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Another Epic Ride


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Lost a job recently so decided to spend some quality time on my moto. Took a 3 day tour of SD/WY, solo keeping a generous 6+feet distance from most individuals and animals (luckily)

Day 1, left Denver and arrived Hot Springs, SD. I was immediately greeted by lovely twisties of Hwy 395/87 and the bison on a way heading to Custer. 
Stayed overnight in the Center Lake campground, roughing it sleeping in a hammock (my first). Dipped to 48F overnight so I was a little chilly. The campground is awesome: clean showers, beautiful lake, wildlife around.. 

Day 2, left the campground and I was immediately on the Needles Highway. I’ve been on it a few times so I did not bother stopping to take pictures because I was enjoying the road basically to myself early morning. The is super twisty and has a few on way tunnels carved out in the rocks. Epic ride! I continued riding to the Spearfish Canyon after a short stop for breakfast in Hill City. SC is another must do: flowy, moderate speeds ride! Left SD heading to the oldest National Monument in US. The roads around it are triple digit sweepers but kept it sane being alone and seeing some cops around. After a quick picture at Devils Tower, rode to my cabin in Buffalo, WY. 
Day 3, after sleeping not that great, I stopped for a drive through coffee at Macdonalds:). I wonder if I was their first customer on a motorcycle going through a drive through 🤪. After slurping the god-sent beverage, off I went over the Big Horn mountains. It was a cold foggy morning in the mountains so I missed some of the scenery. The fog lifted as soon as I reached the peak, and I was happy to be able to see more than 20 feet in front of me. Again, did not stop for pics, I was just happy to avoid any potential collision with the wildlife and being warm enough to enjoy the corners. The west side of Hwy 16 is better anyways, smooth pavement and nice views. Stopped in Thermopolis, WY at Bear Cafe for brunch-great food!

The canyon heading south of town is beautiful!! Then, the boring shit of 120 miles to Rawlins.. Not terribly so but after all the good roads, this was definitely a drag. The highlight of the ride back to Denver was a ride through the Medicine Bowl mountains (Saratoga to Centennial). Nice road and lots of snow still on the sides..

In summary, the best part of my trip is the Black Hills, SD. You literarily can spend 3 days and explore some of the neatest roads and not have to go far. They also take care of their roads, and the wildlife is the icing on the cake: watch out for wild turkeys, deer and bison of course. 


 

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Looks like you had an amazing trip!  Curious how cold it was when near all that snow... and if you had to camp near it.  What would you say were your riding temperature extremes?  I have the same bike and just trying to mentally plan for what I'd need to bring along to stay comfortable should I plan a similar trip from Wisconsin.  Great photos btw.

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50 minutes ago, Goldcrown44 said:

Looks like you had an amazing trip!  Curious how cold it was when near all that snow... and if you had to camp near it.  What would you say were your riding temperature extremes?  I have the same bike and just trying to mentally plan for what I'd need to bring along to stay comfortable should I plan a similar trip from Wisconsin.  Great photos btw.

In Black Hills, it dipped to 48F at night. Not bad in my opinion but sleeping in a hammock for the first time and so I got cold. Next day, I was in Buffalo, WY and it dipped to 50F at night but I was in a cabin so it was kind of stuffy. Temps are probably getting even warmer as we are approaching summer.

The pics with all the snow is way up on the top of Medicine Bow mountains in WY. A great place to ride through but it gets way too cold at night.

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Great story and photos - thanks for sharing them!  My wife and one of our sons drove through some of those areas a couple summers ago.  They said I would love the roads there.  I'm looking forward to going on the bike someday!

I know exactly how you feel on two different fronts:

1. When you have the road to yourself, you kind of want to just keep riding, especially when you've seen the scenery before.  I don't like stopping all that often anyway, and I get very frustrated if I end up being an RV or large truck I can't pass.

2. I lost a job in Sept. 2012, and was unemployed for a year.  I took the opportunity to do tours around the Great Lakes (except Erie & Ontario, which I'd already done).  Those were terrific trips, and I did them on small budgets as much as possible.  I figured I might not another chance to do that much riding in a year, and I was right.  I think since then I've done just one or two tours.

 

Enjoy this downtime.  We don't get very much of it anymore.

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8 hours ago, TimC said:

Great story and photos - thanks for sharing them!  My wife and one of our sons drove through some of those areas a couple summers ago.  They said I would love the roads there.  I'm looking forward to going on the bike someday!

I know exactly how you feel on two different fronts:

1. When you have the road to yourself, you kind of want to just keep riding, especially when you've seen the scenery before.  I don't like stopping all that often anyway, and I get very frustrated if I end up being an RV or large truck I can't pass.

2. I lost a job in Sept. 2012, and was unemployed for a year.  I took the opportunity to do tours around the Great Lakes (except Erie & Ontario, which I'd already done).  Those were terrific trips, and I did them on small budgets as much as possible.  I figured I might not another chance to do that much riding in a year, and I was right.  I think since then I've done just one or two tours.

 

Enjoy this downtime.  We don't get very much of it anymore.

Yeah, I'm trying to keep it positive and make the best of it! Thanks!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Re-reading your ride report, I was reminded of one of the dumber things I've ever done, on or off a bike.  Several years ago I did a tour with the goal of riding the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Not really that ambitious of course, and plenty of people do this.  My mistake was doing a good chunk of it in very thick fog.

 

The first day was great, and I got off the road just before dusk, not wanting to risk collision with deer.  I think I stayed in Roanoke.  The next morning was chilly and damp but not terrible.  As soon as I got onto the Parkway, I was shrouded in fog, the worst I've ever seen.  I could barely see 10' in front of me most of the time.  It was pretty spooky, and I could see zero scenery.  I came up behind maybe 1-2 other vehicles piloted by people as dumb as me.  I wasn't worried about hitting someone in front of me since I was going pretty slow, although the couple times I did come up behind someone it was a little freaky having taillights appear out of nowhere.  But really I was more worried about someone hitting me from behind.  I stopped a couple times to rest and try to warm up, which didn't work out very well.  Finally, somewhere near the southern terminus of the Parkway the skies cleared up and it was actually a nice day, and I was able to see some nice views and take a few photos.  I would liked to have taken a few photos in the fog, but I was worried about my camera getting ruined in the damp air.

 

I should have abandoned my trek early that day, maybe at the very next off-ramp, gotten down off the mountain and tackled the length of the BRP some other time.  What a terrible experience, but definitely a memorable one.

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My 1st day on the BRP was in fog and rain.  

But I didnot fly across the Atlantic to sit on my ass doing nothing now did I? :goofy:

 

 

 

 

 

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9 hours ago, TimC said:

Re-reading your ride report, I was reminded of one of the dumber things I've ever done, on or off a bike.  Several years ago I did a tour with the goal of riding the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Not really that ambitious of course, and plenty of people do this.  My mistake was doing a good chunk of it in very thick fog.

 

I should have abandoned my trek early that day, maybe at the very next off-ramp, gotten down off the mountain and tackled the length of the BRP some other time.  What a terrible experience, but definitely a memorable one.

Yup, first lesson of the BRP is head downhill when fogged in. You can walk faster than you can safely ride. Here's Blowing Rock, late April:

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Similar experience on the BRP about ten years ago riding with a couple of friends. It was just overcast in the lowlands but climbing up to the Parkway entrance we hit a wall of fog. We were basically in the clouds. You could barely see the hand in front of your face. We did ride a bit but got off asap at the next exit. Very surreal and dangerous.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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I was made redundant 4 years ago and still not secured a new position. 200+ job apllications and countng.... Did a 4 month consultancy job that's all.

Upside is lots of riding and tinkering on my bikes, smile on my face every day.

Keep yer chin up!

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  • 5 weeks later...
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On 5/30/2020 at 1:34 PM, Tiutis said:

...decided to spend some quality time on my moto. Took a 3 day tour of SD/WY...

Thanks for sharing the story of your trip. This year's pandemic put paid to my trip this year, so I have to live vicariously through others'.

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15 hours ago, Lorne said:

Thanks for sharing the story of your trip. This year's pandemic put paid to my trip this year, so I have to live vicariously through others'.

I think it’s fine to go if you follow the same preventative measures. Eating out may be   not the same experience as pre-Covid but if you camp and bring your own food or do some take outs you might not miss on anything. 
Everyone’s risk tolerance is different, but I am glad I went. 

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10 hours ago, Tiutis said:

Everyone’s risk tolerance is different, but I am glad I went.

My planned ride meant crossing the border into America. Unfortunately, travel to the US has been restricted since early spring. Doesn't look to promising in the near future.

 

I suppose a ride in BC & southwestern Alberta is possible, but even here life is still far from normal.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks for sharing man, sometimes loosing something (a job..) pushes us to actually live a little 😎🤘🏻
real nice photos 💥

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On 8/23/2020 at 4:04 PM, Aspon said:

Thanks for sharing man, sometimes loosing something (a job..) pushes us to actually live a little 😎🤘🏻
real nice photos 💥

Well said. Life can be short. Ride often and long.

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