South Dakota Bicycle Maps

Since our recent Warm Showers hosting, I've had something that keeps popping into my thoughts so I need to get it out here: We South Dakotans need to pool together to build an network of bike maps. I've tried to accomplish this to a degree by starting a second blog named "South Dakota By Bike" and begged some of you to pitch in and help me with some local routes. Your enthusiasm for my little project, for lack of a better term, sucks.

More than just loop rides, I'd really like to get are various "how to best get across state" maps. I was helping our Warm Showers guests try to figure out a way to cross the state and once I hit near Winner, I was at a loss. I actually ended up sending them down into Nebraska because I know those roads better from years of BRAN. As an advocate of bicycling in South Dakota that makes me a little sick to my stomach. I want to show off MY state, but I don't know the roads West River very well.

So, my plea is to get some help with the best routes to get all the way across the state East to West, and even some South to North routes. I know it's not possible in all cases, but I'd love to see the nice quiet back country roads as well. So, in no particular order, I'd like:

* East to West routes (maybe a bottom, middle, and top of the state)
* South to North routes (maybe five - six routes)
* A list of places to stay in various towns along the routes, including camping, hotels, and potential host families for a touring cyclist.
* A list of any historical facts along each of the routes that people could potentially visit as a break from biking.

My long term goal would be the creation of all these routes and facts in a foldable map similar to any other state map to be given out at to all interested bicyclists. I think I may have to approach the Department of Tourism and get the South Dakota Bicycle Coalition on board with this.

Momentary Lapse of Rational Thinking

Laura and I made another trip to Brunswick, NE today. I helped Laura's Grandpa with some minor drawer details to our "Captain's Bed" that we are building and then we planed some boards that will eventually be the headboard for the bed. There will be a much longer post on this when it is done and delivered, but for now, the teaser is that the drawer fronts and the headboard are all "native" wood. The boards have been ripped down and planed from a couple of ash trees that were cut down in Brunswick. It's been amazing to me watching a "tree" become a "board". Yeah, I know...it's the simple things that entertain simple people.

On to my lapse in thinking/ability to do math. Laura was late getting back into Brunswick and after we loaded up a cedar chest and said our goodbyes, it was already getting late. I had the bike with and I really wanted to get a ride in. So, I started doing fuzzy math/logic in my head: "If you drop me off in Laurel, I'll have a bit of a tail wind and cross wind and should be able to make it home before sunset". Sounded reasonable, after all, it was only 6:15 or so when I said it. Problem was, we had 45 minutes of driving before Laurel.

By the time I got out and dressed at the Gas Station in Laurel, got the bike tires pumped up, chain lubed, and got rolling it was 7:22 (okay 7:21:59 according to my Garmin). Oh yeah, from that station to my house is 35.72 miles. I took off at a good pace, and quickly started redoing math and realizing that it was time to go into race mode. Whatever you got, it's time to use it up.

The stretch from Laurel to Hwy 12 has decent rolls in it, but with a tail wind of around 10mph, I made pretty decent work of those. Hwy 12, turning back slightly SE, I went back into the wind a bit and really had to push because NOW it was getting dark fast. Luck was on my side, because on this road with NO shoulder (white line IS the shoulder) I was passed only by one car in that stretch. A few oncoming, but overall pretty quiet.

As soon as I turned south towards Vermillion, I had to take my sunglasses off, even with the orange lenses in them. It was getting THAT dark. I got passed shortly before the Missouri River bridge and I went as fast as I could so I would not get passed on the bridge. When I turned off on Dakota Street heading towards the airport, my cell phone rings: "Where are you at?". Luckily I was in coming-in-for-landing mode because the Mrs. was in worry-mode. She's usually pretty calm about my riding but this time she was justifiable in her fears.

Oh well, I made it. I'm alive. Now I have one more story to tell over beers with the biking buddies.

Dear cycling class...tomorrow may be a pretty easy day for you all. I'm sensing parts of my body that may not be happy with me.

My New Endeavor

The hamster wheels in my brain are always turning, occasionally they need a little greasing, but rarely are they completely stuck. Hatched from the back of my twisted little bicycling mind came the thought of creating a blog that shares cycling routes from across the state with as much detail as possible. I thought this would be a great way to promote your local area, have routes to ride when you are in another area of the state, and to promote cycling to those who may be visiting.

