Big Bird's Adventures

July 5th Day 19 – I transition from the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) to Peaks Parks and Prairies (PPP) heading out of West Yellowstone. This begins the next phase of my summer bike about where my goal now is to get to the town of Orange City in Iowa for the start of the 52nd edition of the Registers Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI). I have the entire state of Wyoming to cross as well as most of South Dakota, one of the few states left on my list to visit, and now I am going to do South Dakota some real justice and spend quite a few days riding across it. For now I am still in Montana, having left Denise and Rebecca on the 3rd, they should be finishing up today by riding into Jackson Wyoming while I will set out East bound.

I arose early to get as early a start as possible. The Bear Country Bakery opens at 7 sharp so I want to be in line to pick up 2 sandwiches before I head out. I have Yellowstone National Park to cross with a number of inns and Forestry Service campgrounds on the other side. I don’t really have the time to spend in Yellowstone, so while my plan is to ride in the West Entrance and out the East Entrance today, I can take some solace in that I spent 5 days there in 1981, and other than some interest in spending some time seeing the sights there are 100 miles to cover to get across and out the other side, so an early start is a must. I did have reservations about visiting Yellowstone again on a bicycle. Though I had a great time in 1981, one of my memories from that time, and confirmed by the rangers, is the traffic. An early start at least gets me some respite before it gets too heavy, and my route across does take in a cross road that not a lot of people take. First I had to get into the park along the West entrance before I hit the one of the main loops. I used my Senior pass to gain entrance and rode along Route 20 beside the Madison River trying to recall anything that looked familiar from 1981, but nothing really tickled the gray matter. In my memory, Frank and I stayed at a campground, just off the road and we could walk across the street and dip in a hot creek, and then dunk in the Madison and repeat, and I didn’t see anything that looked like that on the ride in. There is a campground there still at least. I see now by looking at the arial view of Madison Campground that the highway is North of the CG, and the River is South, and there is a hot spring pool that empties into the river, so at least my memory isn’t that bad.

I turned North at Madison Junction onto the Grand Loop. Traffic was still fairly light however the shoulder got a little tighter so I started having to pay more attention to the oncoming traffic so I needed to take my own lane then I could. Taking the lane means when I know traffic is behind me, and I do get audio warnings from my rear facing radar unit, and if the shoulder is tight, then I push out into the lane so that the vehicles cannot pass me while there is oncoming traffic. When that traffic clears, or if the shoulder opens up again then I move over to allow passage. I have to do this for my own safety. If you give them an inch they take it and don’t seem to consider my safety at all. I continued along the Grand Loop, stopping where there were features that didn’t require a lot of diversion, to take a break and at least see something of the park as I travelled through. I kept this up until I reached Norris Canyon Road which divides the grand loop by cutting across to Canyon Village via the first pass of the day. I stopped at the intersection and gobbled down the remains of my first breakfast sandwich. They were rather large and so I didn’t eat the first one entirely, thus leaving me with another for later. The shoulder wasn’t much better on this cross road, but at least there was a lot less traffic, though I was climbing right from the start. The opportunity to divert on Virginia Cascade Dr presented itself, giving me a one way drive so much easier to tolerate what traffic also wanted to take this excursion. The payoff was a waterfall, hence the cascade and just as I was getting ready to set out again I looked back to whence I had come and spotted the dark clouds coming straight towards me. Yikes! I took off and did the best I could but I still wasn’t at the top of the pass and so the clouds overtook me just as I crested the pass. At least it wasn’t one of those bare exposed passes, so I didn’t feel like there was any real danger, but there wasn’t any real place to hide either. The hails started first. I stopped and put on my rain jacket and then continued on. The hail wasn’t large and that doesn’t make you wet until the rain starts, which it did shortly thereafter. I kept riding until the rain transitioned into a full downpour cloudburst. It just didn’t feel safe staying on the road, so I stopped and pulled off the road. There had been very little traffic, but it was the right thing to do. The storm was fast moving however as I stood there I started to get cold. The Frog Troggs are okay, but I sweated underneath, and that was giving me a chill and I still had to descend off the pass to get to Canyon Village. When the strength of the storm seemed to ebb enough, I got back on the bike and started to ride again, all my flashers going I began the descent and took it slowly to keep from getting too cold. Before I got down all the way the sun was out again, and that help a bit. I rode into Canyon Village under full sun and found a place to dry out my things while I took stock of my needs for the rest of the day. There were a lot of other people there, mostly tourists (yes I was a tourist as well) as I didn’t spot anyone else on a bike. I at my other sandwich, had something to drink, filled my water and hit the road following the Yellowstone River. This was the worst section of road for a cyclist. It’s afternoon so the volume is up, the shoulder was the narrowest so far, and the terrain was rolling. I was riding in the same direction as the river, but the terrain the road was laid upon rolled a lot and when I had to climb, that was slow rolling, and I had to take the lane a number of times. One asshole towing a trailer passed when he should have waited and start moving back over long before he cleared me and forced me to the right so I would not get hit. Impatitent Asshole. It was with great relief when I reached the left turn that would take me to the East Entrance of the park. It was a long way off, and there was a big climb to get out of the park, but at least the traffic was low, and the shoulder was decent. I had to work against the wind a lot as I first navigated around Lake Yellowstone, but eventually I climbed up and over the pass, and from there it was smooth sailing all the way down and out of the park. Once out of the park I stopped at one of the resorts but there was no discount for cyclists, so I continued on down the Shoshone river canyon until I came to the Rex Hale USFS campground and set myself up there. It was 102 miles this day and I was fairly tired. I setup camp fixed some grub, took a little walk around the campground, and then turned in for the night. Another big day lay ahead the next day. Day 19 Strava, Instagram, Relive.cc

