It sure didn’t take very long for us to all get into the
camping groove, and everything is working out better than we could have
imagined. The boys have found a whole bunch of friendly neighbor kids in the
6-12 age range, so they’re tearing around our Sheridan Lake campsite loop with
reckless abandon. Their experience is bringing back so many great memories of
my childhood camping experiences, and it’s just what I was hoping would happen.
The boys made smores over the campstove, since fires are forbidden due to the
high fire risk.
Meanwhile Gail has found some excellent running terrain, and
did her first run on quiet campground roads bordering the lake. Before she did
her run, I went on my first bike ride, the Mount Rushmore scenic loop, around
32 miles and 2900 vertical ft. of climbing. It felt so good to stretch the legs
and see where I landed on the Strava leaderboard. I had a bunch of second and
third places, but then again, not a lot of folks are posting Strava data around
these parts yet. Still, it was nice to know that I was in the ballpark. The
climbs here are a little easier than in the Ithaca area, since the grades tend
not to exceed 12%, even if they are longer, and the road surface is uniformly
great, except for the annoying corrugated rumble strips on the shoulders. Route
244 was most definitely the highlight, with some excellent climbs and stunning
views of the backside of Mount Rushmore. It runs east-west from just south of
Hill City to Keystone, the tourist trap gateway to Mount Rushmore. I ended up
doing something like two Cat 3 climbs and three Cat 4s, and it was similar to
doing the familiar Ringwood, Hurd and Hunt loop. On the twisty descent from
Rushmore I saw a spotted another cyclist making the climb up, an older
gentleman who I’m guessing was a regular. I’ll be following his lead in a few
days when I do this route again in the opposite direction.
On 244 I encountered an odd scene. A woman was walking along
the shoulder and seemed in distress, and just ahead of her was a very friendly
but clueless dog wandering on and off of the road. I stopped to talk to her,
only to witness her dog getting almost hit by three separate vehicles in the
span of a minute. The dog was hers, but she had no leash and the dog was having
too much fun chasing squirrels to listen to her. The poor woman is a local
resident whose car broke down on Rt. 244 with electrical problems last night.
She didn’t have a leash, and there was no cell phone coverage in that stretch,
so she had been stranded overnight and straight through 10:30, since no one
bothered to stop and check to see if she needed assistance. Without a leash,
she was doing her best to coax her dog to stay off of the road as she made the
long walk to the KOA campground. We somehow coaxed her dog to come over and I
gave her my spare tube, which functioned well as a leash. It was pretty sad to
think that she wasn’t given the time of day from any tourist zipping by.
We enjoyed a picnic lunch on Sheridan Lake and some swimming
at the sandy beach with nearly bath water temperatures. After that, we headed
to a National Forest wilderness trail at the backside of Mount Rushmore called
Horse Thief trail. I spotted the trailhead during my morning ride, and it turned
out to be an excellent first hike for the boys, who enthusiastically marched
through the pines, white birch and giant rock formations with their mysterious
openings and small caves. I really understand now why the Sioux treasured this
mystical land.
After ice cream at Mount Rushmore, we made a burrito feast
and thought about how nice it would be to have a shower with some soap. Suffice
it to say that it’s a good thing that Gail and I have a very large tent.
Morning Addendum:
We had our first rain last night, accompanied by a
thunderstorm. The boys joined us in our tent last night, so we had some cozy
family time, and we woke up very rested. We’re all a bit soggy this morning, but
the sun is shining and it looks to be yet another spectacular Black Hills day.
Oh, and one more thing...If you're ever in this part of South Dakota, you really need to listen KILI, 90.1 FM, an independent non-commercial radio station run by the Lakota people from the Pine Ridge Reservation. Fascinating, educational and often hilarious conversation and lots of contemporary and traditional American Indian music.
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