I decided to try again to ride to Spearfish and see if I could do it with no semi-disasters. I succeeded!!!
I headed east out of Newcastle on US-16 riding over the SD state line, through Hell's Canyon (the site of a fairly major forest fire a few years ago), and past Jewel Cave National Monument. I had driven this road a couple of times and seen lot of deer. I didn't seed a single deer between here and Custer, SD, today, but did see lots of pronghorn antelope.
Today was the day things started opening for the tourist season in the Black Hills. A couple of weeks ago when I had driven to Custer looking for something better than Subway for a meal, not much had been open, although I couldn't complain about the cuisine at the Bugling Bull Sports Bar and Grill. Today nearly everything was open or in the process of getting that way.
I turned north onto US-16/US-385 and rode by Crazy Horse. The first time I saw the "monument" that Korkzack Zialowski and his family were carving was in 1980 and it took a major leap of faith to see anything resembling what was planned. My guess is that it'll take another 100 years to finish, but Crazy Horse's face is pretty clearly visible now.
North of Crazy Horse, the helicopters were flying, an old Bell G-47 and a new Robinson R-44, giving tourists rides over the Hills.
Through Hill City and past the Best Western where we had the 1st NT-Owners Rally in 2011, and then out of town and past the Naked Winery tasting room. If I hadn't had clothes on, I would have stopped.
North of the US-16 / US-385 split, the road has some nice curves and good scenery, culminating in a view of Pactola Reservoir with a nice 25-ish foot sailboat underway. I saw one deer just past the reservoir and noticed again that the deer out here seem to have developed a response to vehicles which makes their first reaction be to move away the highway. I don't think I'd trust that to always be the case, but I've seen it more often than not.
I rode through Lead (pronounced as if you were "leading" someone, not as if you were making lead bullets) and on to Cheyenne Crossing where US-14A enters Spearfish Canyon. I enjoyed chasing a Mini convertible down the canyon. They were going fast enough that I didn't feel any need to pass, but not so fast that I had to press to stay with them. I just stayed back 1/4 - 1/2 mile and let them shake the bushes for the Smokies -- there weren't any.
I went to Chris's Campground (see my pictures and gripes on the NT-Owners National Rally page) and then to the Evil Empire's outlet store in Spearfish. Walmart is just way better than the stores that don't have anything to wear here in Newcastle. A quick trip netted me a new belt and some shirts so I don't have to wash clothes every five or six days, and then as I was leaving, I had a nice talk with an EMT, USAF veteran, riding a 2000 Valkryie tourer. The Valkryie was 2nd motorcycle I ever rode, following the CB750 that I rode for 10 miles in 1969. I rode a '97 Valk about ten miles in '97, about six months before I bought my first motorcycle, the legendary '83 GL650i Silverwing.
After buying gas, I was on I-90 westbound towards Sundance. I saw the Vore Buffalo Jump that I had missed noticing on my last run to Spearfish and I saw an interesting windsock. It was a Beechcraft B50 Twin Bonanza on a pole. My dad had flown a Twin Bonanza when he started work for Petrolite Corporation as a corporate pilot in 1957. There are hardly any of them left. The USAF museum at Ellsworth has one and I've only seen one flying in the last 25 or 30 years. That one was landing at the airport in Deming, NM, when I was buying gas there on my Epic Ride. The next time I'm on 90 west of Spearfish, I'll get on the frontage road at Beulah, the first stop in Wyoming, so I can stop at the Buffalo Jump and also stop to take a picture of the Twin Bonanza.
The wind was strong from the west until I got to Sundance and headed south on the Wyoming Black Hills Scenic Byway towards Four Corners and Newcastle. It was just a lovely day. There's been enough rain in the last couple of weeks to turn the grass green, the sky was a deep blue and the Black Hills were dark in their pine coats. I saw a few more pronghorn and slowed down for one little deer that looked like it was thinking of crossing the road just southeast of Inyan Kara Mountain. He didn't.
Inyan Kara Mountain (Inyan Kara in Lakota = Rock Gatherer in English) was sacred to the Lakota people, particularly, according to Wikipedia, to women in childbirth. It was visited by Custer during his expedition to the Black Hills in 1874. That was the trip that led to the violation of the US treaty with the Lakota to always hold the Black Hills as their sacred and inviolate property. The Native American people always said that Inyan Kara "rumbled" and some of the earliest white visitors reported the same thing. But there have been no reports of noise from the mountain since 1833. Speculation is that the rumbling was caused by burning coal seams.
Some of you who were at Spearfish in 2012 may remember riding south out the western side of Sundance after our visit to Devil's Tower. We went on the west side of Inyan Kara to Upton and then Newcastle. Some people thought I was going to run us out of gas before we got to Custer. We'd only gone 218 miles and all of us still had at least 0.3 gallon left.
The light was gorgeous as I got south of Four Corners for the last 23 miles to Newcastle and the deer stayed well off the highway.
It was a gorgeous, lovely day. Very little traffic, very comfortable temperatures. A keeper for the memory bank.
I headed east out of Newcastle on US-16 riding over the SD state line, through Hell's Canyon (the site of a fairly major forest fire a few years ago), and past Jewel Cave National Monument. I had driven this road a couple of times and seen lot of deer. I didn't seed a single deer between here and Custer, SD, today, but did see lots of pronghorn antelope.
Today was the day things started opening for the tourist season in the Black Hills. A couple of weeks ago when I had driven to Custer looking for something better than Subway for a meal, not much had been open, although I couldn't complain about the cuisine at the Bugling Bull Sports Bar and Grill. Today nearly everything was open or in the process of getting that way.
I turned north onto US-16/US-385 and rode by Crazy Horse. The first time I saw the "monument" that Korkzack Zialowski and his family were carving was in 1980 and it took a major leap of faith to see anything resembling what was planned. My guess is that it'll take another 100 years to finish, but Crazy Horse's face is pretty clearly visible now.
North of Crazy Horse, the helicopters were flying, an old Bell G-47 and a new Robinson R-44, giving tourists rides over the Hills.
Through Hill City and past the Best Western where we had the 1st NT-Owners Rally in 2011, and then out of town and past the Naked Winery tasting room. If I hadn't had clothes on, I would have stopped.
North of the US-16 / US-385 split, the road has some nice curves and good scenery, culminating in a view of Pactola Reservoir with a nice 25-ish foot sailboat underway. I saw one deer just past the reservoir and noticed again that the deer out here seem to have developed a response to vehicles which makes their first reaction be to move away the highway. I don't think I'd trust that to always be the case, but I've seen it more often than not.
I rode through Lead (pronounced as if you were "leading" someone, not as if you were making lead bullets) and on to Cheyenne Crossing where US-14A enters Spearfish Canyon. I enjoyed chasing a Mini convertible down the canyon. They were going fast enough that I didn't feel any need to pass, but not so fast that I had to press to stay with them. I just stayed back 1/4 - 1/2 mile and let them shake the bushes for the Smokies -- there weren't any.
I went to Chris's Campground (see my pictures and gripes on the NT-Owners National Rally page) and then to the Evil Empire's outlet store in Spearfish. Walmart is just way better than the stores that don't have anything to wear here in Newcastle. A quick trip netted me a new belt and some shirts so I don't have to wash clothes every five or six days, and then as I was leaving, I had a nice talk with an EMT, USAF veteran, riding a 2000 Valkryie tourer. The Valkryie was 2nd motorcycle I ever rode, following the CB750 that I rode for 10 miles in 1969. I rode a '97 Valk about ten miles in '97, about six months before I bought my first motorcycle, the legendary '83 GL650i Silverwing.
After buying gas, I was on I-90 westbound towards Sundance. I saw the Vore Buffalo Jump that I had missed noticing on my last run to Spearfish and I saw an interesting windsock. It was a Beechcraft B50 Twin Bonanza on a pole. My dad had flown a Twin Bonanza when he started work for Petrolite Corporation as a corporate pilot in 1957. There are hardly any of them left. The USAF museum at Ellsworth has one and I've only seen one flying in the last 25 or 30 years. That one was landing at the airport in Deming, NM, when I was buying gas there on my Epic Ride. The next time I'm on 90 west of Spearfish, I'll get on the frontage road at Beulah, the first stop in Wyoming, so I can stop at the Buffalo Jump and also stop to take a picture of the Twin Bonanza.
The wind was strong from the west until I got to Sundance and headed south on the Wyoming Black Hills Scenic Byway towards Four Corners and Newcastle. It was just a lovely day. There's been enough rain in the last couple of weeks to turn the grass green, the sky was a deep blue and the Black Hills were dark in their pine coats. I saw a few more pronghorn and slowed down for one little deer that looked like it was thinking of crossing the road just southeast of Inyan Kara Mountain. He didn't.
Inyan Kara Mountain (Inyan Kara in Lakota = Rock Gatherer in English) was sacred to the Lakota people, particularly, according to Wikipedia, to women in childbirth. It was visited by Custer during his expedition to the Black Hills in 1874. That was the trip that led to the violation of the US treaty with the Lakota to always hold the Black Hills as their sacred and inviolate property. The Native American people always said that Inyan Kara "rumbled" and some of the earliest white visitors reported the same thing. But there have been no reports of noise from the mountain since 1833. Speculation is that the rumbling was caused by burning coal seams.
Some of you who were at Spearfish in 2012 may remember riding south out the western side of Sundance after our visit to Devil's Tower. We went on the west side of Inyan Kara to Upton and then Newcastle. Some people thought I was going to run us out of gas before we got to Custer. We'd only gone 218 miles and all of us still had at least 0.3 gallon left.
The light was gorgeous as I got south of Four Corners for the last 23 miles to Newcastle and the deer stayed well off the highway.
It was a gorgeous, lovely day. Very little traffic, very comfortable temperatures. A keeper for the memory bank.
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