July 6, Day 20 – No telling when the sun would actually get to the part of the Shoshone River Canyon where my tent was pitched, so I packed it wet, ate whatever I had to eat, and set out for what would mostly be a day of descending. I say mostly the intermediate goal was to get to Cody by lunch time, and then maynbe make it all the way to Basin Wyoming. I guess out in Basin and Range country a town name like Basin is as common as Middletown is back east. The highway follows the Shoshone River through the canyon all the way to the Buffalo Bill Dam and then there is a gorge drop before the final descent into Cody proper. The ACA guide for my route warns that I should be well lit as I had two tunnels to pass through, but not to worry, the shoulder is decent, and Eastbound is downhill, so I should be able to make it through quickly without pissing off the motorists. That was good info to know. The canyon winds in and out so at some times I was in the sun, and most of the time I was in the shade until the canyon really started to open up as I approached the dam. Bill Cody. A Dam. It turns out that ol Bill lobbied Washington pretty hard to Dam up the Shoshone River. This turned into the first project under the auspices of the Bureau of Reclamation. You know who they are right? Hoover Dam, Glenn Cooley Dam, all the Dams on the Columbia River are projects that came after Buffalo Bill Dam, and Bill was fighting for the farmers in the downriver basin where rainfall was so infrequent it was hard to make living year to year. One year you get the rain you need, and the next you don’t. Maybe you don’t for 2 or 3 years and then you get enough to give you hope for the next year. Building the dam would provide a reliable stable source of irrigation and it transformed the basin after it was built. Bill Cody was a local hero for getting that project built, and at some point the Dam was named for him. He wasn’t just a circus barker.

I stopped in at the dam visitor center and read all that and being a cyclist I stood out. One of the employess asked me what direction I was going and when I said East she told me to let her know when I was ready and they’ll open the gate for me. Now, I thought that since I rode 1/4 mile in the parking lot, there was a gate that would let me bypass that distance and put me right at the mouth to the tunnel. I was wrong. When I gave her the nod, the shuttle driver took me over to a giant iron gate and opened it to allow me to use the non-tunnel service road. No tunnel. Cool. The descent was super fucking hairy steep and I rode the brakes all the way down the steepest part. It was a fucking gorge and there was a narrow steep as fuck road in it. West bounders can use it but I don’t know how they trigger someone to open the gate. People are free to walk up the hill from below, but visitors above are not free to descend. I found people enjoying the gorge all along the lower portion and eventually I was dumped back onto the road which I took down into Cody. Cody was pretty much everything you expect of a Wyoming city/town. The first thing I passed was the rodeo arena, and then there were all the outlying businesses before I finally got downtown. Downtown seemed to be functional and open. It was Sunday, so I think everyone was in the food establishments getting their post church brunches consumed. I found convenience store and picked up some food and drink before setting off again.

