Should we stay or should we go?

..... That's what we were asking each other on Friday. The plan was to go camp and ride at Crowder in Missouri for the weekend. Then God grabbed a Super Soaker and sprayed down every trail within a 3 hour drive of Omaha. After calling the ranger station at Crowder we decided it would be a waste of time to go there. So the Goathead security council called an emergency meeting and plan B was hatched;
Plan B: Camp at and ride Indian Cave Friday night and then camp at and ride Landahl in Kansas City on Saturday night. None of us had ever been to Landahl so we really didn't know what to expect or what we would find for camping.

Plan B turned out to be an exceptional choice. Unfortunately, only 5 Goatheads made the trip, but we had a blast.

We found one three mile loop at Indian Cave that was ridable.


The rest of the trails are in desperate need of attention.


Friday night was perfect camping weather. After a night ride, we slept under a canopy of approximately 18 trillion stars (I actually lost count around 12 trillion).

When we got to Landahl we found several incredibly helpful and friendly people. The dude at the shooting range gave us ice cold water at told us where to camp. A rider on the trails pointed us in the right direction several times, and a Jackson County Ranger gave us every piece of information on Jackson County parks and recreation that he had in his brain and his Jeep Cherokee. Here's a highlight from our 20 minute conversation:
Me: Can we buy a camping permit from you?
Him: Yes, let me grab those out of my Jeep.
Me: How much is it?
Him: $8
Me: $8 a person?
Him: Yes.
(silence as we all fumble around for $40)
Him: Let's make this simple, how many tents will you be using?
Me: One.
Him: ...... All of you are sleeping in one tent? (He looks us over counting to 5 in his head)
Me: Yep, just one tent.
Him: Okay,....... (long pause) that'll be $8.

I paid him and he was on his way, but I was hoping to see him again so that I could explain that it's a really big tent.....

.... Any ways, we rode almost all of the single track at Landahl and loved it. We will definitely go back. Trails in the big O are great, but you can't beat rocks. Landahl has tons of technical rocky sections.







The only bad part of the weekend was that J-Mac's frame broke on the chainstay. It's the same spot where Professor's frame broke last year.