Black Hills, South Dakota

September 16, 2015

Traveling Day:

This was to be a traveling and sight seeing day with a bit of bike riding at the end, and the next morning which I lumped together all in one post. there are lots of photos, and only a small amount of narrative, hope you enjoy. 

 Panhandling Jackasses. Keep your windows up, they are not bashful about sticking their heads in and rummaging for food, or whatever. They'll steal what they find interesting.

 Prairie Dogs are cute little critters to watch

 I'm sure that this big old fellow is on the State Park's payroll to stand there and be photogenic. He did a good job. I noticed several others on our ride later that had the same pictures.

 Typical of the roads through the park. If anyone is thinking of riding through here, the roads are narrow, heavily traveled, no shoulders, and full of gawking tourists. Very steep grades and sharp curves as well. That said, there was a bike expedition service at Sylvan Lake that rented bikes or you could ride your own and for a fee they would pick you back up from the bottom and bring you back ...... all downhill from there except for a few short steep uphills. I saw lots of bikes zooming down, most were faster than the cars.

 Needles Eye Tunnel, tight squeeze.

 The Needle's Eye.

 Sylvan Lake

 This is the end of my driving, just down the hill to Hill City from here, the rest of the time was on the bike. Hill City has the "1880 Train", It's not really from 1880, but that was when the gold rush began here, so they called it that. Very nice train display and museum though, and I like trains. I posted a video on my own page, but not able to post one here of the train pulling the loaded cars up the hill. This below is a good example of an early Ten Wheeler style locomotive on static display.

 I had ridden my bike through here because the parking lot was full, and it was easier to get around with the bike. I also left here, and rode up the "Old Hill City/Keystone Road" to a vantage point for my video. Very hard pull coming out of Hill City on a bike. I was puffing as hard as the train when I got to where I wanted to take my video. So glad I didn't have luggage.

 A Ten Wheeler Tank Engine. Normally used as a switcher or for short local deliveries, it didn't need a tender as it had a large fuel tank behind the cab and carried it's water in the tank above the boiler where it was pre-heated. These little engines were very powerful, and this one did a fine job. These were nicely restored period passenger cars.

 A fellow could get a nice cold shower walking by here.

Rabbit Bicycle in Hill City. Stopped in for a bit and met the owner and chatted a bit. Very nice shop and pleasant people. Many rental bikes, sales and service.

 Rode downtown and saw the sights. It's a very "artsy" town.

 Look closely at the horse (click on it to bring it full size) and you will see it's made up entirely of junk. There are old wrenches, nuts and bolts, tractor hitch parts, shock absorbers .....you name it. After this, it was time for dinner, a shower and bed.

 I met a nice local rider the next morning and we rode up the trail together. I went up 10 miles, and turned around. He was going to make a day of it and turn around at Rochford. I wanted to ride up the grade all the way just to see how well the Fattie would handle a long grade like that. It did just fine. The young man I was riding with was a bit stronger and faster than I, and kept me chugging along at 10-11 mph all the way up. A 20mph breeze against the backside helped here. I was still winded at the top, Phew ...
8 1/2 miles of some of the steepest grade on the trail here. Steady   3 1/2% to 4% grade to the top at Redfern.

 The trail follows the highway off and on, here you can see the grade quite well.

 One of many pretty little lakes

 There are 109 bridges so one of the trail engineers told me. I was lucky enough to meet him at Edgemont and chat with him a bit. Very interesting fellow.

 Hmmm ..... Who's the guy with the red coat? I gave the rider I was with my camera, and he rode off with it, zooming well ahead of me. I was beginning to wonder if I had made a mistake and lost my camera, but he stopped and turned around and took several of me coming up the trail, then returned my camera. And he took nice pictures as well.

Do it yourself water bottle refill, cold fresh water.

 Redfern Trailhead. There was a concrete plant here at one time and you can still see the old foundations back behind here. There was drinking water, table and a pit toilet here.

 This old rail car used to be the offices of the concrete business.

 Trail up on top, heading down from Redfern.

 Hiding wayyyy in the back is a Fatbike.

 Met a fellow and his wife doing the trail together on loaded bikes. When they got to Deadwood, they will turn around and ride back ro Edgemont.

 Parts of the old concrete plant.

 Local color.

 Perfect little lakes abound for fishing

 This is certainly a trail of much beauty, every inch of the way.

 Really? Fly-speck Billy??

 That afternoon, I drove down to Custer where I needed to be for my registration Thursday afternoon. I wanted to ride the short Mickelson Spur trail out to Custer State Park and Stockade Lake. Two pretty good hills on this all paved trail.

 The Stockade at Stockade Lake. Dating from the General Custer's Seventh Cavalry days, it was nicely restored.

 I was intrigued by the roof construction on these cabins, I had never seen this type of roof before. Interesting.

 Stockade Lake in Custer State Park

 You could have your own private island here. This one is a bit small, however ..... but it's green!

 Trail bridge in the background

 You didn't really think you'd get by without having to see a picture of horses, now ...... did you?

 Saw several of these along this trail, along with a couple of deer that sprang up from the trailside just as I rode by them ....exciting for a moment. It happened wayyy to fast to grab my camera. Just a short 9 mile loop including the lake shore portion which is not part of the trail, but just a graveled county road.

From here, I needed to head back into town as it was just about time to pick up my packet. I had some misgivings when I signed up for this ride because of all the car shuttling and bus riding going on. As it turned out, it was a perfect way of handling 600 bike riders, gear, and bikes. I also had some trepidation about the sheer number of riders. I didn't need to be, as I never really saw more than 50 or 60 riders all day, and usually the same ones every day. Starting times were whenever you wanted to leave, some started at 7am some later all the way up to around 10am. They were scattered all over the trail. It turned out to be a really pleasant experience. I checked in, got my packet, made sure everything I needed was in my room, and drove down to Edgemont, left my car parked on Main Street, along with the others and caught the first bus back. Got back in time to enjoy some of the hors d'oveurs and draft Fat Tire they had there. If you do this one ...... the two little red tickets they give you in your packet ..... the ones that look like they should be for a drawing ...... are for the beer and wine. Mine was back at my room. Hoofed it back (car at Edgemont, bike in room) got my tickets and rode the bike back. The lady at the beer table was so surprised I would walk all the way to my motel and ride back just for a beer, she gave me two. I found a pretty lass to share the second one with. Stood around a blazing fire and ate their treats, drank their beer and made some new friends. A fun time was had by all. It got a little late before I realized I had to ride back in the dark with no lights on the bike. Made it back, and was looking forward to tomorrow.