Jacob Usher
Our alarms went off at 6:30 this morning and we could hear a light rain on our tents. Brian called out asking if we wanted to sleep in another hour to see if the rain would stop. The rain seemed to stop pretty quickly but we made absolutely no movement until the alarms went off again.
We packed up and were eating breakfast under a covered pavilion when it started to rain again. We decided it would be safer and warmer to wait for the rain to pass. I was a little antsy about not making progress in the morning, but riding in the rain would have sucked. I used this time to read the new map. I learned about how the actual name of Devil’s Tower translates to Bear Lodge and about the Spearfish Canyon we would be cycling through in the afternoon.
The crew waits out a cold morning rainstorm in Spearfish, SD
During this time we met the Spearfish man. A friendly local who seemed to be living out of a shopping cart. He told us about how he once bike toured and we watched him cook pancakes over a butane torch.
We said bye and headed towards the Spearfish Canyon at a little before 1pm. It was pretty wet and damp, but I was hoping the climb would warm us up quickly. We took a quick stop at Dave’s Rock Shop in Cheyenne Crossing before starting onto our first of two steeper climbs. These were a little bigger than I expected, but the stretch between the two was actually rolling hills and very pleasant.
Spearfish Canyon itself was very cool with tall cliffs of different color rocks. There were also plenty of caves dotting the walls if you looked closely. I wondered why the Black Hills were named as such. Today’s overcast and rainy weather made it clear why. Technically Dark Green Hills may be a more accurate name, but Black Hills sounds cooler. What I’m saying is there were a lot of ponderosa pines.
Spearfish Canyon in the Black Hills National Forest
We got onto a rails to trails bike path at the top of the second climb. This path has the wonderful max grade of 4%. Shout out to trains. While the scenery was beautiful, I was most excited about the lovely gentle grades on the smooth gravel path. We spent the rest of the evening with 30 miles of down then up then down again. We went through 4 tunnels and over many bridges. The only downside of this was we were freezing most of the time. The high in Hill City, where we’re staying tonight, is only 53 degrees today and the sun was setting on us.
The Mickleson Bike Trail
When we got to town we realized the grocery store closed in 3 minutes. This gave us an excuse to eat at a restaurant. It was already past 8 and I had been craving pizza all afternoon so I was secretly pretty happy the grocery store closed. After dinner we rode about a mile in the dark to our campsite. This was our first night riding of the trip, but we kept it pretty short. Starting the day so late makes it feel a lot longer than it really was. Today wasn’t particularly hard, but it felt like a big day because of that and the cold. However, it was very scenic and I think everyone had fun!
Friend and Usher recover from a cold day at Mangiamo Pizza in Hill City, SD