The Rise Up Ride: Day 26, Aiming For Devil's Tower
Date: 18 May 2021
Start Location: Spearfish, SD
End Location: Devil's Tower, WY
Distance: 100 km
Time: 6:12
Total elapsed: 9:06
Elevation: 937m
Three weeks ago, riding from Ivanhoe, MN to Brookings I crossed into South Dakota. Today, fighting my way into the wind along I-90 west of Spearfish, I left it for Wyoming. Honestly, I was surprised by the State and confounded by its contradictions. Fiercely conservative but genuinely welcoming and friendly. Pig-headed about vaccines, which they feel fixes a problem they never believed existed. In the whole time I was here I never encountered a home with a locked door. The scenery was extraordinary but the winds, brutal.
I've hit my rhythm, putting in 100 km days and 1000 meters of climbing with regularity if not relative ease. Bike and rider moving inexorably across this rugged, raw land.
Today I rode from Spearfish on the Interstate and up through the northern Black Hills on country roads, eventually sighting my destination; Devil's Tower. I've camped at the base of this massive piece of igneous rock that was once a vein of lava inside a mountain that eroded away.
Tomorrow I'll ride another 100 km to Gillette and then the next day on to Buffalo, taking advantage of the nice weather and tailwinds. However, my lucky streak then comes to an end this weekend with rain and cold, just as my route hits the Bighorn Mountains. This spur of the Rockies juts out into the Great Plains, creating a vertical wall between me and Yellowstone National Park. From Buffalo the Powder River Pass, also called the Muddy Pass, climbs to just short of 3000 meters, where the snow off the plowed road is a meter deep. Yesterday I spoke with Jason, a Ranger at the US Forest Service Powder River office who said that there is some bare ground in the campgound at around 2400 meters, which would be my bailout if I can't haul myself and my gear to the summit and down to Ten Sleep in one day. But with rain starting on Friday, my route may be blocked by snow through the weekend. I'm looking for a cheap motel where I can hunker down and wait out the storm.
