__ I just posted this on Substack: Kansas isn’t flat. It’s tipped. A lot. From Missouri to Colorado, Kansas is a long climb. Kansas might have camber, like much of the world. Accounts vary. Kansas isn’t even smooth. Its pelt is perturbed. Crenellated. Canyon’d. Arroyos and such. All manner of hiding places for great cottonwoods. It’s riven land, is Kansas, but this isn’t always apparent when it’s driven. God I’m good with “its” and “it’s.” And “canyon’d” is to die for. Right now (24 June of ‘24) Matt Hengst and his cheerful sidekick are perched on the edge of Kansas as part of walking from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They’ll slowly rise through 100F-plus heat…to Colorado. -David Thor
__ William Least Heat-Moon's general take on Kansas is that in its best version it was never flat. It's always been tilted from Colorado to Missouri, so if you're walking west it's up hill. Plus it's full of canyons and topographical perturbations of every sort. Plus, he says, sitting in the old prairie grass, bits of which survive, you can see the curvature of the Earth while sitting on it.
Cool caves and Cool Carl! Always nice to meet true Trail Angels. And the real benefit to you was not getting struck by lightning, although it would have been ironic and you could have told the tale for years (had you survived, of course). Hike on! Tortoise
Hahaha! Speaking of the postal system, a couple weeks ago I ordered two mesh 1L bottle bags for my backpack. As I've mentioned before, I live in Central Indiana, the bags were mailed from the Michigan U.P., the bags first went to Wisconsin (where they sat for a couple of days) > St. Louis > Chicago > Indianapolis before finally arriving to me about a week and a half after they were mailed and we're in neighboring states.
You are missing out on the dungeons and dragons with Chris Pine. It was GREAT. The important question is: have either of you played Baldurs Gate 3 yet?? I assume no Xbox in your pack🤔 No trekking polls for Jen this hike?
We’ve watched that one also. It’s quite fun but I really have to show the original to Jen sometime just so she understands me jermy irons impressions. We don’t have an Xbox but we do have a steam deck back home. Bought BG3 but haven’t tried running it yet since the last off season was rushed
__ Thinking of Kansas heat, I've just been reliably informed by my wife's daughter that hats the size of umbrellas are a thing. These could be deployed to block the sun. Obviously the slightest breeze would present logistical complications, but the hottest days might have the least wind. Plus Temu is so cheap these days that things cost minus money and they'll pay you to take their products. Double plus giant hats would give pause to attacking dogs. If you don't like the product, just leave it with the first tornado and it will be taken off your hands. Or head. See this is why I've told myself I'm taking a year off from talking in Matt's notes. I'm supposed to be doing William Least Heat-Moon quotes.
I on the other hand picture one of those giant novelty foam cowboy hats. Seems like maybe that would help overwhelm the hostility we often get when we say we are from California.
@@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes This is the right sort of thing for Kansas. Don't they also have foam hands or fingers or something at baseball stadiums? If they have foam thumbs you could use them for hitch-hiking off trail to Walmart. A foam finger could be useful for telling dogs to go home. Foam middle fingers are for people who let their dogs run around. Foam has a lot of practical applications. If you get a big enough foam hand you could switch out your sleeping mat.
__ “We people of the Missouri border…grew used to the reports outstate travelers gave after their Kansas crossing, accounts describing a grim land tediously flat.” -William Least Heat-Moon
I worry that you are not getting enough electrolytes with sweating so much. There are electrolyte tablets you can put in your water. You won’t be so exhausted. Also taking vitamins will help with recovery
While we are sweating and drinking a lot, we are also eating constantly at breaks throughout the day, so electrolyte supplements aren’t needed. We sometimes use crystal light just to flavor the water and make it easier to drink a bunch though.
And while our diet is far from ideal, we get a reasonable variety of stuff including fruits and veggies at town stops. And with the cliff bars and such that are heavily fortified in between, we are getting enough vitamins
__ Just as Mark Twain was the great writer hovering as a ghost over your Mississippi voyage, the ghost of great writing hovering over the area from Missouri up to but not including the Colorado front range is William Least Heat-Moon, whose name appears to be erratically hyphenated but I here print it correctly. Cuz you're looking down the long barrel of Kansas right now [your videos are hiking along about five days behind you]. I'll try to enter a few Kansas comments from ghost William into your archive in the next couple of days. Here's one that you two as both walkers and paddlers might find interesting: the “Missouri, the longest river in the country till engineers meddled with it.” -WLH-M
__ Ottawa, Kansas? I'm trying to learn geography but geography is messing with me. It turns out that the capital of Canada is in Kansas but Kansas City is in Missouri. --Thor
__ "None of us challenged the notion of coastal people that Kansas has all the depth and fascination of a highway center line." --William Least-Heat Moon. Sorry, the hyphen is weirder than that and is supposed to be between Heat and Moon. Too bad, because Least-Heat would be a great adjective for a Mr. Moon who understands Kansas summers. His name alone has taught a generation of writers to inappropriately hyphenate.
