August 7th - Day 24 - Nickerson, KS to LaCrosse, KS - 94 miles
Today the winds turned against us. A 25 mile per hour wind was roaring out of the south, making for an intense crosswind. A crosswind is not normally a huge problem, but when they are that strong it seems like you pedal one stoke sideways for every two strokes forward. Spending all day leaning to one side is not so much fun. The route today was due west except for the last 24 miles that were a straight shot north. After fighting the wind for the first 66miles of the day, I was looking forward to that long stretch where I would be pushed along by the wind and actually get up some real speed.
When I reached Cynthia at Fort Larned she decided that she wanted to ride some today. Though I really wanted that tailwind, I felt sorry because she had to miss out on so much of the ride so far, so I obliged. Plus, it's exciting that Cynthia is getting back on the bike and not feeling too much unbearable pain in her knees. However, it was not all fun and speed for Cynthia because she had to ride through temperatures upward of 105 degrees.
In spite of the wind, there was some interesting scenery today. I rode through Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, and Cynthia stopped there as well. There is apparently a prairie dog colony there, but Cynthia and I didn't see it. I also stopped at Fort Larned, a Civil War era Union fort that protected the Santa Fe trail that passed nearby.
One very unpleasant "sight" today was a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) also called a feedlot or factory farm. Most of the cattle farms that I've seen on this trip have been, at most, a few hundred head of cattle spread over multiple square MILES grazing on huge plains of grass. This CAFO was one square mile and appeared to contain a thousand or more head of cattle. The cattle were densely packed on grassless lots, producing the foulest, most wretched experience of the trip (yeah, even worse than roadkill armadillo). And because the farm's size, I had to bike past it in winds that carried the smell straight to me even after I had passed by.
The purpose of this ride is to promote sustainability, and this was an example of the opposite of that. Though CAFOs are capable of producing large amounts of beef very quickly, the squalor that the animals live in necesstiates the managers to feed the cattle huge amounts of antibiotics to stave off disease. This over use of antibiotic has been shown to create antibiotic-resistant bacteria, some of which can be deadly to humans. CAFOs are efficient at what they do, but they foul ground and surface water resources with concentrated animal waste. Also, beef production in general is highly water consumptive and unsustainable, especially as other countries, such as China industrialize and view beef laden diets as a sign of wealth. If we eat lower on the food chain (eating plant-based diets instead of using the land to grow food for our food) then we can become more sustainable and better able to feed ourselves and the less fortunate in the world.
Quality Water Means Quality Life
1.2 billion people do not have access to clean water. Help others avoid the choice between thirst or disease.
As we passed through the Ozark Mountains, among Missouri scenic rivers, we came to a gorgeous little spot called "Two Rivers." At this convergence of the Jacks Fork and Current rivers, the silt heavy rapids of the Current meet the clear calm of the Jacks Fork river and one can actually see the divide between the two. I couldn't help but think of the divide between our access to clean water and the lack thereof in the villages of rural Ghana.
Troy and I consume on average, about 12 to 20 (20 oz) bottles of water daily. That's 12 to 20 times per day that, unlike the people in rural Ghana, Troy and I avoid illness without even realizing it. Regardless of how many miles we ride, we have no doubt that stopping anywhere along the road for water will be easy and risk-free.
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