July 7
Saturday, July 7 Lusk,
WY to Hot Springs, SD 96.57 miles 2,850 feet of climb
Here I am in South Dakota! It has been many years since I’ve been in this State. As kids we toured around this part of the state to see the tourist attractions. Living in the southeast corner of North Dakota, we were never very far from going over into South Dakota. It seems so incredible that I have bicycled clear across three entire states already. Time is really marching along fast I know, but New Hampshire still seems a long way off.
I was still riding
with a good bit of energy that was built up from the rest day on Thursday. At route rap last night it was advised to
pack along the rain gear. Weather channel
was showing rain in this area. I figured it would be cooler because of possible
rain in the afternoon, WRONG!
Breakfast couldn’t be scheduled until
6:30. It was at the same place dinner was last night and if they weren’t on top
of it at the restaurant, I knew it would be way after 7 before getting out of
town. I didn’t want to wait around that long.
92 miles, possible rain and climbing of several long hills, I had to get
on the road. The luggage truck opens
fifteen minutes before breakfast so
couldn’t leave before that. There were
quite a few waiting ready and chomping at the bit as early as 5:45. We stood around and chatted waiting for
Larry to open the Truck. Those who were skipping breakfast had of course eaten
food bought at stores yesterday. I had
a bagel, some peanut butter, bottle of O.J., Skore bar and then some cantaloupe
that was passed around by someone who had extra.
The
ride was so pleasant all morning. It is
a wonderful time of day to thank God for another day, to remember those who
have asked for prayer and to marvel in the beautiful earth. The scenery changed a lot today, beginning
as we left Lusk, WY. Much greener, not
any more sagebrush and brown grasses. There were many green fields where cattle
were grazing. The land was rolling
hills and the road was great. Most of
the morning the berm was very wide and smooth. I have so much energy in the
mornings. It was great getting up and
down the rolling road. If I looked off down the rolling road it reminded me of
ribbon candy. ( That red & white ribbon candy you see at Christmas time
). Up & down, up & down so far
as the eye could see. Rolled into a SAG
stop by 9AM – grabbed some stuff to eat, refill water and was out of there in 5
minutes. A couple of miles up the road
I had a flat. My 4th one total during the trip. I‘m getting speedy at changing a flat. Just as I was pumping it up, Fred stopped and helped finish the pumping.
If I had another flat today, I would
have to get the patch kit, find the hole and patch it because I only carry one
new tube with me every day.
We
were following hwy 18 east and at Mole Creek Junction the road takes a sharp
turn and heads directly east right to the South Dakota border. It also got more rolling, long gradual. At
the place where the State welcome sign is, we were stopping and taking pictures. It was also beginning to really heat up. It
was still almost 12 miles to the store and café SAG stop in the town of
Edgemont. It was an interesting ride
because the road was winding all over.
Only thing is the minute we crosses into SD the wide berm we had in
Wyoming suddenly narrowed to a mere 12”
and rumble strips every 20 feet.
Those rumble strips are deep grooves in the road that are no fun to run
over with the bike. To avoid them we
had to ride right on the white painted line.
When semi-trucks and the big RV’s come by there wasn’t much to do but
watch in our mirrors if they would ( or could ) move over and give us some
breathing room. Most drivers are very
courteous - but boy! What a draft they
suck when flying by. We had to deal
with narrow shoulders and the rumble strips almost the remaining 40 miles.
I
sure was glad to get into the stop for lunch.
The café was swamped with people wanting to get food. Most of us grabbed stuff from a deli section
of the truck stop and ate outdoors. I
bought a small individual pizza and a high energy shake type drink. Found out
the pizza was not the thing to eat just before the major 4 mile climb that
followed right away after this lunch stop.
It was SO HOT by this time and the acid of the tomato sauce on
that pizza was really talking to me as I was exerting lots of energy trying to
climb non-stop for 4 miles. I got so
hot and dizzy and my stomach was ready to say “barf” to the pizza. I hated to stop because it was so hot and no
breath of wind to cool me.
An ABB staff van came by and I gave the
top-of-the-helmet-signal for him to stop.
I needed to wet my head down. I
need to cool my body down right away.
Top of that, my exercise induced bronchial spasms were causing me to
wheeze a little. I took out my
albuterol inhalant and took a couple of puffs.
What did the trick and brought things back to normal was sitting in the
air conditioned parked van for about half an hour. I was all refreshed and
felt 100% better. I continued on with
no major problems.
There were nasty black flies that were
G.D. biting pests! They smell the
sweating cyclists a hundred miles away.
They were going right for my beam and boy do they bite! It’s real hard not to keep swatting at them
but we must pay attention to bike handling first.
At dinner tonight we learned that Frank was 30 miles into the ride
this morning and a bee flew in behind his glasses. He lost control of his bike trying to get it out and fell
over. Two broken ribs and a dislocated
shoulder.
Just before getting into Hot Springs
was one more climb and a nice 2.5 mile
downhill right into town. I was glad to
get in and cool off in the pool. I
didn’t make it in time to go with the group to Saturday Church. I was hoping I could make it sooner, but 92
miles, the heat and the extra stopping I did got me in too late.
We
were served a great meal at Big T’s BBQ.
Outdoors under a canopy the tables were set and delicious BBQ pork and
beef from the grills were served up. We
had roasted corn on the cob and other things that sure filled us up.
Route Rap followed the meal. We were lucky were didn’t go into Rapid City
today. They had a nasty hail storm
there. We could run into possible bad
weather tomorrow on our way there. These summer storms out here are coming up
fast and furious. On our was to Rapid
city we’ll go through Custer. It is
going to be very challenging ride tomorrow.
Serious hills. We can take a
side trip off our route to go up to Mt. Rushmore. It is a 1.3 mile 10% grade hill up to see it. I’ll see how hot it is tomorrow at that
point – near 80 miles into the trip.
We were told we will be riding in open
range Buffalo territory. Warned to BE
CAREFUL! Don’t get the buffalo
upset, just stop and wait until they
move away. Well, I am pretty scared
already. And some local just said
somebody was killed yesterday by a buffalo.
The person was trying to photo the animal and was getting the animal
cornered – animal charged. Oh
boy, I’ll be shaking if I see any of
these 2 ton creatures out there in the open!
Stay tuned for more from Bicycle Boot
Camp, summer 2001.