Riding out of town, I realized that it was fucking hot now. All that elevation loss put me down where the hotter places are, and I was feeling it. I was riding past a strip mall when I suddenly felt something cool on the back of my left leg. It was periodic and I realized it was sealant spraying out of my tire. I must have run over something that caused a small puncture and the sealant was leaking out. By the time I found some shade the leak had sealed itself. I got the pump out and put some more air in the tire, and all was good. Tubeless. What a great thing. Did I mention it was hot? A little breezy too but not enough to bring relief, just enough to chap the lips. I am still wearing my bib knickers which are for cool weather generally, but they were indeed helping with my saddle sore, which had been stable so far. My top was a merino wool short sleeve shirt and I had UV blockers on my arms. I also wore protection on my head to keep as much of the sun off me as I could, so as long as I could keep moving I was cool enough. Leaving Cody I had to climb out of there, so the going was slow. When I crested the top I got view far to the East of the Big Horn Mountains. They were big. There might be a little in there somewhere, but overall they looked big. Not a lot of foothills there, just the basin running right up to them and then up they go. That was not today though, but those mountains were in my sights the rest of the day. While Cody was more on the order of a city/town, the rest of the towns I started seeing were small serviceless towns. The closest town with anything was Basin, and I didn’t see any campgrounds on the map, so I called ahead and got a room at Cottonwood Cottages, a 2 star hole in the wall that was clean enough. The ride there was uneventful. I was now in country that was wide open yes, but not as scenic overall as the earlier part of this adventure. The Big Horn Mountains should be nice, and the Black Hills, but now it is irrigated farms, and ranchland. I found my place, checked in, cleaned up and then walked downtown where I found a Restaurant/Bar where I could take care of my caloric needs. There was one very annoying activity going in in Basin while I was there. I could hear it as I walked back to my room, but I thought it was just some homeowner with a really loud piece of yard equipment, but it went on and on, and the directionality of it kept changing. Eventually a small pickup drove by dispensing a fog into the trees running up and down the streets of the entire town blasting out more than 100db of noise. Mosquito spraying. Day 20 Strava, Instagram, Relive.cc

July 7, Day 21 – The plan for today was to reach a USFS CG more than halfway up the Big Horn climb. There was one at the base, but I felt like I should try to get some of this climb out of the way today and make it easier on myself on the morrow. Basin did have a breakfast joint and I hit it right at opening time and loaded up before setting out. The closer I got to them the bigger they looked. On paper I would hit the climb at around 3600′ of elevation and the the pass lay at 9600′. There aren’t too many places in this country where you climb 6000′ in such a short distance on paved roads. The Big Horns are rather unique. Estes Park sits at almost 7000′ feet and the pass in Rocky Mountain National Park is 12,000′ over 40 miles traveled. The climb ahead was a beast and the day got hotter the closer I got. Turns out there are some foothills that begin halfway between the town of Manderson and Ten Sleep. Very gradual, but gaining nonetheless and wide open views. I pulled into the town of Ten Sleep after about 50 miles of riding and my legs were dead. Were they really dead? Probably not, but I had been gaining elevation since I left Basin 50 miles ago very false flatty gaining, but it was gaining. Raising one’s potential energy for that long is pretty exhausting. Right at the edge of town was an RV park with a shady porch which I took a seat on to consider my options. I could continue or I could rest up and tackle the whole climb tomorrow getting an early start before the heat of the day sets in. The RV park had plenty of tent sites available. I took a walk back out to the road and looked into town and could see 3 bars. “This could work” I thought. I paid for a site, and found a nice one to setup camp for the night, showered and changed into my comfy clothes and was walking back to my tent when I stopped to talk to someone else in the park. The RV park was also a “Horse Hotel” and there were a few RV trailers in the park that were part human and part horse accomodations. The RV park had stables as well and apparently Ten Sleep is not the only one. Though this is the first one I saw, the person I was chatting up said they are all over the Western US. She and her husband both work remotely, using Starlink, and they travel around Horse Hotel to Horse Hotel. Very interesting indeed.

