Custer to Pringle

 We loaded our two bikes into the back of Kim & Barb’s truck, they loaded their bikes on the bike rack. And we were off and away with Tam & Deb with their two bikes. The goal was to ride from Custer to Pringle. The drive to Custer was easy, and the unloading went fine.

We started the ride, only to discover that my bike kept skipping gears, making the riding too unpredictable. Paula diagnosed a frayed shifter cable that was missing its barrel nut for adjustments. So, I returned to the cars to borrow Kim & Barb’s truck so I could go find a bike shop. 

Custer and Hill City didn’t have bike shops large enough for me to want to give them a try. The cabling on the Trek Marlin + 8 goes through the frame, so I really wanted a Trek dealer. Closest one was Rapid City. So after checking Hill City, I was off to Rapid City. Amazingly the mechanics at Scheels took my sob story and offer to buy them lunch in order to look at my bike out of sequence. In less than a 1/2 hour they had it completed. Whew! New cable and barrel nut adjuster in place. Back to Custer I drove. 

Even though I got stopped for the repaving project through Custer State Park, I got back as the gals had completed their ride from Custer to Pringle and back, and were enjoying treats at the Bearded Buffalo. Here are everyone’s photos from the day…

Move from Hill City to Custer

 We all moved our rigs from Hill City to Custer State Park yesterday. It was only a short distance, but we wanted to do it to access parts of the Michelson Trail further south. Our site had power, but no water or dump. It’s an old campground, but spacious and beautiful.

Unfortunately the site for Kim and Barb was too crowned on a hillside to have it provide a safe entry/exit for them. With no other sites available nearby, we all decided to return to Hill City after one night, as we really liked our previous campground.

So the cool day became a roadtrip around the various drives of Custer State Park. Here are some photos:

 

Bison

Prairie Dogs

Burros

Lots of Bison with calves

Another hillside devastated by wind last winter. Looks like a giant’s toothpicks everywhere.

Rochford to Hill City

Back to bicycling today. Glorious day — sunny and in the low 70’s. And the scenery — it never quit!

Paula, Deb, and Barb rode from our campsite in Hill City today to Rochford. Tam, Kim and Leslie drove to Rochford, and bicycled back to Hill City.

The Rochford to Hill City group had about 5 miles of downhill, 10 miles of gradual uphill, and 7 miles of downhill. Lovely! We enjoyed the aspens and pines along with the shale that continues to sheer off rock faces. On our final approach to town we saw two does, each with a fawn that looked freshly hatched. Kim said one had twins! Incredibly cute. Each Momma was very careful about how she hid her baby from us.

Road Trip!! Wall Drug and the Badlands!

What should six people do when the wind is blowing at over 20 mph. Not ride their bikes, that’s for sure! What do the bikes do? Hibernate! 

Bikes are all stowed in Leslie & Paula’s rig. Kim brought back lovely pastries from a local bakery which we thoroughly enjoyed while we planned our Wall Drug and Badlands driving tour.

The drive to Wall Drug allowed us all to tease each other. Kim & Barb had given us a walkie talkie so we could tease between the two cars also. Wall Drug hadn’t changed much since Leslie & Paula had been here over 26 years ago. We found a “sprizy” (surprise present) for Nicki & Kim which will be fun to have them see when we return. After a lunch, we headed out to the Badlands.

Once we arrived there, we enjoyed the scenery and took lots of photos. The wind howled, but since we weren’t bicycling, we coped just fine. We drove the Badlands Scenic Byway, then played with some dirt roads to get us back on track to return to our campground. We saw bison, prairie dogs, and a magpie. Just grand! It was a long day, but beautiful.

Check out our photos of Wall Drug and the Badlands: