book Here, There, Elsewhere: Stories from the Road is a collection of his selections of his best shorter travel stories.

His insightful, thoughtful writing paints the pictures of lives and places that may be far beyond our own experience, but he brings them close and takes us with him on his journeys. His writing is intensely good and will stay with you.

Deep in working on his own book, and not knowing us beyond our cautious request that he write the foreword for our book, he graciously answered a few questions for us.

Kansas Trail Guide: You wrote PrairyErth, an in-depth book on Chase County, Kansas, which is situated in the Flint Hills. Part of the area has been set aside as a national preserve. Why do you think that the Flint Hills ecosystem is an area worth protecting?

Heat-Moon: It’s the American uniqueness of the tallgrass prairie and its rarity today.

[Kansas Trail Guide: The tallgrass prairie is at 4% of what it once was, and one of its largest intact swathes is in the Flint Hills. Thanks to the underlying rock, it’s a landscape that is unfarmable, and so was saved from being plowed under, but there has been a switch, it seems, from seeing the land as useless to a unique ecosystem.]

Kansas Trail Guide: What do you think is the appeal of a landscape like the Flint Hills that some may think is uninteresting or uninspiring compared to mountain or beach landscapes?

Heat-Moon: The tall prairie asks people to look more closely and deeply (hence the subtitle of PRAIRYERTH–“A Deep Map.”)

Kansas Trail Guide: In our upcoming trail guidebook, we’re focusing on the trails that can be accessed on foot, on a bike, or on a horse as compared to any highways or byways, forcing people to slow down to experience the area.

What value, if any, do you see in getting off the paved sidewalks and onto trails through the woods and the prairies?

Heat-Moon: Our human origins do not lie along sidewalks and paved surfaces; rather they lie where living things arise from soil and water.

Kansas Trail Guide: Your writing has focused around traveling, often more slowly than most people travel. Do you have another big trip in the works? Or one that you’re working on writing up?

Heat-Moon: My days of writing about long travels are likely at my back now. I hope now to look more closely at what I find on the little place in the woods where I live.

[Kansas Trail Guide: We’re looking forward to reading more from him.]

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What’s so special about Kansas: Interview with Marci Penner

People are missing a lot if they don’t spend time in Kansas, especially if they like hiking, eating in locally-owned cafes, finding architectural gems, running in to grassroots art.  There are so many excellent things about Kansas but a person has to do a little exploring.

For the second in our What’s so special about Kansas series, the first interview was with Rolf Potts, we reached out to Marci Penner. Award-winner for tourism promotion and being an all around great leader for the state of Kansas, she wrote the 8 Wonders of Kansas guidebook and is updating the Kansas Guidebook for Explorers. She kindly wrote a foreword for our upcoming trail guidebook, and she’s getting geared up for this year’s Kansas Sampler Festival.

Kansas Trail Guide: You and your father founded the Kansas Sampler Foundation, which puts on the Kansas Sampler Festival, and you’re currently the director – can you give an overview of the event for those who may not have been of it before?

festivallogo2Penner: We are in our 25th year of the Kansas Sampler Festival.  It started out as a book signing party for our first Kansas Weekend Guide and turned into a full-fledged festival to provide the public a sample of what there is to see, do, hear, taste, buy, and learn in Kansas.  It was held on our farm near Inman for eight years and now the event moves around the state.

The Kansas Sampler Foundation was started in 1993 to help preserve and sustain rural culture.  We educate Kansans about Kansas, like with our guidebooks, the festival, the Kansas Explorers Club, e-blasts, and programs

WenDee LaPlant, assistant director, and I are currently going to every incorporated city in Kansas again to research for the update to Kansas Guidebook for Explorers.  It’s due out in early 2016.  It takes awhile to go to 626 towns!

The Foundation also works to network and support rural communities.  We do things like the Big Rural Brainstorm, We Kan! Conference, the PowerUp Movement, Rural Kansas: Come & Get It (getruralkansas.org) and many other things.

Kansas Trail Guide: When and where is this year’s Kansas Sampler Festival, and what can people expect if they visit?

Penner: This year’s Kansas Sampler Festival will be held in Wamego’s City Park on Saturday, May 3 (10 a.m.-5 p.m.) and Sunday, May 4 (10 a.m.-4 p.m.).  $5 adult admission, $3 for kids 7-12.  You’ll find representatives from 150 Kansas communities on the grounds to help you know about everything from trails to restaurants, historic sites to events.  Kansas musicians, historic performers, photographers, and entrepreneurs will be there along with a kangaroo, packgoats, Mammoth Donkeys, and a Kansas fish aquarium.  Come buy, sample Kansas wines and microbrews, or just enjoy the entertainment.  In one weekend you’ll get a year’s worth of day trip ideas.

Kansas Trail Guide: You’ve written some guidebooks of your own for Kansas – what place do you feel a trail guidebook would fit into the mix of information out there about Kansas?

Penner: A trail guidebook will be an awesome addition for glove compartments, coffee tables, and backpacks.  You’ve done a great job finding all the trails and going to them so you could deliver firsthand information.  I’m so excited about your book.  The diversity, quality, and even number of trails in this state are overlooked.  We appreciate you drawing attention to one of our best assets!

Kansas Trail Guide: Our book with University Press of Kansas is all about trails in Kansas for hiking, biking, and horseback riding. Many of the trails are in state and county parks. Do you have a favorite park or favorite trail in Kansas? If so, what is it that makes it special for you?

Marci Penner on the trail

Marci Penner on the trail

Penner: I really love the trails at Cross Timbers State Lake in Woodson County.  You almost feel like you are in a different state with all the rock and woods but this is Kansas, too!

Kansas Trail Guide: What are some of the biggest Kansas misconceptions you think people have?

Penner: As Jason Probst says, “Kansas is in the details.”  You have to want to get to know Kansas and when you’ve come to that point then the state becomes a huge playground with infinite nooks and crannies to explore.  Until you are willing to get to know the state there will be misconceptions between east and west, between urban and rural, between young and old.

The joy is when you toss aside expectations and judgments and just get out there to meet people for who they are and try to understand each place for what it is.

Kansas Trail Guide: Out of staters often think of Kansas as “flyover country” – what would you say to change their minds?

Penner: First we have to change the minds of Kansans.  Once we are proud of our own state then attitudes will start to change everywhere.  Guidebooks like yours and photography that is shared online are two good ways to help reset the way people see Kansas.  People are missing a lot if they don’t spend time in Kansas, especially if they like hiking, eating in locally-owned cafes, finding architectural gems, running in to grassroots art.  There are so many excellent things about Kansas but a person has to do a little exploring.

Kansas Trail Guide: Some Kansas natives think of Kansas as a place to move away from once they’re old enough or after college – what would you say to change their minds?

Penner: I don’t think it’s our job to convince them.  I think it’s our job to work daily at making Kansas a place that is vital to young people.  The first step is to enlist the young people that are here and to make sure their voice is heard in discussions about sustaining communities.  I’m all for young people going out to see the world and then if they want to come back to Kansas we’re better off with all the experience they bring with them.  There are many things we can do to make our state a great place to live for all ages.

Kansas Trail Guide: When you think of Kansas, what’s the image that comes to mind?

Penner: One of my favorite images is sitting on the porch of my barn house and watching an electrical storm sweep across the sky.  The vast horizon is the pallet for those huge lightning strikes that run across the sky.. and then it all goes pitch dark until the next one erupts.  Sometime we get lucky when a rainbow shows up the next morning. It’s all in the details.

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve
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Tallgrass Prairie Preserve

The Flint Hills culture is built on prairie grasses.  Too rocky to be tilled, the rugged limestone underlying the prairie soils spared the majority of this landscape from the homesteaders plow.  While the sodbusters moved on to more amenable locations, the ranchers established a stronghold in the Flint Hills.  The expansive cattle ranches throughout the area have effectively kept large contiguous tracts of tallgrass prairie intact to this day.   While much of the Flint Hills is in private hands, there’s no better place to experience the sublime beauty of the prairie than at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve near Strong City.  A multitude of hiking trails follow old ranch roads throughout the preserve, and the trails are open 24/7 affording opportunities for night hiking as well. Kids will enjoy hiking the Southwind Nature Trail to the Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse, a one-room country school, built in 1882 and still standing strong.

Ranch house

Stephen Jones Ranch House Photo by Mark Conard

Lower Fox Creek School Photo by Mark Conard

Lower Fox Creek School
Photo by Mark Conard

The schoolhouse is open for tours on Saturdays from 12-4 during May-June and September-October. Hard-core hikers will want to experience the expansive backcountry trails that start behind the historic stone barn, and we recommend the Scenic Overlook Trail or Crusher Hill Loop for spectacular views of wide-open prairie. Watch your step when crossing through Windmill Pasture as bison roam freely through this area and there have been recent reports of aggressive behavior. Front-country trails winding along Lower Fox Creek are sheltered from the wind and are a great spot to view a diverse assortment of wildlife.

If you’re able to visit this weekend (April 26th) there’s a special event “Let’s Experience the Great Outdoors” sponsored in partnership with Backwoods, which includes opportunities for volunteer service, kids activities, crafts, and demonstrations.  There are great hiking opportunities as part of the event and knowledgeable park rangers will lead a family-friendly hike along the Southwind Nature Trail (12:30 – 1:30), a longer nature hike into the backcountry (1:30 – 3:30) and even a special night hike from 9:00 – 10:00 PM.

After a day on the trail, take some time to experience the ranching culture of the Flint Hills,  which is still alive and strong in the nearby towns of Strong City and Cottonwood Falls. The annual Flint Hills Rodeo in Strong City will be held from June 5-7 and is the longest-running consecutive rodeo in Kansas.  Cottonwood Falls is also home to the legendary Emma Chase Cafe and Music Hall. The food is certainly good but the main attraction each Friday night is the acoustic jam session. Check out the full schedule of performers and get ready for some authentic music from the heart of the Flint Hills. It’s an experience like no other and has been named one of the “8 Wonders of Kansas Customs” by the Kansas Sampler Foundation.  Each Friday features a different genre, ranging from acoustic country, gospel, bluegrass, and old-fashioned rock-n-roll.

 

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60th Anniversary of Brown v Board of Education

“The story of Brown v. Board of Education, which ended legal segregation in public schools, is one of hope and courage.”

2014 marks the 60th year since the monumental case – Brown v Board of Education. The United States Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for states to have schools segregated by race.

It started in Topeka, Kansas in 1951 when 13 parents sued the Topeka Board of Education, calling for the desegregation of the schools. Led by Oliver Brown, whose daughter had to ride the bus to the closest school for African-Americans, because the closest school, seven blocks away, was reserved only for whites. The District Court ruled in favor of the Board of Education, but eventually in 1954, combined with other cases around the same issue, the Supreme Court ruled that even if segregated schools were “equal,” it was unconstitutional to separate them. So this landmark case that changed history had its roots in Kansas.BrownBldgWEB

You can visit the Brown v Board of Education site at 1515 SE Monroe Street, Topeka, KS, 66612.

This national historic site is free to visit, and it is in the location of the former all black Monroe school. Inside is a series of exhibits on the history of racism, segregation, education, and justice in the state and the country.

Outside, you can play on the historic playground, have lunch on the picnic tables, or even set out on the Landon Nature Trail, which starts in the parking lot, and which is a featured trail in our upcoming book.

In honor of the 60th anniversary, there are several events coming up that you can take part in. The first one is this Saturday from 10am to 1pm. It is a free living history walk. Every 30 minutes from the Historic Ritchie House to the Brown v Board of Education historical site. Along the way will be living history reenactors who will tell stories of life in Kansas from the 1850s through the 1950s.

More events include a free block party on May 2, a free screening of the film Freedom Riders on May 8, and a Twitter reenactment on May 17 and May 18. Find out more here.

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Threatened and Endangered Species Series: Who Cares?

Our task must be to free ourselves, by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures, and the whole of nature…and its beauty.

Albert Einstein

As I started reading a link from a friend’s Facebook post about how there’s a bill that passed the Kansas Senate last month that would repeal the nearly 40 year old  Kansas Nongame and Endangered Species Conservation Act, I choked on my coffee. Having walked mile after mile through the parks and wilderness areas of Kansas and researching for the book, I couldn’t fathom that it would become OK to not care for the threatened and endangered species that live here.

A conservation dependent species - not currently threatened, but could be without care

A conservation dependent species – not currently threatened, but could be without care

After I recovered from my choking fit, I realized that while, yes, there are economic issues at play and that farmers, ranchers, and developers have rights, there’s really no going back after a species has gone extinct. And while this current bill has thankfully been shut down in the Senate, we need to remember to care for what wilderness and wildlife we have left.

Our tallgrass prairie is 4% of what it used to be. Our herds of bison have been reduced to dozens instead of thousands. Wetlands have been drained to make farmland or paved over for roads and cities.

Balance is key. Yes, people need to make livings. Farmers, ranchers, and developers have rights, but not that trump the rights of the wild world, which doesn’t have a voice to speak for itself, and species that, without our interference, would likely be thriving instead of threatened, like the lesser prairie chicken, the whooping crane, or the black-footed ferret. With the removal of one species from an ecosystem, a disastrous domino effect may occur, and what once was, will never be regained.

The needs and wants of today should not be considered more important than the literal survival of an entire species of creature. So at KansasTrailGuide.com, we’re going to start a series of articles on some of the threatened and endangered species that make their homes in Kansas, including information on where you can see them in the wild, why you should care about their survival, and what you can do to help ensure their safety.

Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land.

Aldo Leopold

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April 26: Clean up parks for Earth Day

This Saturday, April 26 from 8am to 12pm, you can be a part of the state’s first state park cleanup. Called “Keep It Clean Kansas,” it’s being organized by the Kansas Department of Wildlife Parks and Tourism and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Five parks across the state are on this year’s cleanup list –keepitclean

  1. Cheney State Park, Cheney
  2. Clinton State Park, Lawrence
  3. Crawford State Park, Farlington
  4. Scott State Park, Scott City
  5. Tuttle Creek State Park, Manhattan

And the parks to be cleaned up for the event will rotate each year, so if your closest state park isn’t on this year’s list, it may be on next years.

If you’re interested in volunteering, register here. Volunteers get lunch and a t-shirt. It’s a great opportunity to get out and help play a part in the protection of the valuable natural resources in the state.

 

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What’s so special about Kansas: Interview with Rolf Potts

Get off the paved roads and wander.

One of my favorite pastimes is hosting friends from the East or West Coast (or overseas), driving them through the landscape, and watching them react with joy to what they’d have missed had they been in a hurry.

As someone who dabbles in travel writing, I’ve known about Rolf Potts for a long time. He grew up in Kansas, and he’s spent time traveling the world and writing about it. His work has appeared in Salon.com, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic Traveler, Outside and more.

His books include Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel and Marco Polo Didn’t Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer.

He’s also been in front of the camera for National Geographic Travel and the Travel Channel, and he teaches writing for Yale University and The Paris American Academy.

I reached out to him, and I have to admit a bit of a fangirl moment (I’ve read your books! I’ve wanted to do what you do!) when he replied quickly and was psyched to help with something Kansas related.

Kansas Trail Guide: Our book with University Press of Kansas is all about trails in Kansas for hiking, biking, and horseback riding.

Many of the trails are in state and county parks. Do you have a favorite park or favorite trail in Kansas? If so, what is it that makes it special for you?

Potts: I’m a fan of Kanopolis State Park. It’s not far from Saline County, where I keep a home, and I love the craggy, Smoky Hill landscape there.

Kansas Trail Guide: You’re known for your travel writing, particularly your book Vagabonding. I remember reading it when I was in college, and I remember being inspired to travel and to “get out” of Kansas.

With your experience as a travel writer, you could settle anywhere, but you still maintain a home in Kansas, which doesn’t seem as though it would be “exotic” or interesting for someone who’s seen the world. What brings you back to the state?

Potts: I’ve always had strong affection for my home state, and some of my best memories from childhood involve driving around to little-known corners of the state with my family while my father was doing biology research.

Interestingly, travel influenced my decision to come back to Kansas. In seeing how families drew strength and meaning from one another in distant corners of the globe, I made a decision to find a place close to my family. About nine years ago, my sister and her family had moved to a rural part of north-central Kansas, and she suggested I invest in some property and make my home base near her.

Less than two miles from her place we noticed that 30 beautiful acres of grassland, complete with two houses, was for sale. I couldn’t afford it myself, so I went in on it with my parents, who had recently retired. They moved into the big new house, while I spent a year and a half renovating the doublewide as my own prairie office.

Initially I think I saw this house as a place to linger between travels, but the more I invested in fixing it up, the more I spent time there, the more it began to feel like home on an intuitive level. The experience of vagabonding is something that deepens with experience, I think, and one way to give your travels added meaning over time is to cultivate some sense of home.

Kansas Trail Guide: What are some of the biggest Kansas misconceptions you think people have?

