July 7 2014 Devil’s Tower WY to Lead SD

Last night at about 3:00 Am was a huge lightning and thunder storm.  There one huge blast of lightning after another.  There would be a brilliant flash and then 2 seconds later a huge clap of thunder then another couple of seconds later the thunder would bounce off of the Devil’s Tower.  The echo was almost as loud as the first clap.  The rain and wind lashed the tent something fierce but I was safe and dry inside.  It went on for a long time however I drifted off to sleep after a bit.

When I crawled out it was still spitting rain but it wasn’t too bad so I decided to ride without rain pants and just a rain jacket.  This proved to be a good decision as the rain was quickly over and a few miles down the road the sun came out, even though it was still heavily clouded.  

There was a pretty good tail wind blowing and I made great time. It was blast humming along at 25-30 mph. In no time flat I was down to Picnic at the 50 mile mark.   I had caught up to Jos  at picnic as he had stated from the motel rather than the campground so he had a 10 mile jump on me. 

At picnic we turned south towards the town of Spearfish which was 10 miles to the south.  This turned the tail wind into a cross wind but the road was smooth and we made good time.  At Spearfish we turned off the main road into Spearfish Canyon and started the 17 mile 3% climb.  I am watching the clouds and they have been building all day so it is a question of being rained on or not.  About two miles in one of those huge pre-cloud burst drops hit me and I yelled to Jos that we better get our jackets on. The wall of water was nearly on us.  Jos spotted a huge tree just off the road so we ran for it and not a moment too soon. The rain was bouncing off the road 8” it was coming down so hard.  We stood there for about 10 minutes and the rain stopped and we congratulated ourselves on how cleaver we were.

Later on we were coming down a steep decent and I could see there was sharp corner ahead so I jumped on the brakes.  Jos was right behind me but he didn’t see the corner. He went down into the ditch up the other side and hit a rock.  I had my camera in hand and managed to snap a picture of him just as he hit the rock.  Jos proceeded to sail over the creek and landed on the road.  He kept on riding as though nothing had happened.  The picture above bears witness to this magnificent riding.

Jos and I rode the remaining few miles into town and celebrated a 90 mile day which had a 5600 foot climb with a gallon of chocolate milk between us (we shared with other riders). 

I just love this stuff.

Terry