Running in deep sand through a forest where you wouldn't expect it - Broken Bow, Nebraska
I spent a lot of time researching where to have a unique run in Nebraska, but wasn’t having much luck. Ironically, it is because one of the best places to run is in one of the most remote areas of not only Nebraska, but the world. Located in central Nebraska, the Nebraska Sand Hills are untouched since the land isn’t good for farming, but the grasses that stabilize the sand hills are a great place to raise cattle, a major contributor to the Nebraska economy. If not for one person 100 years ago, there might not have been a place to run in this area. Thanks to Charles Bessey, the Nebraska Sand Hills is home to the largest hand planted forest in the US, The Nebraska National Forest. Until recently, it was the largest manmade forest in the world, but China has since then planted a much larger forest to prevent the expansion of the Gobi Desert. This forest in China is known as the Great Green Wall.
My trip to Nebraska started with a plane flight into Omaha, Nebraska, landing in the late morning. This is perfect timing to seek a unique lunch spot after you land. One restaurant, Gorat’s Steakhouse, caught my eye since it is said to be Warren Buffett’s favorite restaurant, and where he holds yearly conferences for Berkshire Hathaway. Despite it being lunchtime, I ordered his favorite meal, the 22 ounce T-Bone steak. This was the first of a lot of meat to be eaten on the trip.
After lunch, I sought out a couple of local attractions, and found Gerald Ford’s Birthsite, and the Omaha Grain Silos. If you want to get in a quick run, and see the silos, the South Omaha Trail goes right past the silos with parking at the trailheads. Despite there likely being some other things to see in Omaha, my ultimate destination that day was in Iowa, so it was time to move on. I cover my complete trip to Iowa in this blog post.
The Nebraska trip restarted on Friday afternoon as I crossed back into the state to head west to the town of Broken Bow, Nebraska. The 3.5 hour drive is almost directly west, with most of it on Nebraska Highway 92. The landscape along this route differed greatly from my expectations. I had thought Nebraska was very flat and made up entirely of farmland, but the farther west I got there became more rolling hills made up of grasslands, replacing the farm fields earlier in the trip. One of things that you see a lot of is very large sprinkler systems in the farm fields known as center pivot irrigation, mainly of the Zimmatic brand. I came to learn they are a specific class of irrigation systems classified by the center pivot where the early innovation in these systems was a joint enabling rotation of the system around a fixed point over rolling terrain. If you drive back on Nebraska Highway 91, which I highly recommend, you will pass through Lindsay, Nebraska, that is home to the large manufacturing facility for these irrigation systems.
By making the drive at night crossing from daytime into night time I got to experience a very special extended sunset. The type of sunset I experienced on this drive I’ve only seen occur over the water while vacationing in coastal places. It took a very long time for the sun to descend below the horizon, and then the twilight glow continued on for a long while. The drive was very peaceful with next to no other cars. After the sun had set fully and it turned to complete darkness, the stars were very bright, and in the distance on each side of the road you could see the single lights of farmhouses and the bright spot lights of farm equipment completing their harvests or cutting of the final hay in the fields. There were a few times where large farm equipment surprised me as I came over a crest in the road, so be alert at this time of year.
I stayed at the Arrow Hotel in Broken Bow, Nebraska, which was very convenient since it has its own restaurant and the town was mostly closed by the time I got there around 8pm. The next morning I went to the Tumbleweed Cafe, filled with locals dressed in their hunting gear, for a traditional diner breakfast made up of half an order of biscuits and gravy and a hot cake. The hunting outfits are not out of place here since one of the most famous things to happen in the area is the Nebraska One Box Pheasant Hunt. The “one box” refers to the single box of shotgun ammo that is spread among the team as part of the contest. This tournament attracts hunters from all over the world.
After breakfast, I packed up and headed northwest to the Nebraska National Forest, Bessey Ranger District, about one hour from Broken Bow. Along the way, I stopped for gas. Time definitely passed by this gas station since I cannot remember the last time I used a gas pump that didn’t have a built-in credit card reader and used the old analog rotating numbers. I talked to the gas station attendant for a while about the weather in the area and he has memories of blizzards and snowdrifts in the area that were 30 feet high and filled the valleys with snow. Its definitely an area where you need to be highly self sufficient.
The national forest was a quick drive from the gas station. In the parking lot it was just me and a few others, but they all had their ATVs in tow as this is a popular place to go ATVing on the sandy forest trails, including a 31 mile (50k) loop. Most of the trails are accessible by ATVs, horse, and by foot. The single track trails I chose, though, were only for hiking. I ran on trails that were not on the maps I had researched, but they turned out to be really nice because of the many offshoots that one can explore. During the couple hours I was out, I didn’t see another person on the trails, so they definitely live up to the remote billing. To get to the trailhead, simply follow the road to the fire tower and the trail starts from the small car parking lot at its base. It’s a great place to start since you can climb the fire tower and take in the full expanse of the forest, as well as look out into the distance where there are just sand hills as far as you can see. The trails are made up of alternating sections of deep sand, just as you’d find at a beach, and pine needles. The trails are very runnable, with only a few areas with heavily exposed roots. I recommend not to step off the trail since your shoes, socks, and pant legs get covered quickly in very sharp, prickly seed pods. They are very difficult to get off.
I only explored a small area of the Nebraska National Forest because of my short time window on this trip, however there are 10s of miles of trails one can explore for an ultrarunning adventure. A lot of the joy in this trip, though, is the road trip from Omaha, the exploration of small towns along the way, and an appreciation for where a large portion of our country's food comes from. I hope you find your way to Nebraska and enjoy the trip as much as I did.
