Day 12: Gillette, WY to Rapid City SD

Today was a fabulous day, greatly exceeding expectations. It had rained at night in Gillette, and skies were gray and mildly threatening when we ate breakfast this morning....it looked like Seattle in February. "A wet rag on a salad", as Tom Robbins described typical winter Puget Sound weather in Another Roadside Attraction. I noticed many riders were all decked out in rain jackets, neoprene booties, etc. I felt like asking them "haven't you ever seen clouds before?" It was 64 degrees when we started,and miraculously, the temperature stayed in the 60's the whole day, and it barely rained at all. Compared to the first 11 days, the temperature was like a little bit of heaven.

I knew we were in for a long day, and on previous days exceeding 120 miles, my bike seat has felt like a piece of cement for the last 20 miles or so. Today I wore two pair of bike shorts, and it totally took a sore bottom off the table as a significant issue. So with cool temperatures and greater seat comfort, I was good to go.

The RAMROD (Ride Around Mt. Rainier in One Day) was today back home in Washington.......I had some thoughts about that, as that is what I have been doing on each of the previous 7 last Thursdays in July. I've always had a good day on the RAMROD, so maybe that also helped me have a good day today. The ride today was certainly ramrodesque.

We had a long flat run to the South Dakota border, through little towns like Upton and Newcastle......lots of coal brought to this particular Newcastle. Clouds prevented any view of Devils Tower. Roadkill today included deer, jackrabbits, and two large rattlesnakes, which gives one pause about wandering too far out into the bushes to relieve oneself...

As we entered a new state, the landscape changed. I saw the first trees that I had seen in 50 miles. We started to gradually ascend through sparse pine forest, as we entered the foothills of the Black Hills. Lunch was at the 96 mile mark, following which we entered the Black Hills themselves, which are quite pretty. Unfortunately the first 10 miles or so had obviously been devastated by a severe forest fire sometime recently, but later it was very beautiful, somewhat like the Wallowa mountains in northeast Oregon.......sparse forest with lots of green meadows. We had lots of moderate ascents, but nothing too terrible or sustained. The descents were most excellent.

After a time we arrived in the tacky tourist town of Custer, and even though it is a full 25 miles from Mt. Rushmore, from that point on there was a huge number of recreational vehicles on the road, rumbling toward the monument. There were massive land yachts, some of which were towing large SUVs. More uphills and downhills on the way to Mt. Rushmore. Now the landscape had denser forests and some fabulous rock formations.

Mt. Rushmore itself is a perfectly nice attraction, but it didn't blow me away or anything. It is smaller that what I imagined. Lincoln looks incompletely sculpted, and Jeffersons' nose is upturned so that you look up his nostrils. The viewing area was jammed with tourists.

I got back on my bike and rode the last 20 miles into Rapid City, arriving at the motel first. On the descent into town, one could see the vast prairie stretching out to the east. It is like a giant billiard table tilted slightly downward to the east, all the way to the Mississippi River, which we will cross at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.

Tomorrow we ride along I-90 frontage roads to Murdo, SD, wherever that is. I'm hoping for a tailwind. I'll recruit the clydsedale and a few others to form a good paceline, and hopefully I'll have another good day.

160 miles. 7400 vertical feet