Nik and Sam cross Kansas
Cheryl Unruh
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Mid-week, both boys crashed their bikes.
But both of them got up again. They rode every mile of BAK, Biking Across Kansas.
These boys are nephews Nik and Sam, ages 9 and 11, from Alaska, who recently rode the 500-mile route from Tribune to Elwood in eight days.
My brother, Leon, rode his bike with them and Margaret, his wife, drove their support vehicle.
On Day 7 of their journey, my mother and I caught up with them in Troy, in Northeast Kansas.
Team Alaska rode slower than the crowd. The Unruhs cruised into Troy that evening nearly 12 hours after their 7:34 a.m. start.
When I asked Sam about his favorite part of BAK, he replied, “Crossing the Oregon Trail,” near Blue Rapids. The Oregon Trail was a recent topic in their home-schooling studies.
“The hills,” were Nik’s favorite part. “They’re actually pretty easy if you shift into the right gear,” he said.
“Near Lake Wilson, there were some monster hills. I couldn’t keep up with (the boys),” Leon said. “They just decided they were going to ride and they did. These guys rode up every hill without stopping. They didn’t give up anywhere.”
Leon and Margaret have each biked across Kansas three times. (That’s how they met in 1985). They believe in riding on two wheels the entire route, not hitching a ride or walking their bikes up the hills.
Margaret said, “I told the boys, ‘You don’t walk your bike unless it’s broken.’”
There were difficulties along the way. On rural pavement with a treacherous sand shoulder, both boys wrecked within a few miles of each other. Nik came through his accident relatively unscathed.
Sam, sailing 20 mph downhill, caught a tire in the loose sand and went down hard on the asphalt. His left side was bruised and bloody, with wounds to his chin, elbow, hand, hip and knee. Leon rushed to Sam, checked his injuries and comforted him.
“He got back on his bike and we got to the next town a quarter-mile away,” Leon said. “A rain came through and we had time to sit and think.”
They rode another 40 miles that day.
“Now he knows he’s a hero, ’cause he has his scars,” Leon said, smiling.
That evening, after the BAK meeting on the Troy town square, we sat on the courthouse steps. Sam and Nik chased fireflies on the lawn.
“(On the ride) the boys smelled their first skunk,” Margaret said. Kansas roadkill differs from that in Alaska.
Among the dead animals they saw was a raccoon which had been draped with Mardi Gras beads, courtesy of another BAK rider.
Turning to me, Leon said, “It was fun, just for them to see Kansas like we did (growing up), the bad asphalt roads, the farms, the rivers.”
Margaret didn’t bike in this year’s BAK. Instead, she handed out Gatorade, Popsicles and encouragement to Leon and the boys.
“I just get up and drive for 12 hours,” Margaret laughed. One thing she enjoyed was “parking out by myself and seeing the wheat blowing around and hearing the birds.”
Leon said, for him, the best part of BAK was “after Sam had his spill near Wells, that he got back on the bike.”
“My absolute favorite part,” he added, more seriously, “was after the spill, seeing Sam get up.”
I was impressed with how Nik and Sam handled the 500-mile ride. Both boys beamed with new confidence.
The next morning, Team Alaska rode to the finish line. They dipped their bike tires into the Missouri River, signaling their successful journey across Kansas.
“They appreciated the changing landscape and learned about lending a helpful hand to others,” Leon said. “They accepted the best and worst parts of BAK with equal grace.”
“Flyover People” is online at www.flyoverpeople.net.
• Cheryl Unruh can be reached at cheryl@flyoverpeople.net.
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