I’ve spent the last 4 days exploring the Black Hills with Kelly. In the last update that I posted, I alluded to the fact that the Black Hills were larger and more magnificent than I had expected. Since that update, that sense of pleasant surprise has only grown.

As she made plans to join me for the weekend, Kelly had researched bike rides that she wanted to do and she’d made arrangements to rent a bike from Rabbit Cycles in Hill City. I heard her say those things, but I was not prepared for what she actually meant. When we got to the bike shop I discovered that she had managed to get the owner to rent her his personal, Dura Ace equipped carbon fiber road bike (not a beach cruiser intended for some short tourist rides).  I guess everybody likes to help a beautiful girl, because I’m pretty sure than I couldn’t call a bike shop and convince a complete stranger to rent me their personal ride for any amount of money.

That was just the start of more impressive things to come. Kelly had selected 3 rides that had us covering 140 miles with 14,000 feet of climbing!  I honestly didn’t think she was serious, but about 1000′ into the first climb she rode by me (and my trailer) and proceeded to peel me right off her wheel!  When I finally caught up with her at Sylvan Lake (luckily for me she’d stopped to enjoy the remarkable beauty of the lake), I started negotiating for a change in plans that would allow me to do at least some of the riding she’d planned without pulling the trailer!  We figured out how to set it up so we could do about 1/2 of the rides without the trailer (I just needed to step up the effort for the other 1/2)!  Over the course of the next 3 days we rode Needles Highway which is littered with tunnels, switchbacks, and incredible granite formations; the wildlife loop in Custer State Park (where we saw antelope and wild burros but unfortunately no buffalo); and the crown jewel of the area Iron Mountain Road.

Iron Mountain Road consisted of a great switchbacking climb which provided an outstanding view of Mount Rushmore at its summit. The most amazing part of the ride, however, was the descent…I love descending switchbacks on the road, but this road has something even better…corkscrews where the road switches 120 degrees all the way back under itself!  I’ve never had so much fun on pavement in my life. On top of the great road, virtually everytime you switched direction you had a picture perfect view of Rushmore (several times the view was framed by a tunnel through the mountainside!)!

After the fun ride down Iron Mountain, we climbed up the 2 mile, 10% grade to the entrance to Mount Rushmore (on this climb, Kelly again proved that the trailer and I were no match for her).  If you’ve never been to Rushmore, there are two things that strike you about it.  The first is the sheer size of the carving, it truly is a mountain-sized work of art. The second thing is the vision and ambition that must have been required to not only conceive of a project so large, but also to complete it so successfully!

Finally, this morning we went to Crazy Horse. I have been looking forward to visiting this site since before my trip began. Part of my interest in Crazy Horse is due to the legend of the man, the fearless warrior, who was Crazy Horse and another part of the attraction was that my Dad had visited the rocky sculpture as a boy and I’m amazed by the fact that seemingly very little progress toward completion has been made in the 53 years between his visit and mine. Shockingly, Crazy Horse, when/if completed will be even larger than Mt Rushmore!  Unknowingly, our visit coincided with some blasting work so we were lucky enough to get to see some of the creation of the monument (you can see the dust from an explosion that removed 300 tons of granite from the base of the sculpture as it floats in front of the monument in the picture here in this update).

As I write this, I’m waiting to go meet a cousin of a friend of a friend of mine (hard to believe that someone that distantly related would allow a complete stranger to stay in their house, isn’t it?) who has been kind enough to allow me to stay with him tonight before I start my trek across the Badlands and on to Iowa and Illinois. It was great to be able to spend the weekend with Kelly, in fact, I’m sure it will be a bit of an adjustment to get used to riding by myself and seeing all of these amazing things by myself (or with brand new friends who were strangers only moments before).

I’ve now ridden 3000 miles and passed the 1/2 point of my journey. So far, my trip has been marked by incredible timing (if almost always arrived at my destinations at just the right time and in great conditions); great people (I’ve constantly been amazed by the generosity and spirit of both friends and total strangers); and great scenery (this has been the most eye opening geology/geography/history lesson I could have ever received).

I want to thank all of you who are following my progress and supporting me with your encouraging words and thoughts and I especially want to thank all of you who have chosen to lend your support to Mikyla-Cure!  I have the tendency to always think that the best is yet to come…I’m not sure that can be possible in this case, but I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to the adventure of finding out!

I’m looking forward to seeing you again (or meeting you for the first time) soon!

Ride fast and take chances!

Scott

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 6:39 am and is filed under Ride Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.