Thursday was a layover day of sorts. I rode 250 or so miles but only only ended up in Deadwood, 30 or so miles up the road from Rapid City, by the end of the day. The annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally doesn’t attract a half a million riders to this area for nothing. The riding in Black Hills National Forest is simply amazing. I was lucky to catch it on a bluebird day – albeit a bit hot from midday on. Needles Highway through Custer State Park and on down 87 to Hot Springs, Vanoker Canyon, Hwy 16A past Mount Rushmore…it was all so good! Today I plan to go through Spearfish Canyon which is often argued as being the gem of the area.
I really need to stop more often and take some more pictures on this trip. I have two cameras and a videocamera besides my phone and came the the realization this morning that I have less that 20 pics and videos so far. I even brought my drone and haven’t had it out at all. Stop and smell the roses!
I got an early start in the morning hoping to bet the heat, but by 7:30am it was already 80 couple degrees. I headed out of Rapid City towards Rushmore. The roads are twisty and nice. The first hour or so was out ahead of the crowds but by 9:00 it started to get congested. Custer State Park and Needles Highway was a unique road built in the 30’s. It was super smooth and appeared to be freshly paved but so narrow and curvy that you never get out of second gear. I did stop near the top of the heavily spired mountain to snap the photo above. As you can see it was a perfect day! I did get myself into a bit of a sketchy situation on my way down to Hot Springs on low half of Hwy 87. As I came around a corner the cars had stopped for a herd of buffalo that had spread across the road. Buffalo can be dangerous and there were signs all along the roads warning people not to approach the buffalo. While I hung back waiting for the herd to move and snapping a few pictures from a distance, I glanced in my rear view mirror and saw that the herd was much bigger that originally appeared. They were coming onto the road behind me as well. I didn’t want to be isolated in the herd by myself so rode up to car up ahead of me and got up close to the bumper to try to blend in with the car. As we inched forward Buffalo were rubbing their heads and bodies up against some of the cars with a force that would surely knock me off the bike. I started to get more and more worried. The car in front of me got a little more aggressive that I would have liked pushing through so I decide to hang back and let the class C RV behind me move up in front. I basically attached myself to the right back corner of the RV for the next hour as we inched through the herd. The temps were in the mid 90’s at that point and I was sweating profusely. My air cooled motorcycle was also overheating for lack of air flow so on the flat and downhill sections I shut down the engine and just foot paddled. I was very relieved when we finally got to the front of the herd and I was able to ride off unscathed. I later read that Custer State Park is home to 1,500 buffalo, one of the largest public held herds in the world.
The rest of the ride on 87 was awesome! Because there were no cars in front of me I could ride at my own pace. I popped out on 395 and continued south to Hot Springs for lunch. What looked like a good restaurant from the outside ended up being mediocre at best. I check the GPS and found I was two hours from my intended destination for the night and headed north to Deadwood and the Hickok House Hotel for a much needed shower. The room was probable one of the best I’ve stayed in so far but was also the most expensive at $98. I’m vowing to never pay more than $100 for a bed on this trip. In some places that will mean camping only due to popularity of the areas I end up and high summer demand.
I’m definitely a biker minority in this area that is dominated by Harleys. Probably at least 10 to 1 Harley vs. any other bike brand – lots of Harley trikes too. At the Hickok house here there are 7 other motorcycles in the lot besides mine and they are all Harleys. In two weeks this town and the whole area will be a zoo with the rally coming in. I plan to stop by Sturgis this morning as I’m only about 15 miles from there. Maybe check out the motorcycle museum there if it’s not too pricey to get in. I think the heat wave hitting the US is finally getting east of me as the highs today are only expected to be in the 80’s. So far it’s a cloudless blue sky so should be another good day to ride!