At this point I only have a couple routes out there, and I'm looking for those of you in the blogging community who would be willing to give a helping hand to what I feel is a very worthwhile project. Without further ado, I give you the humble beginnings of South Dakota Bicycle Routes. Feedback/Thoughts/Team members definitely welcome!

Spearfish Canyon Ride - Take II

I have the Garmin downloaded and found out that I forgot to reset it between rides (oops). Laura and I rode it again on Sunday afternoon/evening so you are getting a collaboration of two duplicate rides. Apparently it was necessary to get a half way decent profile of the ride from Spearfish up Spearfish Canyon to Savoy and back. The problem definitely is with the Canyon walls as it kept beeping as it went in and out of service where it couldn't triangulate the satellites.

The reason that I forgot to reset the Garmin between rides is that my Garmin, while it still works after a tumble out of my pocket on the MS Bike Tour, I no longer have a visible readout. The tumble also caused the screen to spiderweb and nothing is visible. I'm sad, but I'm glad that it still works until I can get it replaced.

I would love to get one good set of Garmin stats from this ride. It's a healthy climb but it is also one of the most beautiful rides in the state. If you are ever in the area, I highly suggest it. Pictures from the ride to follow soon. Like after we find the charger and charge the battery!

Saturday Ride

While fellow Lane Hogs were out having a great time together (good writeup HERE), I was on my way to another great time with family at Grandma and Grandpa Hertel's 60th Wedding Anniversary.

The ride is decidedly up hill with lot of rollers, but a very enjoyable route. I didn't wake up early enough to make Brunswick (12 miles short) and to be honest, I wasn't feeling the best anyway. It was a struggle to maintain 17mph today. Not stellar, but it was nice to be on the road. Garmin weather showed a high of 78.8 but the temperature sign in Randolph showed 82 when I went through. It was definitely getting warmer by the time I hit Plainview.

I had never biked the road between Randolph and Plainview, but it has nice wide shoulders and it's an enjoyable route. Most of the people who were in cages waved at me (a couple hysterically, like they thought they knew me type of a wave) so overall it was a good day with respect to cagers. On a funny note, one minivan that kind of hugged the white line for no apparent reason (plenty of space/clear vision to move over) I ended up passing a couple miles up the road because the PoPo had them pulled over. I passed them, waved with a big-o-grin on my face and they didn't pass me again for another three miles up the road.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6050535

Bunyan's to Bob's

Ever since we found a little greasy nugget called Bob's Bar in Martinsburg, NE, we have discussed a Mountain Bike ride to Bob's starting at a bar on the edge of Vermillion called Bunyan's.

Now that I have a few followers on this blog, it's time to post this and plan! How many would be interested in such a ride? From Vermillion to across the Missouri River would be on pavement, then we would be on gravel until Newcastle. About 2 more miles of pavement and then all gravel to Bob's. Some say it would be impossible to eat at Bob's and make the return trip home (this place has GI-NORMOUS portions of food). I say phooey...we can do it! The rolls and the scenery on the Nebraska side are pretty awesome. There are some killer hills on those gravel roads.

At this point, this would be a NON CLUB SANCTIONED RIDE, but for the fun and the brotherhood of it all. Post a reply if you would be into such a ride sometime in the early spring.

My Daily Commute

Many people have emailed me impressed at streak that I've kept up riding to work. The fact of the matter is that it's not that impressive. Sure, there have been a few days (rainy, below zero with incredible wind chills) that I could have wimped out and driven or caught a ride (which is how my last streak ended) but I have trudged on, often BECAUSE of the streak.

Maybe I'm feeling like Cal Ripken Jr. or Brett Favre and their incredible streaks of starting in their respective sports. Streaks that they didn't want to see come to an end (Favre's is currently still going!). While my streak hasn't even reached a year, many seem so impressed. Truth is, the mileage is only between .91 and .96 one way depending on if I can cut through the park or not. Take into effect that I have never had a parking permit at my job so even if I did drive, on average I'd have to park 2-3 blocks away. So I ask you that are impressed: Does it REALLY make SENSE to drive? It would actually make more sense to WALK than to DRIVE. That being said, I am a little OCD when it comes to goals/streaks. I will enter into any contest and or goal with FULL intentions of completing it.

