Spearfish Canyon/O! Frabjous Day! Calloo! Callay!

[Editor’s note: Another post that went missing. Looking at the blog calendar, this date is empty, though I know it was published. Here it comes again.]

We left Devil’s Tower without being abducted by aliens. When I take down my tent, I remove the rainfly, drop the tent, then remove and disassemble the poles. While the poles were standing without fabric to obscure the view, they had a decidedly windswept look (like a windswept pelvic fracture for those of the orthopedic trauma persuasion). I’ll have to be sure it’s facing the other way for the next windstorm.

Sunday night was a dust storm before it became a hailstorm. The hail was the size of garbanzo beans. Someone who was staying in a cabin said she was standing in the open doorway watching the storm when a bird was blown into her cabin. It shook itself, stood on the floor of the cabin for a minute, then flew back into the maelstrom.

Aladdin, pop 15 – but it still has a park! (Right behind me in this view.)

We rode through the town of Aladdin. The morning was slightly downhill with a tailwind – fast and easy riding. After picnic we climbed through Spearfish Canyon, a gentle climb for the first 1800 feet of elevation gain and a killer for the last 600 feet. We climbed for more than 20 miles.

The wide-open spaces of Wyoming reminded me of all the cowboy and gold rush songs from my childhood, like:
“Oh, send me to Nome
Where the heffalumps roam,
Where the dear, handy antelope pray.
Where’s L. Thomas Hurd, a discouraging nerd?
In disguise I knock loudly all day.
Horm, hormones deranged…”

I stopped for espresso at Blackbird Espresso in Spearfish, a nice little shop that was very busy. The first place I stopped was closed on Mondays – isn’t that the day working people are in greatest need of coffee? The stop was useful anyway, as I discovered that my stem had worked loose so I tightened it – a loose stem on a fast descent would have been a Bad Thing.

On the way up the canyon I stopped at Bridal Veil Falls and The Devil’s Bathtub, chatting with a family from North Carolina.

Bridal Veil Falls

Devil’s Bathtub is a natural water park – a curving water slide into a pool. I didn’t feel like riding 20 miles in wet shorts so I passed it up.

How the other 1% lives. To the left (offscreen) is the intercom to get the gates opened. This was the first house in maybe 20 miles, in the Black Hills National Forest

I have a panoramic video of Spearfish Canyon but, with no Wi-fi here, I don’t want to use up the data to upload it. I do wonder how the terms “mountain” and “hill” get chosen. The Black Hills certainly look like mountains to me.

We passed a great historical marker (there is probably a photo of it in the 2018 post), acknowledging the theft of the Black Hills from the Lakota. It notes that the “legality is still in dispute”. I think there is no dispute that the land grab was a violation of the 1868 treaty – the only dispute is over whether the US will do anything about it – they certainly won’t cede back the land, but will we ever pay for it?

We are sleeping in a field at the top of these 88 steps.

Somewhere in the Black Hills of Dakota…

We left Wyoming behind today, but not until staring at Devil’s Tower from new angles while riding away.

On the way out we passed a Historical Marker which (surprisingly to me) acknowledged that the US seizure of the Black Hills was a violation of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and is “an action of which the legality is still being disputed in courts.” (How one can acknowledge a treaty violation but still think there are questions regarding legality is beyond me.)

I finished off my 4 lb jug (about a gallon size) of Cytomax and had to resort to drinking Gatorade today. Now I know why athletes dump it on the coach’s head after a victory. It tastes too vile to drink. I’ve also gone through a tube of sunscreen.

A thundershower came through in the middle of the night and we awoke to a sunrise rainbow. (Insertion of picture here failed after a 4 minute attempt to upload.)I met a guy at a convenience store in the next town. He told me he knew about our trip because he had been talking to Charles (one of the riders who stayed at the motel in town in lieu of camping). Charles later told me the guy had been an extra in the film “Close Encounters”.

We spent much of the day riding up through Spearfish Canyon. My connection here is slow so I’m not sure if I can include any pictures.

The climb went on for 11 miles but was gentle enough that my speed stayed in double digits. The vegetation looks more like Wisconsin than anything so far – the roadside weeds are similar, the forest is mixed hardwoods and evergreens.

We followed Spearfish Creek until it eventually crossed under us. There was a water stop just past the bridge and this made an excellent spot to take my shoes off and get my feet in the water.

I’ve said before that I realized my maximum mileage without caloric intake was about 40, and as long as I take something in every 20 miles I can go a long time. This trip has made me realize I could also use a cold mountain stream every 20 miles to cool my feet.

I wrote yesterday (in the post that died) that, three weeks ago, I couldn’t really imagine riding 90-100+ miles day after day. Now that I’m doing it, I can’t say that it gets easier. Some friends said “You’ll ride yourself into shape”. I think riding oneself into fatigue is equally likely.

We passed through a small community of palatial log homes. One had a 100 foot elevated walkway to a garage that was bigger than my house.

After the canyon we had another treat in store, a 7% climb for almost 3 miles. The special treat was that a shower had come through shortly before, so steam was rising from the pavement – evaporative cooling for the pavement, heating for us. After a quick descent we came in to Lead and had a short but very steep climb up to the school – saving the best for last!

We are camped on the football field – up 88 steel steps from the level of the school. I’ve made two trips up so far (one to set up camp, another after my shower to hang laundry and write this). I hope for only one more – up to bed after dinner.

I hope for a better connection for Black Hills pictures some time this week.