"Never Say No to Adventure" : 2014-07-06

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Rapid City to Interior photos

As usual, these are out of order

Badlands

Hometown

Between Rapid and Scenic

Home for tonight

In 2007 I took a picture here and made it the background of this page! I found the same hill!

Scenic

Grass

Pop 65

Scenic

About to enter Badlands

Badlands

Scenic

Coming up Interior

Scenic

Storm brewing in Interior

Badlands

Rapid City to Interior: Badlands? More like RADlands!

After two days of hospitality, I have left the bustling metropolis of Rapid City and find myself 70 miles and 4:30 on bike away in a park in Interior. Population 65. I love it.

These little towns are my favorite. I will miss them when I get east of Iowa and they mostly disappear. No one here gives a crap what I do and are super friendly. There is no sheriff or town hall to ask permission from, just the Colombian dude who runs the bar and the folks at the nearby shop.

Iris's parents dropped me off back in Rapid about 8am, and I had an OK 40 mile overcast ride into the mostly ghost town of Scenic. The 2007 crew slept there because we had a short day due to Black Hills hiking with The Bike Whisperer. This time I just lunched there, chatting with a young couple who quit their university jobs to do a one year motorcycle tour down to the bottom of South America. They have dual surface tires and are trying to avoid paved roads as much as possible. Currently they are heading to Portland.

On the road to Scenic I saw other bike tourers for three first time since the L&C and divide riders in Ovando. About thirty people going the other way in small groups, riding supported (unloaded) from Atlantic City to Astoria, taking the L&C route after Missoula.

After Scenic the clouds cleared and it got hot and a little headwindy, but who cares? I was riding 30 miles on a road with almost no traffic through the friggin' Badlands. Awesome pants. The second thirty went easier than first forty for probably mental reasons. I am feeling the need for a rest day.

If I continue this pace I'll get to Iowa Thursday night or early Friday, giving me most of two days to rest! Yes!

I forgot to mention, yesterday my credit card got canceled because someone in California stole the number. I have backup funds, but damn. Lousy timing.

I'm gonna eat and play music to the emptiness of the Badlandy hills surrounding this area. Cheers! ILYI

Interior, SD has the best setup for #biketour camping possible. Water, port a potties, garbage, big enough picnic tables to sleep on, big enough shelter to keep out wind driven rain, and a small population (65) so no one will care. Also on the edge of a reservation, so they extra won't care!

Great place for a hot headwind! #biketour

Friday, July 11, 2014

Belle Fourche to Rapid City photos

This is the place in Rapid City where I met The Bike Whisperer in 2007.

Paul's butt

Video chatting with Iris and parents

Can you tell that I am soaked in sweat? Because I am.

Black Hills

About ten minutes after taking this picture this cloud had doubled in size and was shouting thunder

You don't see the bike from this angle often

Home for the night

Hill.

Paul!

Belle Fourche to Rapid City: Blaaaaack Hiiiiillllsss!

I wrote a song in 2007 when riding through this area, it's sung to the tune of Old Smokey (On Top Of Spaghetti) as loudly and badly as possible.

On top of the hi-ill
All covered in trees
I took a break there
to rest my poor knees

Rode in to the black hills
On my little bike
I thought I'd have fun there
and see things I'd like

But the black hills are lo-ong
and they sure are steep
if I ever come back here
it's to the plains I'll keep!

The last line was an obvious lie, and I knew it at the time. Paul suggested changing it to "I will surely weep," which I like better. I rode about 65 miles today with 4,340 feet of climbing through the Black Hills, on grades as high as 11%. Since I have computer access, I embedded the route below.

Paul rode the first 30 miles or so with me. The 27 miles into Sturgis was a breeze and it was great having a riding companion. That was only about 1:40 on bike. We then started climbing to Nemo and Paul decided that this was a good stopping point for him. This was pre-planned. He was going to ride as far as felt good for him, since he didn't have time to train this summer. Riding straight up a cliff when you haven't had time to train is a good way to cause long-term knee injuries, so he made the right call.

The first climb was hot, super hot. There was a slight tailwind that didn't help and made it even hotter. Sweat was pouring out of me, and my hands were too soaked to hold on to the handle bars well when standing up and couldn't work my phone to take pictures. At mile 45 I reached Nemo, the "top" just after noon with 3:38 on the bike. Thunder clouds had rolled in about mile 35 and gave me merciful shelter from the sun, however the entire day was very humid. From Nemo I had 20 miles more into Rapid City, which was certainly not all downhill, but did drop a few thousand feet and I had a slight tailwind.

All in all it was a good ride, and I managed to just miss the storms a few different times. It was certainly the hardest climbing I've done all tour due to the steepness of the hills, but they weren't really any worse than a standard mountain pass other than that, and I've ridden over tons of those. I hit 1,500 miles sometime today. I also hit a bike shop and restocked on my butt lube! Yes! It was my last chance to get some before RAGBRAI, and you don't want to run out. Bike touring is gross.

Rapid City is the home of Shawn, The Bike Whisperer (see 2007 journal), who is a super fun bike guy who fixed our bikes back then, has a great cat, and bailed me out several days later when I needed a ride back to Rapid from Wood, SD (probably 6 hours roundtrip) to head back to Eugene temporarily for an emergency. We weren't able to visit today, however, since The Bike Whisper is in Taiwan whispering to bikes.

Instead, I'm staying with Iris's parents on their vacation in a cabin just south of Rapid City. They picked me up in the city and drove me out here, and will drop me back off on the road tomorrow nearby where they grabbed me. For the second day in a row I've had a shower and a great meal! Yes!

All is good in South Dakota tonight, and the polar vortex should make for some cool cycling in the next few days, although headwinds are forecast for tomorrow. Oh well, I will just sing loudly to drown them out. Also, since I went straight from Belle Fourche to Rapid instead of staying a day at Bear Butte, I've cut another day off my schedule fully allowing me to make RAGBRAI on time! Winning!