Heading Into 2025 With Some Relatively Easy Cycling Plans

I was a Sophomore in college back in 1985 when the movie Back to the Future came out. Back then -- as a 20-year-old -- I viewed Marty McFly's going into the year 2015 as something far in the future. By then, I would be 50 years old! Well, here we are... heading into 2025 and in three months I'll be 60. As I've shared on my Instagram and Facebook accounts, my 60's will primarily consist of cycling for fitness. I plan to explore more of our nation's rails-to-trails. I want to cycle the 240-mile Katy Trail across Missouri, but am going to put that one on hold a little longer as I explore some other trails with the limited days I have available from the office.

This has been another year when cancer has made an invasion into our family. I remember doing some running events in the 1990's to raise funds to fight cancer (including the Relay for Life event), and it is an ongoing battle that so many people face. It is a disease that has impacted both my family and my wife's family -- but thankfully not the family that Kelley and I have together. With the latest impact on my wife's side of the family, I've been thinking about Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne, who is the patron saint of perseverance in the face of adversity. I've seen incredible perseverance when it comes to the cancer battles that parents and others in our family have faced over the decades. Their perseverance and faith has been inspiring to me.

In 1988, St. Philippine became the fourth citizen of the United States to be canonized, and the only saint to ever reside in Kansas -- where my wife is from, and where her mother and siblings still reside. Despite considerable adversarial conditions, in the mid-1800's St. Philippine opened multiple schools, including the first free school west of the Mississippi. She also cared for the Potawatomi Native Americans near Mound City, Kansas. The Potawatomi, witnessing her constantly kneeling in prayer, nicknamed her "Woman who prays always." St. Philippine was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1988.

With that said, there is a rail-trail in Kansas that is very near to where St. Philippine lived and ministered. It is known as the Prairie Spirit Rail-Trail and is 52 miles long between Ottawa and Iola, Kansas. Right in the middle of the route is the town of Garnett, where my wife previously resided and where my mother-in-law currently lives. I am looking at cycling that route over the course of two days in May 2025. I would begin in Ottawa and cycle the 52 miles in a day to Iola, where I would stay in a hotel. I would then cycle back to Ottawa the next day. Of course, I would see my mother-in-law in Garnett as I pass through both times, and there is a St. Rose Philippine Duchesne Catholic School in Garnett.

The Prairie Spirit Trail is about 30 miles west of where St. Philippine ministered in Mound City, Kansas. As I cycle the route, I would share information on my social media about this particular saint. Again, St. Philippine is the only saint that resided in the state of Kansas -- and actually ministered there about 20 years before Kansas became a state in 1861.

I'll be aiming to do other rail-trails in 2025, but they will be shorter routes of only 100 miles or less.

Gotta Roll,

Paul J. Staso

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Visit my YouTube channel -- https://www.youtube.com/user/pacetrek

Click on any of the links below to see some of my adventure photos:

• United States in 2006 (3,260 miles solo in 108 days at age 41)
• Montana in 2008 (620 miles solo in 20 days at age 43)
• Alaska in 2009 (500 miles solo in 18 days at age 44)
• Germany in 2010 (500 miles solo in 21 days at age 45)
• The Mojave Desert in 2011 (506 miles solo in 17 days at age 46)
• Various Photos From Mileposts Gone By
• Students Worldwide Who Ran With Me Virtually
• Roadside Sights From My Running Adventures
• Some Cycling Moments From The Past