The sky was clear in the morning and it looked like it was going to be a great day for riding.
Shey rode from the motel and met me as I parked the van in the alley behind Dakota Cyclery. We took off from there and the mild climb on the road to the trail head was a very good warm-up.
Immediately we started a easy climb to hit plateaus and ridges, one after another, with amazing views of the badlands.
The singletrack was well maintained and the easy riding was perfect for vacation. Continuous rolling hills meant a good steady workout for us both.
We couldn't ask for a better day of clear weather riding.
After a couple hours I told Shey I wanted to head back and stick closer to the van in case my neck/back started to bother me. It was getting very tight and I was stressing about it. He didn't want me to go by myself, but I knew I would be re-riding sections if I felt good and I wanted him to have the opportunity to ride the full south section, so he agreed and I turned back. I kept my eyes peeled for a mountain lion stalking this lone snack and noted the road crossings, just in case.
I rode and rerode the first part of the south section and had a blast. I felt more comfortable knowing if my back went out, I would be less than 20 miles from the van for transport. So, I was more relaxed. The new 27.5 Giant rode like a dream and as long as I stayed relaxed, by back never got too tight.
We had passed many oil drilling rigs. Some in action, some sleeping.
There was an unusual golf course tucked into the badlands.
I jumped on the road and checked out a couple trail heads that were close to the Maah Daah Hey. Finally, I decided to go back to our original trail head and ride north until I hit mud.
The wind had really picked up and I was ducking my shoulder into it and leaning my bike into it to stay on the single track. I hit the last ridge before my final decent into the trail head, when a gust caught me and the bike slid sideways into the bank of the singletrack and I fell straight onto a cluster of cactus. Damn! I told myself to suck it up butter cup as I stood up and another gust caught me and blew me and the bike down an embankment. This left me in a place that was blocked by the wind and I got out my pliers and started to remove the spines in my right arm, lower leg, back of thigh, hip and rump.
I pulled out everything the pliers would catch, then descended to the trail head and hit the road back to town in search of tweezers. The wind caught me again and again on the road and finally blew the bike out from under me and I landed hard on my left side. A truck stopped and asked if I wanted a ride. Nope, getting a ride means defeat. So, "no" but it was a kind offer. I was thankful it was the side opposite where the left over spines were and got back on the saddle and tucked my shoulders down and far as possible and thought heavy body thoughts that the wind couldn't get through.
A campground right outside of town had tweezers and I took them to the park in town and continued to remove what spines weren't broken off. Then contemplated finishing my ride north...or doing laundry. Hmmm, I had wasted too much time removing spines and we didn't have any clean clothes, so laundry won out. I stopped again at the campground and used their laundry facilites, while reading a book and watching a young man ride his unicycle as he directed elderly people with jumbo RVs where to park. When I finished the clothes I drove out to the trail head where Shey was waiting for me and we took $1 hot showers at the state park, then scarfed down hamburgers at Boots bar and grill.
We both had awesome rides and were glad we didn't hit the mud on the north section, though we were bummed to not get the whole trail checked off our list. We can always return in hopes of finding dry trail.
We decided to camp at Cottonwood Campground in hopes of waking up to bison on the other side of the river. Shey helped get out spines I had not been able to reach. We slept well, but there were no bison to be found in the morning. Only a ton of these guys!
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