I pulled my sleeping pad out and lay down in the shade for a while before venturing into town to see what was available. The 4th was on a Friday so it was Monday the 6th and two of the 3 bars were closed. “Our employees need a short break after the 4th, We’ll be open again on the 8th”. Fortunately the 3rd place I tried was open and I took a seat for the afternoon while I wrote up my journal entry. I got some supper across the street at a buritto joint, and then wandered back to my tent. I had had a conversation earlier with the woman runnning the RV park and she mentioned that a lot of their cycling guests would start the climb in the morning and then give up and ride back down to spend another night. That worried me a little. How hard can it be? Maybe it’s just the length of it. That wasn’t going to be me though. I hit the hay around 9 to rest up for the big day. Day 21 Strava, Instagram, Relive.cc

July 8, Day 22 – After packing up I stopped at the general store in town for some breakfast sandwiches before I hit the road. I am no longer on US 20, but following 16 and it starts out with a decent shoulder and fairly light in traffic. There are some big earth hauling trucks out but I suspect they don’t go over the mountain as there must be a decent supply of earth on the other side as well, so I don’t think I will have to put up with them during the long climb. I can see on the map that there is an “Old 16” route along which one of the potential camp sites lay from yesterday. I wasn’t sure until I got to that cutoff whether I would take it or not. The PPP route did not take it, however when I got it the shoulder disappeared and I was still a little worried about the trucks so I diverted onto the old route which became a gravel climb very quickly. It was an 8 mile diversion and sat along the Eastern flank of Ten Sleep Creek winding up the climb parallel and sometimes quite far from the new 16. On the way up I ran into a lot of loose cattle as well as scattered RV vehicles here and there. I think this was all BLM land, so people are free to hangout and camp. All the RVers I saw were in their 20’s and 30’s. We waved. About 4 miles up I spotted a van RV pulled off the road and a young man sitting outside drinking in some coffee. I stopped and we chatted. Sean was cyclist mechanic who had actually worked at the Lynsky factory in Tennessee which reminded me that I was still exhanging emails with Lynsky trying to find a solution to getting my new derailleur hanger shipped out. Sean had a starlink setup and gave me his wifi password and soon I was exchanging emails with Lynsky in real time and we got everything settled. I thanked Sean and moved on.

The update to the derailleur hanger is that I needed to find someplace down the road where I could have the item shipped reliably so I reached out via Instagram to the bike mechanic who had supported the Brancel charter service I had used (and was going to use again) for Ragbrai. I told him my situation and he agreed to let me have it shipped to him and then he would bring it to Ragbrai and then he could install it for me. He told me when he was planning on leaving for Ragbrai, and I wanted to make sure we weren’t pushing any boundary conditions, so I gave the info to Lynsky and had to upgrade the shipping to 2 day as the normal delivery couldn’t guarantee the timeframe. I think they were saying 7-10 days. I happily upgraded to 2 and used Sean’s wifi to finish that transaction.

