The latest segment of my virtual hike ended in Marysville, Kansas. I started the segment at The Geographic Center of the United States which is near Lebanon, Kansas.

Here is the route that this segment followed, and you can see that it is a pretty straight route. The distance was only 107 miles and took right at two weeks. I have been doing a lot of walking lately so my virtual hike is progressing rapidly across Kansas.

Here you can see Marysville in relationship to the major cities in the region. One city of interest is St. Joseph which was the starting point of the Pony Express.

Highway 36 is known as the Pony Express Highway and the route of the Pony Express did pass through Marysville. Here is a shot of US-36 just outside of Marysville. The terrain is relatively flat across this part of Kansas.

There is a Pony Express museum in Marysville. This was the first home station on the route as it is where the first rider exchange was made on the route west. Marysville is right at 100 miles west of St. Joseph and the home stations were 75 – 100 miles apart all the way along the route to Sacramento.

Marysville is also know for their black squirrels. The story is that black squirrels escaped from a traveling circus back in the 1920’s and mixed with the local squirrel population. Today about a quarter of the squirrels in Marysville are black.

You can find out more about black squirrels by visiting a post I wrote about Black Squirrels in Toronto.

My next stop on the Virtual Hike is about 100 miles away and has a major family connection. Check back in a couple weeks to see where I am heading.

Steven