Now that the 2008 edition of Biking Across Kansas (BAK) is in the books, here’s a quick summation of the trip.

I’d rate this as a “good” tour. Not great, certainly not bad.

The distance (a total of 503 miles, including the ride to the Colorado border) was just fine. The daily distances were quite manageable — 50′s and 60′s most days, on 70+, one 80+. By the end of the week, I was a bit fatigued, but definitely not exhausted. (After getting back from the trip, I took one day off, then rode again for 7 days straight.)

The route I’d also rate as good-not-great. Taking Highway 36 basically straight across the state sounds like a good plan (and it is designated as a cross-state bicycle route by the Kansas Department of Transportation), but it’s rather boring when the directions for the day can be summed up in a single sentence: “Head east on 36 all day.” The scenery on 36 wasn’t bad, and the traffic, for the most part wasn’t bad, but it was just kind of mind-numbing to ride straight and never turn for days on end.

That probably explains why my favorite parts of the ride where when we deviated from the “stay on 36″ routing. I far preferred the days where there were some twists and turns to the route, and where there was less traffic, and it was slower.

The scenery along the route was consistently good. There were only a few short sections where I found flat roads and endless similar-looking fields to be tedious. The rest of the trip, from the rugged high plains in the west, to the fertile farmland and rolling hills in the east, I found very enjoyable to look at, with plenty of variety and interesting things to see.

The two areas where I knock this particular route down a couple pegs are with regard to traffic and degree of difficulty.

Traffic in the western part of the state was mostly light, and mostly considerate. Sure, there were a few motorists who passed too closely or who didn’t slow down as much as I’d like, but that’s typical (and to a degree, understandable). But as we moved into the eastern half of Kansas, particularly on US-36, traffic became heavier and more aggressive. In places, it felt like we were riding along an interstate. There were wide shoulders, but they were often in poor repair, and featured sometimes-nasty rumble strips. And where there were wide shoulders, the passing traffic didn’t slow down much. It was OK, but just not particularly pleasant riding.

As for degree of difficulty, the tour was just too easy! I’m sure that sounds like a really stupid thing to say, but that’s how I felt about it. With helpful winds most days, moderate mileage, and no-turns routing, the first few days were just not very challenging at all, either mentally or physically.

I think it says it all that my favorite day was the most difficult — the 85-mile day through winding, hilly roads with a wicked crosswind. And my second-favorite days was the next-to-last day, with lotsa hills and turns.

I’m sure many people (most, probably) appreciated the low degree-of-difficulty, but I was kind of disappointed. Not that I wanted the full-on headwind-fest that was BAK 2006, but I would have liked a little more challenge.

Still, all-in-all it was a good tour. The scenery was great, food was great, people were great, and I enjoyed camping out for 8 nights straight.

I wouldn’t mind doing BAK again — there’s still plenty of Kansas I haven’t seen!