Bye bye Miss American Pie.

July 3, 2023

Today I left the Crazy Horse Custer Campgrounds, had breakfast in Custer,then rerouted my original route to follow SD 16a,36,then79. I chose the reroute as Google claimed this route had 760 feet of climb vs my original route of over 2000 feet. This was a good decision. Coming out of Custer there were some ups and downs. If you go this route stay off the bike trail and take the road. A lot less hills. Anyway,I entered Custer State Park via 16a and climbed from about 3400 feet to 5900. With only one steep section I had to walk. Once at the top the ride down is amazing. The speed limit is only 35 in the park and traffic was light. I dropped over 2000 feet along a beautiful curving downhill. And it didn’t stop there. I kept dropping in elevation for several miles, down to about 3000 feet. Even with a head wind I made good time and had a blast.

Custer State Park is a beautiful park, and I only went through the less scenic portion. The Needles Route must be unbelievable. They even have bison though I only saw bison scat. Beautiful rock formations, grass lands, ponderosa pines, and streams. If it had steam vents I would rank it up there with Yellowstone.

Once over the park divide at 5900 feet I could see the usual storm cloud build up on the east side. How these hills and mountains change local weather in just a matter of a few miles is crazy. I remember back in the day, my coworker Jim and I took a trip to a medical conference in Denver. One day we rented a car to drive over the mountain west of the city to go skiing. This was late season, April I think. Sunny and 70 in Denver. When we exited the tunnel on I70 headed west a major snow storm was happening. It was a pretty butt tightening trip down that iced over highway to the bottom.
Today I was able to avoid most of the rain. Got a little drizzle just before Rapid City but ducked into a convenience store for a hot dog chased down with DP. By then the wind had changed and I had a tail wind into RC over the rolling hills of the dual highway 79.

I was fortunate to have another WarmSowers host, Gary. One of the west bound riders I met a few days ago told me about him so I contacted him and was pleased he had a place for me to stay. We took a tour of Rapid City after dinner at a busy downtown Mexican restaurant and now it’s past time to crash.

Tomorrow head into the Bad Lands which I hood to find Good. I am a bit ahead of my projected plans to be in Iowa by the 20th so may hang out in the Bad Lands til my food and water run out.

Some pics:

The storm that followed me to Rapid City.

Found at the Our Place Cafe in Custer. The Day The Music Died.

Today's ride: 48 miles (77 km)
Total: 1,516 miles (2,440 km)

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