__ My son says I’m never going to make it as a great comedian if I keep making race jokes. Well it wasn’t me who named a sacred space in Kansas “Cheyenne Bottoms" --Thor
Thank you for letting us "virtually " hike again with you this year.
If 11:21 is the Yukon trip splash page, you’re going to have 100k subs by next fall. Love that artwork
It is just a random AI thing I whipped up. I am afraid to use that as a thumbnail since so many people seem immensely hostile to AI generated artwork.
@@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikesI think AI Art work is just so new, a year from now it will be a cool factor 🥰
It is amazing to think that the early Pioneers had no zero days nor resupply stops... Except for the Subways they found along the way. :)
They had guns. Guns were the Subways of that era.
@@DrDavidThor Lol, true
That last camp had AT vibes for sure. Time for the critters to come out in full force. I hope your day is full of turtles and frogs Jen.
__
I just posted this on Substack:
Kansas isn’t flat. It’s tipped. A lot. From Missouri to Colorado, Kansas is a long climb.
Kansas might have camber, like much of the world. Accounts vary.
Kansas isn’t even smooth. Its pelt is perturbed. Crenellated. Canyon’d. Arroyos and such. All manner of hiding places for great cottonwoods. It’s riven land, is Kansas, but this isn’t always apparent when it’s driven.
God I’m good with “its” and “it’s.” And “canyon’d” is to die for.
Right now (24 June of ‘24) Matt Hengst and his cheerful sidekick are perched on the edge of Kansas as part of walking from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They’ll slowly rise through 100F-plus heat…to Colorado.
-David Thor
Heck yeah! I hike the river to river 2 years ago! Shotgen Eddie’s was a high light for sure
Day 75. Awesome cave! Time to look it up. Curious about the historical use. Any archaeological digs etc that have been conducted.
I hope you experience a break from the heat soon. Thanks for sharing.
__
William Least Heat-Moon's general take on Kansas is that in its best version it was never flat. It's always been tilted from Colorado to Missouri, so if you're walking west it's up hill. Plus it's full of canyons and topographical perturbations of every sort. Plus, he says, sitting in the old prairie grass, bits of which survive, you can see the curvature of the Earth while sitting on it.
Cool caves and Cool Carl! Always nice to meet true Trail Angels. And the real benefit to you was not getting struck by lightning, although it would have been ironic and you could have told the tale for years (had you survived, of course). Hike on! Tortoise
Matt should write a book "100 fun ways to die during your through-hike" :)
broadcasting from south Florida, WE ARE STILL ABOVE SEA LEVEL! for now :)
Hahaha! Speaking of the postal system, a couple weeks ago I ordered two mesh 1L bottle bags for my backpack. As I've mentioned before, I live in Central Indiana, the bags were mailed from the Michigan U.P., the bags first went to Wisconsin (where they sat for a couple of days) > St. Louis > Chicago > Indianapolis before finally arriving to me about a week and a half after they were mailed and we're in neighboring states.
It surprised me that you didn’t take a selfie of you 2 with the Sasquatch carving at shotgun eddie’s
Those things have been all over the place. So it didn’t even really stand out to me.
What have you guys found works on heat skin stuff. I'm in the muggy weather a lot and not many creams help!
You are missing out on the dungeons and dragons with Chris Pine. It was GREAT. The important question is: have either of you played Baldurs Gate 3 yet?? I assume no Xbox in your pack🤔
No trekking polls for Jen this hike?
We’ve watched that one also. It’s quite fun but I really have to show the original to Jen sometime just so she understands me jermy irons impressions. We don’t have an Xbox but we do have a steam deck back home. Bought BG3 but haven’t tried running it yet since the last off season was rushed
@@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes I’m very excited to hear both your commentary on BG3 once you have played👍🏼👍🏼
Hopefully they fix the steam deck performance before the off season. And I’m not too busy to find time for it
__
Flint Hills. Smoky Hills. Kansas is so hilly.
