Alternative Fun Around Sturgis
The rally was fun but I didn't want to spend a whole week there. One or two days was plenty for me. We still had some other activities on our to-do list. The guys wanted to go dirt biking and we had passed some interesting looking trails while riding the cruisers so we had an idea of where to go. I have had progressively worsening hand problems and had to sell my dirt bike last summer, so I abstained from the ride. Jeremy offered up his Buell Thunderbolt for me to ride while they were gone. There was no way I could pass up a ride on that sexy machine, so I went for a thrilling ride up a nice twisty canyon road while they played in the dirt.
Paul was riding a borrowed KTM 300xc and fouled a plug which required a tow back to camp. Paul just has a thing for breaking bikes. We didn't have a spare sparkplug so he decided to stay in camp and drink beer while Alex and Jeremy went out for another ride.
We hung out at camp for a while to recuperate from the previous nights activities.
We finally got our visit to Mt. Rushmore, at 7am on the day we headed home. Jeremy and I decided that we wanted see Mt. Rushmore before we left and were planning on riding home by ourselves, but Phil wanted to stick together, so he tagged along with us while Paul, Bailey, and Alex took the Mothership to Sturgis for last minute bargain hunting. Aaron had left the day before to return home.
Phil and I at the entrance to the park.
Some interesting building we saw
Phil still wanted to see The Devil's Tower, so we headed back to Sturgis from Mt. Rushmore to meet Paul and the guys for breakfast and to make our plan. We all decided to stay together and head west to the Tower. It's located in northeastern Wyoming so it was only about a hundred miles to get there.
There were some storm clouds building on the horizon but we pressed on.
After a quick stop at the Tower, it was back on the road. The Tower was OK but nothing special.
The next stop was Sundance, WY
There was a hell of a storm brewing to the south so we decided to stop for lunch at a local restaurant.
We took our time eating to give the storm some time to pass by. When we got back onto the road we were able to just skirt the edge of the storm all the way home.
We initially planned to stop in Wheatland, WY on the way home but Phil was itchin' to get home so we just put our heads down and kept on going. The storm was creating some serious wind so the riding was a bit tough. We got separated just outside Laramie, WY and I spent a little while wandering around Laramie trying to find the correct road back to Walden, CO. There were no signs that indicated Walden, they only had road numbers. I knew the number of the road on the Colorado side but not the Wyoming side. I stopped at a Wal-mart to use the bathroom and looked through a road atlas to find the road number I needed. It had starting raining by this time and it was about 7pm, so it was also dark. I rode across the pass back to Walden where I fueled up and called home to check in. I then pressed on to Rabbit Ears Pass where I nearly missed hitting an elk that ran out into the road. Another half hour of pressing on through the rain and I was home. It had been about a 620 mile day on the bike.
Sturgis was a fun trip that I'm really glad I did. I'd love to return to the Black Hills just to ride but I'd like to do it when the rally is not going on. The roads were fantastic: curvy, well banked, up and down, great pavement,and great scenery. The small towns along the road were very interesting and the people were nice. I hope to make it up there on my KLR to enjoy the back roads and the dirt ones as well.
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