Hanging Out In The Black Hills
A one-way tunnel on the Needles Highway.
The OFMC spent three nights in Custer, in the Black Hills, and with the Sturgis rally soon to inundate the area, the locals were getting ready.
I don’t know if these are normal room rates or whether they were already elevated for the rally but we paid an absurd amount for a very mediocre motel in Custer. And we were lucky to get it. They were turning people away the whole time we were there.
Our first full day in Custer was a golf day. This is an every year thing with the OFMC, although due to a shoulder injury I no longer play, I just tag along and play ball spotter. My eye-sight is better than theirs anyway.
The Needles Highway is one very pretty road.
The second day was a day to ride. We headed north out of Custer and picked up the Needles Highway just north of the Crazy Horse monument. We’ve done this ride numerous times but how can you not do one of the best roads around just because you’ve done it before? And this time I had something extra–my GoPro camera sitting on top of my helmet and a remote to shoot pictures with strapped to my left grip.
I’ve taken riding pictures before but it has always been in a very limited fashion. I put my camera strap around my neck, tuck the camera inside my jacket, and then when I want to shoot I pull it out, press the on button, and hold it high and shoot, trusting to auto-focus to give me something good. That has worked fairly well but I could only do this at times when it was OK to let go of the throttle–or put on the throttle lock–and when the road was not so gnarly that I needed to give riding my full attention. As you can guess, this has been fairly limiting.
With the GoPro remote on my grip I could now pay attention to riding but still very easily reach my thumb over and snap a shot. As for what I was shooting, the breadth of the image is so wide that as long as my head was faced generally in the direction of what I want a picture of it was sure to capture it. Of course this means cropping out 90 percent of the total image but with the kind of resolution this camera has you still end up with excellent photos.
So we rode the Needles Highway and stopped at one point for a break. Our intention was to also do the Wildlife Loop through Custer State Park and none of us were certain where we were but I didn’t think we had yet gotten to US 16. Dennis was convinced we had. I said fine, if we’re past US 16 we just need to look for the turn-off where the Wildlife Loop forks to the left. If we had not already reached US 16 we would need to go right and then left. Dennis was in the lead.
We hadn’t reached US 16 yet but as we came to it, Dennis turned left. This is why John said numerous times in the past when he was still riding with the group that the only other one he trusted to know where they were going was me.
No matter, the Wildlife Loop is a loop and going to the left we would still get to it, just at the other end. But we stopped at a visitor center and when I pulled out the map to show where we were Dennis and Bill wanted to backtrack and get on the loop going the way we had intended. So we did that.
The only wildlife we saw on the Wildlife Loop was the donkeys.
We finally got on the Wildlife Loop and for the first time ever for me we saw exactly zero bison. They apparently had better things to do than hang around for tourists to gawk at them. But we did see donkeys. The donkeys do not have better things to do than hang out where tourists can feed them carrots.
So now we figured to continue onto Iron Mountain Road with all its tunnels and pig-tail bridges. I knew when we got to US 16 we would need to go right and I told that to Bill, who was in the lead. Remember one of the rules I’ve stated previously: never let Bill lead. Bill got up to US 16 and went left and I flagged him over. “Follow me.”
We rode Iron Mountain Road but unfortunately the battery in my GoPro had run dead so I didn’t get any shots along there. We reached Keystone and went in for cool air and cold drinks and then the plan was to head to Hill City to have dinner at the Alpine Inn. If you get the chance you should definitely have dinner at the Alpine Inn. They have two things on their menu: steak or Kaes Spaetzle Primavera. You can choose between a six-ounce or nine-ounce filet mignon. The meal includes a potato and a quarter head of iceberg lettuce with ranch dressing, plus Texas toast. Price: $13.95 or $16.95. This place is hugely popular so be sure to get there early. And the food is good.
And that was our day. Ride back to Custer, settle in, and get ready to head out in the morning.
Biker Quote for Today
You know you’re a biker if Sturgis is your dream vacation.
Tags: Alpine Inn, Black Hills, Custer State Park, Iron Mountain Road, Needles Highway