From your Dawson City comment, I'm guessing you're paddling down the Yukon next year, is that right? 🙂
Yep, that’s the plan!
__
Thinking of Kansas heat, I've just been reliably informed by my wife's daughter that hats the size of umbrellas are a thing. These could be deployed to block the sun. Obviously the slightest breeze would present logistical complications, but the hottest days might have the least wind. Plus Temu is so cheap these days that things cost minus money and they'll pay you to take their products. Double plus giant hats would give pause to attacking dogs. If you don't like the product, just leave it with the first tornado and it will be taken off your hands. Or head.
See this is why I've told myself I'm taking a year off from talking in Matt's notes. I'm supposed to be doing William Least Heat-Moon quotes.
Your comment just led to me trying to explain the old Flying Nun TV show to Taters and yet another round of “you’re just making that up”
I on the other hand picture one of those giant novelty foam cowboy hats. Seems like maybe that would help overwhelm the hostility we often get when we say we are from California.
@@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes This is the right sort of thing for Kansas. Don't they also have foam hands or fingers or something at baseball stadiums? If they have foam thumbs you could use them for hitch-hiking off trail to Walmart. A foam finger could be useful for telling dogs to go home. Foam middle fingers are for people who let their dogs run around. Foam has a lot of practical applications. If you get a big enough foam hand you could switch out your sleeping mat.
@@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes We saw that as kids and we just figured that was how nuns got around. We were Protestant, so what did we know?
😎✌
__
“We people of the Missouri border…grew used to the reports outstate travelers gave after their Kansas crossing, accounts describing a grim land tediously flat.”
-William Least Heat-Moon
Do Jen students follow her online ?
I worry that you are not getting enough electrolytes with sweating so much. There are electrolyte tablets you can put in your water. You won’t be so exhausted. Also taking vitamins will help with recovery
Also wanted to place a comment to ask whether they were using any electrolyte supplements. Matt hasn't mentioned them to my recollection.
While we are sweating and drinking a lot, we are also eating constantly at breaks throughout the day, so electrolyte supplements aren’t needed. We sometimes use crystal light just to flavor the water and make it easier to drink a bunch though.
And while our diet is far from ideal, we get a reasonable variety of stuff including fruits and veggies at town stops. And with the cliff bars and such that are heavily fortified in between, we are getting enough vitamins
__
Just as Mark Twain was the great writer hovering as a ghost over your Mississippi voyage, the ghost of great writing hovering over the area from Missouri up to but not including the Colorado front range is William Least Heat-Moon, whose name appears to be erratically hyphenated but I here print it correctly. Cuz you're looking down the long barrel of Kansas right now [your videos are hiking along about five days behind you]. I'll try to enter a few Kansas comments from ghost William into your archive in the next couple of days. Here's one that you two as both walkers and paddlers might find interesting:
the “Missouri, the longest river in the country till engineers meddled with it.” -WLH-M
Hey Y'all, from the thumbnail I thought you were at the river pirate cave at Hole in Rock park. It's okay, I'm used to being wrong.
__
Ottawa, Kansas?
I'm trying to learn geography but geography is messing with me. It turns out that the capital of Canada is in Kansas but Kansas City is in Missouri. --Thor
I should probably spend my Canadian winters in Ontario, California. Go ahead and tell me that's not a real place.
__
"When it comes to Kansas, we're all Flat Earthers."
--Thor [anticipating the Masochist clan's Great Kansas Crossing]
I believe if I ever met Matt in real life, the weirdest thing would be that he doesn't speak in 1.25 speed.
__
"None of us challenged the notion of coastal people that Kansas has all the depth and fascination of a highway center line."
--William Least-Heat Moon.
Sorry, the hyphen is weirder than that and is supposed to be between Heat and Moon. Too bad, because Least-Heat would be a great adjective for a Mr. Moon who understands Kansas summers. His name alone has taught a generation of writers to inappropriately hyphenate.
Jen reminds me of the movie The Princess Bride. No not Princess Buttercup. The Albino.
Not really, sun screen is a good idea.
Murder Hobo and Rock Girl
__
My son says I’m never going to make it as a great comedian if I keep making race jokes.
Well it wasn’t me who named a sacred space in Kansas “Cheyenne Bottoms" --Thor
✔️🥼she cant help verifying the facts ,collecting data for herself...its in her genetics.Great job on video...we we immersed forest bathing