Bicycling the Black Hills

This month has been busy! One last thing I need to get rid of before we can officially be full time RVers is my car. Please let me know if you need one – it’s a 2007 Ford Focus SES with only 31,800 miles on it. It even still smells new! We bought it last summer and left for AZ in October, so we hardly drove it. I have had it on the market since March but to no avail, and now I have dropped my asking price $2000 below book. At only $9,500 it’s a great deal, since we paid $13,500 for it!

My friend Dusty is planning a bicycle trip in September from Hot Springs to Spearfish and then back via the Mickelson Trail. After the house sale, I decided I needed a goal to work for so I’m now training for Team Turtle’s ride. I bought a recumbent bicycle (a dream I’ve had for many years) to help with back, neck, shoulder and seat pain! So I’ve been taking it and Ron’s comfort bike on some of the roads we’ll be doing. One of the bike trips I just did last week was from Keystone to the top of Iron Mountain through the pig tail bridges and tunnels. Everything is so green, and the birds are singing, water is gurgling in the little brooks, and the wind sighs in the tall ponderosa pines. There is no smell like the Black Hills anywhere else I’ve ever traveled – so spicy and sweet. It was a wonderful ride although a lot of work to go up these mountains. Two things I found I have to be mindful of – one is to make sure I have good brakes and the other is the poison ivy which covers the roadside all the way to the edge of the road (I feel sorry for the ditch mowers). Today I biked the Needles Highway. Pictured is one of the tunnels on the way up, the Needle’s Eye and the Gordon Stockade in Custer, where one of Ron’s ancestors got into trouble with the Army for squatting in the Black Hills illegally in the 1870s. I sure have fun talking to tourists and seeing the sights! As I continue to train, I’ll keep you posted!