The Tri-points
Thoughts about this trip started shortly after I returned home from my last trip, when friends started asking where I was going next. By then I’d read a lot of trip reports, and was intrigued by how many touring bicyclists liked the flat, endless roads - and the people - of Kansas and Nebraska. When I got my hands on DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteers for Kansas and Nebraska, I was surprised that there wasn’t much in the way of towns or roads at the corners of the states. I thought there must be some sort of markers at the corners - at least survey markers. Internet searching on this led to the discovery of a book devoted solely to the topic: Tri State Corners in the United States by Jack Parsell, available free on-line at: http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/parsell.pdf . This book explains that Tri State Corners, also called “Tri-points”, are the locations where the borders of three states meet. The book has detailed directions and maps for getting to the thirty-eight dry-land tri-points in the US.
Now I had a destination! Actually five destinations: Tri-points 19, 16, 13, 12, and 11.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
All these locations have monuments, and some also have survey markers. Benchmark Hunting, similar to Geocaching, is the name for the activity of looking for National Geodetic Survey (NGS) markers. My sister Laurie and I did this once, finding a marker near Bradley, Illinois, in 2003. In a way, this will be a “benchmarking” bike trip.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
There are two others places I’ll need to visit on this trip. My Uncle Gene in Middletown, Iowa, wants to see me ride by on a bike, and Laurie wouldn’t put up with me riding past Springfield, Missouri, without stopping by to see her and her husband Bill.
I also want to ride on the Prairie Spirit Trail, so will divert into the heart of Kansas on my way between corners.
I requested and received bicycling maps for Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa, and highway maps from Missouri and Wyoming. The Kansas map came with a personalized letter. I’m already feeling a Kansas welcome! Later I purchased maps from the US Forest Service for Cimarron, Pawnee, and Oglala National Grasslands. All these were a big help in planning, along with the DeLorme paper maps.
I use waypoints loaded in my GPS’s to guide me, so started figuring where to place them. First I used Google Maps to determine distances for each day that would be reasonable and get me to places to camp in the evenings. Available camping locations in Kansas were easy to find, thanks to the Kansas Cyclist Camping page. Other campgrounds I found through web searches. I placed waypoints in Google Earth at these locations, and at each road intersection I’ll need to turn. I also marked locations for points of interest, park pavilions (for getting out of the rain), a few recommended places to eat, and Dollar General Stores (where I can buy my favorites: Van Camp’s Beanee Weenees and Lil' Dutch Maid Ginger Snaps). By the end of March I was essentially done, having placed 1600+ push pins on the Google Earth globe for a 57-day trip.
Guessing over a year ago that I’d need more than six weeks off work for this trip, I saved my 2012 vacation time and pushed it into 2013. My supervisor approved my ten-weeks off request on April 5, much to the relief of my wife! Hmmm. . . . ?
With a route this big, I wanted a newer GPS. I kept an eye out for DeLorme PN-60 deals, and finally scored with a purchase off ebay. Conversion of my Google Earth KMZ-file to the GPX-file the PN-60 needs was done using GPS Visualizer.
Here’s a simple map of the planned route:
Forward travel direction will be clockwise, starting from the middle of Illinois. If I get off-track, Kris, wife of my friend George, has offered to provide remote guidance, as she did so well during my 2011 trip. Once again, George has offered me use of his BlackBerry smart-phone for making journal entries from the road.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 2 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |