Thank you Peter Norbeck

Day 5 continued

Arrived at Stockade Lake. There's Junior Naturalist programs for Sephie to participate in to better understand what went into this park and it's history. Our site is next to the evening presentations about Custer State Park so we've no excuse for not being there. Our site is also surrounded by cheddar heads. The site next to us has a family from Port Washington (didn't know the Montees) and the others were families from Kenosha and Racine. What the hey?

Day 6

I'd set my alarm for 5:45am so I could get up and ride the Needles Highway. I awoke at 5:30 giddy with anticipation. Yes, I was giddy. The sun was up but not visible over the Black Hills so there was plenty of light. What was lacking was warmth. It felt like early April. I'd packed my Skittles jacket just in case so I was properly attired for the first 45 minutes. Once I'd gained some altitude and the sun was able to get an angle above the Hills I warmed up quickly. My only problem was in the middle of the second tunnel. A rodent (ground squirrel) was crossing toward me and freaked out with no left or right as options to avoid me. The little fella tried running up the wall of the tunnel but fell and ran in front of me. I dodged him but in doing so I hit something hard with my rear wheel and pinch flatted. I didn't know I'd pinch flatted until two corners later at 40 mph when the back end tried to beat the front through the corner. No worries, I did what was needed and came to a safe stop. I tossed in a new tube and aired it up and got back on the road. Riding the Needles Highway at that early hour was perfect. I saw 3 cars and 5 motorcycles and they were all coming the other way. I came back to the site past the Crazy Horse monument and through Custer. All in all roughly 45 miles in under 3 hours.

In the after noon we climbed Little Devil's Tower. It's an easy hike with a little scrambling over rocky trail. It rained a bit on the way up but the sole cloud passed and it was back to a perfect day in no time.

In the afternoon we went into Rapid City to pick up some parts for Karen's RB-1. We found everything we needed at the Two Wheeler Dealer. the staff (Matt) was very helpful and set us up. I was given directions to a local trail with I'll hit in the next day or two. There's a race in Spearfish at the end of August, "the Dakota 5 o" and since there's no WORS event I may try to wrangle a couple others to make the road trip. Rick? Russell? TMontee?

After buying bike stuff (and a pair of Man-pris) we headed downtown to the FireHouse Brew Pub for dinner. By the end of dinner it was 9 so we headed back and I crashed into my pillow face first.