Mother Nature Isn't So Fancy

This weekend was suppose to be the Crocodile Rock race at Perry Lake. Well once again mother nature had different plans. Heavy rains on Saturday washed out the event. I was already in the area attending some meetings and when I arrived at the race venue around 1:00 on Saturday the race coordinator, Lyle Reidy, along with Jim Cummings were tearing the tents down. You could see the pain in Lyle's face because he had to postpone the event. There is a ton of things to put together for one of these MTB races and it is always a shame when they have to be postponed. But, he had no choice. I immediately called LJ to get her turned around and luckily she had only made it to Ellsworth.
I pulled out of Topeka and headed west down I-70. Since I had all my gear and still lots of daylight I was thinking about heading to Wilson to get in a ride. As I passed the Wamego exit I remembered a trail called Fancy Creek. I had always wanted to ride Fancy but until now had never been in that area with my gear and some extra time. I wasn't sure exactly where it was so I called Steve Dutton. Steve has ridden about every MTB trail in Kansas and he gave me directions to the trail head.


The trail head is actually very easy to find and it is located just outside of Randolph at the extreme northern tip of Tuttle Creek Reservoir. Even though it is pretty secluded, the signage makes it very easy to find. After getting geared up I headed off on a counter-clock wise loop. Steve had mentioned that clockwise was easier and counter-clockwise was much more of a workout. Fancy is most definitely a great skill building trail. It is loaded with small to medium sized smoothed out rocks, lots of tree roots, short steep climbs and about 90% is heavily wooded. It is a trail that requires alot of balance and skill. As is usually the case, since this was my first time on the trail, that first lap was pretty slow going and not much fun. However the second lap was much better and I ended the day with a clockwise lap that was much faster and much more enjoyable. Total mileage for this ride was 3 laps for 17 miles and it is a trail that I plan to return to again whenever I am in the area.


Not sure what the make-up date for the Crocodile Rock race is yet. But I have three races coming up that are all endurance races. The Flint Hills Death Ride, R.I.M. (Rapture in Misery) and Cruise the Blues all are very long races so I plan on really stepping up my long distance rides over the next 30 days in preparation for these events.

You can double click the title of this blog post for the Garmin link to this trail. Until next time, stay "Clipped in and Crankin".