The higher I climbed the two 16’s inched closer and closer together until I was dumped onto the new 16 for the rest of the climb. The shoulder was decent and the traffic was slow, and there were no trucks that I could hear or see other than an occasional box truck. It was not a steep climb but it was steady. Another 4 miles and I rounded Meadowlark Lake where I found a functioning resort restaurant to get some lunch into me. There was still another 1500′ of climbing to go. The shoulder was all very nice and there were many steps and false summits but eventually I got the Eastern overlook that was the Powder Pass where the long descent into Buffalo began. I would learn soon enough that there was a wrench in that descent, but at this point I knew nothing of that. There was a nice cool breeze on top which whisked away the heat and when I felt ready I set off on the descent. After a little detour for a scenic view I got about halfway down when I came upon something called a “Brake Check Segment”. There was a large pullout and a sign that diagramed this segment. Apparently this engineering marval was designed so that heavy trucks travelling East could test their brakes 5 times before the final descent into Buffalo. That final descent was long, had one runaway truck ramp and was 7-9% in places so while the vehicle was still high in the mountains a driver could see just how effective their braking system was. Any failures here wouldn’t be catastrophic and the driver could call out for repairs before proceeding. I thought “Good idea” until I hit the first one. They were 5 roller coaster hills each drop about 6-8% followed my a climb that in many cases brought us right back to the same elevation. The take away here is that after climbing all morning to get to the pass there was still another 2000′ of climbing on the descent for all these brake check segments. I was getting very tired of them! While I was climbing the last one, a fully loaded logging truck passed me, slowly, on the climb out of that last check and so was ahead of me for the final descent. I could see Buffalo off in the distance and the beginning of the grassland praries beyond when I started my descent. It was a single lane descent so by the time I caught up to the descending truck there were 6-10 cars behind it and it wasn’t moving very fast at all. It was engine braking its descent and the twisty windy nature of the road made gave few sight lines for a driver to pass so they stacked up. I moved past all of them and when the opportunity presented itself, I passed (on the left) and then enjoyed a vehicle free descent the rest of the way down. On my way into Buffalo I spotted the logging trucks destination, a huge mill loaded with raw logs. I spied what I thought was a convenience store however when I entered it was a liquor store but they had Mexican Coke, so I bought one and took it outside to consume and make some calls. I called The Historic Occidental Hotel downtown and was told they had a room for me that was reasonable. I told them I would be there in about 10 minutes and entered through an old wooden front door into a beautiful lobby. This place looked historic. I checked in and they showed me where I could safely park my bike out back and then showed me to my room. My room was in a part of the hotel that had been a bordelo back in the day. Many very worn steps with spur marks graced the rear stairwell to get to my room which was very nice and comfortable. The number of clients that had been served up in that room is probably beyond my imagination.

Refreshed and dressed in my clothing I grabbed my keyboard and headed down to the bar, a true gem of a place. Tin ceilings with fans, a finely detailed wooden mirrored facade with all the assorted bottom and top shelf liquors your heart could desire. A fair number of drafts available including some local IPAs. I found a seat and set myself up for journaling and planning out my next day. That was going to be trial of a different sort. The shortest distance to Gilette was the I90, but the frontage road didn’t go all the way so the alternative was a wide northern arc that had 1 service stop along the entire 94 miles, and that stop didn’t open until 11 AM. I would need to stock up on food and drink as there was literally nothing out there. When I finished my dinner I walked up the street to check out the convenience store to see what they had available for an early departure. Just prior to getting there I saw something out on the sidewalk that looked a lot like a 1 barrel beer fermenter and looking at the business front there I spied a micro brewery. I stopped in on my walk back and took a seat. There was a couple also seated and as soon as I ordered a beer they turned to me and asked what part of Jersey I was from. I could hear their Jersey accents and found they were from North Jersey, she was from Ridgefield, he was from Teaneck and they had moved out to Buffalo about a year ago and loved the area. He was a head greenskeeper for a local golf course where the opportunity to work came up and they decided to take a chance. I turned in early for my big day. Day 22 Strava, Instagram, Relive.cc

July 9, Day 23 – I picked up some protein bars at the convenience store in the morning, and hit the McDonalds going out of town for a couple of McMuffins and then I was soon riding out of town. There was a point at the beginning where I turned onto E. Hart Street, Rt 16 still and the turn by turn in my ear said “In 94 miles turn left” and I knew I wasnt going to hear from my turn by turn the rest of the day. At an average speed of 13-14 mph it was going to be many hours before that left turn would present itself and along the way it was just a lot of irrigated farms as well as open ranch interspersed with rolling terrain and prarie grassland. The mile markers went by one after the other and I was tracking them as I knocked out each 10 mile increment. The traffic was very light, a product of the shorter I90 route and the ruralness of 16 simply meant that unless you were looking for the scenic route, there wasn’t much reason to be on this route. Yes there were a couple of small villages along the way, but none of them supported any kind of operational business that could support people like me. As the miles wore on I put each of the butte bypasses behind me. I was doing okay as far as my water intake went, but the heat of the day was building, and I did reach that one potential service stop but I was there at 10 and it had an 11 opening so after a short rest I moved on.