I am more impressed with those who have miles of daily commuting, like fellow bloggers from Minnesota and Mr. Bite and others in Sioux Falls. While they may not do it EVERY day, they do it MOST days.

For those that find inspiration that I do this every day, that's what it's all about: Inspiration. Get out there and do it as often and as long as you can. If you keep finding excuses to ride the bike, pretty soon the bike becomes the first thought and the car becomes an afterthought.

Ride on!

The Love/Hate Wind Relationship

Sunday was unusually warm for this time of year, and also unusually windy. The winds were close to 30 for most of the afternoon and never died down much. I finally decided late afternoon to go for a short ride anyway.

Now, understand that we South Dakotans on this side of the state are VERY used to wind. It's a fact of life: If you are going to ride with any frequency, you WILL deal with wind. Usually between 7-15mph on a pretty regular basis. Once it hit's 20mph, it's a pain though.

I mashed the pedals out to Hwy 12 in Nebraska, often cussing my decision to go on this ride in the first place. Then, I turned around. Once I could feel my legs again, how quickly I forgot the pain of climbing into the wind. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee down the hill. There is a short steep drop right before you go across the bridge that says I hit 44.9 on my Garmin (although my bike computer read 46.2...go figure). Below is the graph that shows speed vs. elevation. Kind of a telling story of the wind.



Check out the average wind speeds. It was just plain nasty!

Tour De Kota Photos - DeSmet

I promised to post pictures of the day I tried to kill "the kid". Well, here they are, with a few others from the Madison to DeSmet day on the tour.

80 degrees, long sleeves, long pants...must be Joe!



Laura brought her massage table along and became an instant celebrity. Here Cathy enjoys a little leg work.



What do you think, does Ashley look like she's in heaven on the massage table?



After dogging poor Jim for nearly a 20mph average for the day, he was dead to the world. During all the massages, he put his hands inside his pillow case and crashed hard.



Saving the best for last. If you blow the picture up, you'll see that the boy is not only in lala land, he's in drool land.

FABulous Cycling

Last weekend I had to go run the Daktronics board at Howard Wood Field for the Greater Dakota Conference Track Meet. I figured that there was no time like the present to meet a couple of blogging buddies for a ride.

Friday night I met up with Snakebite and a few others, including the now famous Matt Helling. We had a nice 37 mile roll from Northern SF to Hartford to Crooks and back. The funniest part of the ride is when we rolled into Hartford and Matt said "So, THIS is where Hartford is". Instinctively I inquired, "Are you new to the area Matt?". "No, I just grew up 'in the city (Sioux Falls)' and never got out of town much. I'm still laughing over that one.

Saturday morning was the Coffee and Donuts Urban Ride in Sioux Falls. It was here that I finally met MinusCar, or as he puts it, the "guy I met off the internet". It was a relaxed pace through the residential areas of Sioux Falls. Low traffic on a Saturday morning and I got to see parts of Sioux Falls that I normally wouldn't see so it was awesome. Being the great hosts they are, the FAB group took their mid-ride stop at Caribou coffee so I could enjoy my NO CALORIE Turtle Mocca (OMG! 730 Calories?!?! Oh wait...skim milk..probably only 675!).

I made reference that when I downloaded the Garmin that the coffee and donut ride route should spell "FAB". Well, it looks more like a wiener dog with a camel hump. That was my initial Rorschach ink blot test response and I'm sticking to it.



Thanks for taking in an outsider and showing me a good time!

Theorizing Why Today's Ride KICKED MY BUTT!

I had a "use it or lose it" day off from work today so I decided to take a solo trek to Laurel, NE ("I'd like to extend a Laurel and Hardy handshake to our new...") Comment quiz: Name the movie that quote came from without using the politically incorrect word that follows!

For some reason, I thought Laurel was 45 miles away, and when I found out that it was only 36, I was quite relieved actually. Although I was stoked for an early season 90 miler with a possibility of stretching it into a century, there was something about this ride that didn't go great for me.

I wanted to get on the road early, say 9-9:30. It was REALLY foggy and I tried to wait it out. I finally left at about 10:10 and it was still better that 90% humidity and the temperature was around 52 degrees so I layered up pretty heavy as I hate cold combined with wet. I was fine for the first 15 miles or so, but then the hills set in. It is possible that the temp was starting to rise as well as I was starting to drag as well. When I turned back south on Hwy 15 from Hwy 12, I had a sudden realization: There are endless "rollers" as far as the eye can see. I've ridden this once before (one way) and it was a tailwind so this was going to be a challenge of Bill Cosby proportions (all up hill, into the wind, both ways).