Potts: People tend to think that it’s flat and boring, or culturally backwards. But I think this is the opinion of people who either haven’t been here, or haven’t traveled slowly enough to appreciate the subtler gifts of a place like Kansas. One of my favorite pastimes is hosting friends from the East or West Coast (or overseas), driving them through the landscape, and watching them react with joy to what they’d have missed had they been in a hurry.

Kansas Trail Guide: For someone who’s never been to Kansas, do you have any recommendations for where to go or what to see?

Potts: My advice for non-Kansans is the same as my advice for Kansans: Get off the paved roads and wander. In most any county in the state, the best way to find landscape — and a sense giddy solitude — is to just find a dirt road and drive (or bike, or walk) until you find some completely surprising moment of beauty and epiphany.

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Great Migration Rally this Sunday at Cheyenne Bottoms

As the weather warms up, migratory birds begin making their way back to and through Kansas. The state is on the Central Flyway, a migratory route between the Gulf of Mexico and central Canada. Some great spots to check out the birds are wetland and marsh areas, like Baker Wetlands near Lawrence, Quivira National Wildlife Refuge near Sterling, and Cheyenne Bottoms near Great Bend. Year round, you can check out Baker Wetlands and QNWR on foot with trails featured in the upcoming Kansas trails guidebook, and to explore Cheyenne Bottoms, you can go on a driving tour.

And in celebration of the spring migration, on Sunday, April 13, 2014 from 2pm to 7pm, Fort Hays State University’s Kansas Wetlands Education Center is hosting the Great Migration Rally.

You can see Kansas’ one and only falconer and his rescued Golden Eagle and you can take part in what’s essentially a scavenger hunt. From their website:

Participants start off by drawing a “bird” card, worth so many points. The rarer the species, the more points it is worth.

“Each bird is a species that migrates through Cheyenne Bottoms,” Curtis Wolf, KWEC manager, said.

After beginning their “migration”, driving through Cheyenne Bottoms, participants stop at three different points, picking up situational cards that describe a positive or negative circumstance. The positive cards, such as finding a good food source, add points. The negative cards, such as losing a wetland to development, subtract points. At the migration destination, Barton Community College’s Camp Aldrich, the migrants choose one last card, points are tabulated and those with the highest points win prizes…

…There are also crafts for kids and adults, with kids making a bird feeder to take home. In addition, Bird Bingo, bird tattoos and other activities will be available.

A comfort meal of ham, macaroni and cheese, green beans and biscuits will be served, with Tumnus, a trio from Wichita, providing Celtic and folk tunes.

If you go:

Cost for the event is $5 for adults, $2.50 for children ages 5-12 and free for children under age 5. Proceeds from the event to restoring monarch butterfly habitat, another species that wings its way through Kansas.

Participants are asked to pre-register by calling the KWEC, 1-877-243-9268, or emailing lkpenner@fhsu.edu, by April 6. More information is available at wetlandscenter.fhsu.edu.

Great Migration Rally

 

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3 adventures to check out this Valentine’s Day weekend

Happy Valentine’s Day! Since of course you don’t want to show your significant other how much they mean to you on just one day, stretch it out over at least the weekend with some of these three special opportunities:

Salt Safari Adventure in Hutchinson

Go underground on a unique tour of the Kansas Underground Salt Museum (3504 E. Avenue G, Hutchinson). It’s a 3-hour hike on February 15, 2014 through some of the unimproved caverns of the salt mine, perfect for adventure loving couples.

For tickets ($60) and more information: underkansas.org

The couple who runs together, stays together. Compete with a loved one in a 5K  run or go to cheer on the runners at the Ritz Carlton Plaza (9000 W. 137th, Overland Park) on February 6, 2014 at 9am.  Prizes go  fastest male, female or coed two person team in Kansas City. All runners will get custom finishers medals and long sleeve race shirts.

Dinner and a show: “Run For Your Wife”

Enjoy some laughs together over dinner with “Run For Your Wife” at the Historic Santa Fe Depot (201 E Wyatt Earp Blvd, Dodge City). The Dodge City based Depot Theater Company is taking on the story of a London cabbie who’s juggling two wives.

Tickets are $40 and the show starts at 7:30pm on February 14 and 15, 2014.

For more weekend options, check out the Kansas Calendar.

Photo by puamelia

Happy Valentine’s Day! Photo by puamelia