As it got hotter I started drinking more often and when the hot foot hit me I took a break at the entrance to an active fracking site. I set up my bear canister seat, removed my shoes and muched on a protein bar when a pick-up approaced from the fracking site. A big Ford 360 Super Duty stopped and a gentleman rolled his window down to see how I was doing and offered me some water. I greatfully accepted and we chatted a bit before he pulled out, and I shoed up and knocked out the final miles. As I approached Gillete proper I stopped in at the regional airport where I purchased some liquid relief before I advanced into Gilette downtown. My initial goal was the post office as I wanted to send home all the cold weather gear I didn’t need anymore. My RideWithGps route unfortunately took me into the railyard where to get to the downtown I either had to ride a couple miles to find a crossing, or I could carry my bike up some stairs for a pedestrian crossing right there where I stood. I might have swore a lot but I took myself up the stairs and over the crossing and down the other side. At the PO I packed up everything I didn’t need including the bib shorts that caused my saddle sores. My package weight was close to 11 pounds which I greatly appreciated at this point. The one item I missed was my sleeping bag liner that was in the bag with my sleeping bag. Oh well. I found a hotel on the outside of town, and finished my day riding over, 102 miles in the legs already. There was nothing out there in the form of a place to walk to, so after I cleaned up, and soaked in the pool I got an uber into downtown to get some dinner and update my journal before getting another Uber back to my hotel. I turned in early and got some rest for a shorter day to Devil’s Tower, the main background for the Close Encounters movie. Day 23 Strava, Instagram, Relive.cc

July 10, Day 24 – It is a relatively short day to Devil’s Tower. Looking ahead I see places in the future where I can take some shortcuts and reduce the overall mileage and thus make up for these shorter days. Devil’s Tower just seems like a site I should go out of my way to make time for. It’s on the route, and it is one of the least visited National Parks. Maybe because it is of limited size and there just is only so much you can do there. I could get there by early afternoon thus leaving me with plenty of time to rest. I went online and reserved a tent site for myself. There were some businesses just outside the park where I would be able to wine and dine so I could camp but have decent food as well. I set out on the East side of Gilette so I was already on my way to some extent. I stopped at a convenience store to pick up some sandwiches and snacks for the days ride. I got an early enough start and rode directly East out of Gillette alongside some really really long trains of train engines hooked up end to end. Personally I have never seen so many engines together in one place. The further East I rode the number of tracks condensed finally down to the two main lines that stayed with me until I started Northeast towards the Tower in Moorcroft Wy. I drank some fluids in Moorcroft and then began to gain elevation as the road took me up and around Keyhole Reservoir. Traffic was light on US 14 and once I turned onto SR 24 for the final push, the traffic reduced to mostly vacationers. I passed a small business which had refreshments that I took on as it was pretty hot out, and it was a good time to air my feet out as well. Finally over a rise I could finally see the tower off in the distance. It is quite impressive indeed. I pulled off at in information kiosk where I found a couple of women riding Harleys who were trying to get a selfie of themselves and their bikes, so I offered to get them both and their bikes in a nice framed photo. We talked about our respective adventures and then went our separate ways. I rolled into the parking lot of The Diamond Bar at Devil’s Tower, a seasonal bar/restaurant/watering hole on the corner where you turn into the main park entrance. It was hot, and the signage outside mentioned ice cream and that was enough to get me to park my bike and go inside. I ordered up a double dipper in a cup and took that out back to the porch where I enjoyed it overlooking the tower itself. Finished I rolled into the park through a gate unpersoned at the time and found the campsite. I found a tent site and setup camp, and then lay out in the shade under a cottonwood to get a little rest. In my comfort clothing I rode back out to The Diamond Bar for dinner as the facilities near the KOA just didn’t grab my interest. I sat at the bar and journaled while I ate and sampled whatever local IPAs they had before returning to my campsite. The ride in passes a fairly large Praire Dog habitat where there a LOT of Praire Dogs, and just like you have seen on the telly, or in cartoons, they stand on their hind legs for a better view as they scan the horizon. Signs everywhere plead with people to not feed them, but undoubtedly they get fed. It’s a shame people can’t abide these warnings. Sure they’re cute as fuck, but when they lose their fear of the human then they can become very aggressive, and who bears the brunt of those aggressions? Kids do. Some get hurt, and those kids may have had nothing to do with the offense as they were probably just snacking on something when they reached the village. I didn’t witness any offenses, but based on the signage clearly this happens a lot. As I rode past in the late evening, the dogs were still out there standing. I would see them again in the morning. Day 24 Strava, Instagram, Relive.cc