The first 6 miles from Hwy 12 to the Hartington turn can best be described as follows: pedal, pedal, KA-CHUNK, pedal pedal, KA-CHUNK, repeat. I know you cyclists out there feel my pain. The road becomes much better at that point. It was at that point that I started to feel warm with a side of potential bonking. Being too stubborn to stop and remove clothes, I pedaled on unzipping what could be unzipped and I woofed down a Caribou Coffee Granola Bar *drools*. I still struggled. The last 10 miles into Laurel seemed to take an eternity.

At last I arrived. The last three miles I was contemplating my stopping point at Laurel, then I remembered: There is a PIZZA RANCH! I stopped there only to find out they had NO PIZZA as their oven had broken down. After contemplating the seriousness of my situation, I still purchased the buffet and ate chicken, potato wedges, and some salad.

The local guys, and strangely enough they were ALL guys, were all sneaking glances at the "freak show" that just walked into their local establishment. I grabbed my drink and chicken and headed toward a corner as to not disturb any conversations. Too late; one friendly gent had to ask me all sorts of questions:
1. Where ya from?
2. What's with those shoes?
3. Did you get wet?
4. That bridge sure is nice to have up your way, isn't it?!?!
5. Did you see the bald eagles in the hollowed out Cottonwood tree a couple miles north of Hwy 20?
They were all friendly and more than a little curious. Those who didn't ask questions, asked about me from those who DID ask questions so I'm pretty sure everybody knew all about me by the end of the meal. I was also informed by the chief interrogator that a couple of weeks ago they did a cattle drive of over 200 cattle down the same road I just rode, which explained the hoof prints on the shoulder.

Should the nice gentlemen from Laurel read this, I want you to know that I DID see the bald eagles on the way home and I do appreciate you telling me about them!

On the way home, I could sense the wind shifting. I was slowly losing my tail wind in favor of a tail to cross wind. It was still a good push and it helped me up some of the same hills that just about killed me on the way down. I made it back to Vermillion with nary a half hour to spare before the wind really did change completely out of the West and then slowly was shifting NNW so I did get pretty lucky.

Story time is over and now on to the theory of why this ride kicked my butt. Well, it kicked my butt for the same reason I chose to ride it. I wanted a hilly course to continue to build some stamina for The Gut Check and the MS Tour in the Black Hills. What I didn't realize was that the ride to Laurel and back was actually 5,097 feet of vertical climbing. I was pretty amazed at that and decided to compare this the last day of the Tour de Kota in 2005 from Chamberlain to Pierre and what (little) I rode of the MS WRATH tour in the Black Hills last fall. Here is the side by side comparison:

	Total Garmin Miles	Feet of Vertical Climbing
Laurel	71.99	5,097
Chamberlain to Pierre	101.28	5,168
MS WRATH	48.77	4,863

It was pretty shocking to see that we had this kind of climbing potential so close to home (without going UP and DOWN the SAME hill OVER and OVER and...). At any rate, others might not be quite as excited about this ride (hills, no shoulders), but I'm thinking that this will have to become a staple of my cycling diet for the upcoming "classics" that I'm going to be riding!

On the Road Again....

Oh my did it feel good to get out on the road bike today! Between 52-54 degrees and the only little issue was a fairly steady wind at 12+ mph. Our resident self-proclaimed "old guy" Jim W. and a newcomer to the club Eric J. went to Elk Point and back with me and it was a good ride. Being the guy with all the trainer miles in, I decided to be nice and be the engine on the train all the way to Elk Point allowing Jim and Eric to hide behind me. We took a nice easy pace on the way home and overall it just felt good to be out again! I took an extra 10+ miles out to the bridge and back for that very reason.

I think I am going to set my Garmin to not auto pause. The difference in mileage between my Garmin and my Cateye Astrale was .5 miles. It's always a little different, but that seems a touch high.

Turkey Creek Road

This is a great mountain bike ride once you get over the bridge into Nebraska. Turkey Creek Road is a windy, hilly, scenic trip over to Newcastle, NE. This particular day was with Joe and Cindy on a beautiful November day. We bagged work at 2:00 to get a ride in.

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The Route: