Cowboy In The Big City

May 9, 2025

Topeka, Kansas

Sure, everybody likes bike ridin' on quiet paved roads. Many of us like ridin' on remote gravel roads. Some of us like cyclin' in the crazy traffic of urban areas. I like all three.

In order to complete my personal touring trifecta, I exited Interstate 70 to spend a day and night in the relatively large city of Topeka. With a population of 125,000, it was five times as big as Garden City--the next largest city I've ridden through.

Topeka wasn't a random choice though. State capital cities are always a good choice for urban ridin' in my opinion. And the statehouses themselves are the American architectural equivalent of European Catholic churches.

There were two other goals I had in mind for Topeka as well. They'll be revealed in due time.

On the way to Topeka, I sped through the Flint Hills region of Kansas. The grassy hills with few view-blockers were beautiful. I took several pictures from my car, but none of them did justice to the area. This is the only one worth posting.

I was spending too much time looking at the Flint Hills and not enough time looking at my gas gauge. After the "low fuel" warning light came on, I panicked. I felt lucky that I had my bike on board in case I had to ride to the next gas station, where I could buy a small gas can, fill it up, and ride back to my illegally abandoned car on the interstate.

No worries though. The Phillips 66 station at the Alma, KS exit saved the day.

***********

I parked my car in a small parking lot outside of the Kaw River State Park. Kaw River State Park is the only urban state park in the Kansas State Park System. I thought I should check it out.

Damn . . . if I ride down there, I'll have to ride back out.

I rode all the way back up the hill, but not without a rest stop. My lungs were killin' me. After that, I made my way toward downtown Topeka. I can safely say I rode more hills in my 14-miles of Topeka than I rode in any of my 400 miles in the southwest part of Kansas.

My main route to downtown was all up and down.

The gateway to Topeka's biggest city park. It includes a zoo.

Funeral at the St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church

A view toward downtown from the capitol grounds

Of course, for full appreciation, I had to go inside the building. But first I had to convince a capitol security cop to give me permission to lock my bike to a fence. He was hesitant, but he finally said that would be okay. It was clear he hadn't seen many bicyclists coming to tour the capitol.

To get inside, I had to empty my pockets and walk through an x-ray machine. I didn't mind putting my phone, car key and wallet in the basket, but I was a little embarrassed about having to put my chapstick and antacid tablet in there.

Every state capitol building has a dome to look up into . . .

. . . but how many of them have such a cool catacomb of huge stone blocks?

Moving on to my next Topeka site, I was happy to see a few designated bike lanes. They led me to a tiny park where there was another "world's largest" object to add to my collection.

The third thing on my Topeka itinerary was the most somber. It was the segregated school that became the center one of the most famous Supreme Court cases in American history. I took a couple of pre-law classes in my undergraduate years, and I clearly remember reading about Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.

This is the segregated school Linda Brown attended and where this important Supreme Court case all began.

The Catholic Cathedral was nice, but not as majestic as the state capitol building.

As usual, Ridewithgps came up with something less than that 15% grade sign into the Kaw River State Park. Here, it tops out at only 9.7%. My lungs are telling you it was closer to 25%.

Heart

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Emily SharpI've found Koomoot is much more accurate on gradients and paved v unpaved than RidewithGPS... if it matters a lot to you. I'm not too fussed - I just ride to the topo lines on a topo map, but I'd do Koomoot if it really mattered (though I think they've been bought out, so it all might change).
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1 month ago

Gregory GarceauTo Emily SharpI really only use RWGPS to post my ride on Cycleblaze at the end of the day. I know a lot of people here like to see a map. I've never used it for planning a route. And yeah, it really doesn't bug me all that much if RWGPS cheats me out of a little gravel and/or elevation gain.
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1 month ago

Today's ride: 14 miles (23 km)
Total: 417 miles (671 km)

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Emily SharpThis looked like a really nice stopover with some important history, all the more important now as rights get stripped away.

But where are all the people? Topeka looks like aliens have kidnapped all the pedestrians.
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1 month ago

Gregory GarceauTo Emily SharpI noticed the lack of people downtown as well. It was pretty eerie. I did see a lot of kids on class trips to the state capitol though. Later, when I went to my motel, I found all the people. They were at the shopping centers and chain restaurants on the western edge of town.
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1 month ago