July 11, Day 25 – 4:45 The alarm went off and I snoozed it once but arose before that fired. The wind was blowing all night, and I was sure it was going to rain, but it never did. I broke down camp, and made a cup of coffee to consume while I packed up. Not a long day ahead, but I wanted an early start. Wanted and had can be quite different. Good thing I was up early because I dawdled longer than I should have. No one else seemed up, so I was good. I had a couple of pop-tarts (Strawberry iced) and a cream filled croissant and I was on my way. Into the wind. Strong WNW wind which I had to fight, sort of, until my route turned more due East into Huelet. Now, experience has taught me that in these small American towns there isn’t usually much in the form of choice, and I really should have consulted the google, because instead of the convenience store sandwiches I could have ridden into the actual downtown and enjoyed a proper breakfast. Opportunity lost.
Out of town the next hamlet was Alvin, and then Aladdin (of all names). The rollers were long and gradual, and wind aided so not really all that difficult, but when you have ridden your bike 24 of the last 25 days, there is a certain level of muscle fatigue that is always present. Up and over and down, up and over and down. There was one kind of giant up and over and then a huge 7% descent that was fantastic, and just as I was about to reach the oldest General Store in Wyoming still operating, I turned South on 111 to connect with old 14 as 90 frontage road.
Turning onto the frontage road I came across the Vole Buffalo Jump, an archeological site where indigenous (Souix) peoples before the Euros brought the horse back to North America used to coordinate hunts and force Bison into a sinkhole where they died of course, and provided the much needed resources that the tribes needed for survival. They estimate that the tribes coordinated this for around 400 years which would imply that before that they either didn’t know about the sinkhole, or they weren’t here yet. You won’t find the answer here.
The next town was Beulah, and I had been rained upon by the time I reached there, and stopped a wee early at the bar in town and not the convenience store/gas station 90 resource at the top of the hill. By that time I was committed to Spearfish, and just started riding. Pushing. I was wet, and as long as I was moving I was warm, so I kept moving.
The route enters at the North end of North Spearfish with a Right onto Evans Lane which happened to host a brewery but it was only noon and I had shave on my mind so right turn executed and onwards I rode. Past some university I rode until I figured I should check my position and as it so happened, I missed my mark. I had to double back to get there and even stopped in at a different barber however they didn’t do shaves and that was the main purpose of the visit.
After my shave I was very hungry, and there was a subway next door so I got a Friday meal for 6.95 and froze while I ate it as their AC was cranking!! At that exact moment, it was still overcast, cold and although the forecast was for clearing, I just couldn’t see taking a camp site so I checked into the Best Western, de-clothed turned up the temp on the AC unit, and crawled into bed for a nap. A couple hours later I showered properly and dressed to go downtown and explore.
First stop was the Spearfish Public House, read the first review and was sold. Sat next to Rick and Kate who have lived in the area for years, and this was their favorite watering hole. Rick worked in Architecture, and was semi retired. We talked for an hour about the area and areas where i had ridden. Being a Harley guy he knew all the places I had been. Fun convo.
I enjoyed time at the Spearfish Brewing Company doing a “Flight” of six beers. How was it possible I had lost so much weight? You can see it in my face after the shave.
Tomorrow. Well I could shortcut to Rapid City along Frontage road, but I think not. Up the Spearfish canyon gorge I will ride to Lead, and then through the Black Hills proper and I will plan on the Mount Rushmore side trip. Should be a good day yes. Dav 25 Strava, Instagram, Relive.cc

Bike About 2025 Composite Panoramas

Tagged: adventure, Bike About 2025, Bike Packing, bike-touring, Bikepacking, biking, Cycling, Travel, Wyoming