Posts Tagged ‘Black Hills’

Hanging Out In The Black Hills

Thursday, August 19th, 2021
A one-way tunnel on the Needles Highway.

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.

motorcycles on the Needles Highway

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.

donkeys along the Wildlife Loop

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.

OFMC 2021 Route Is Set

Monday, February 1st, 2021

Coronavirus or not, the OFMC took its annual trip in 2020, and we’re all still alive and healthy. So you can bet we’re planning a trip for 2021.

It will be a pretty short trip this year.

As the designated trip planner I have asked the guys what they want to do and then worked out a route and itinerary. They guys are good with what I came up with and here it is.

Our destination for the first day is Scottsbluff, NE. The guys mainly wanted to go to the Black Hills this year and this is a good midway point. You can ride all the way in one day–I have–but it’s more leisurely to take it in two. Plus, if you’ve never been to Scottsbluff and gone to the top of the bluffs you should. The actual park is Scotts Bluff National Monument. So this short ride will give us plenty of time to do that.

The next day we’ll ride on up to Custer, SD, which will be our home base for three nights. The OFMC always likes to spend two days in one place in order to have a day for golf. It turns out there are very few places in the Black Hills where there are public courses, and Custer is one. On the other day we’ll just ride around in the Black Hills.

Then leaving Custer we’ll have a short day’s ride up to Spearfish, SD. That’s a really short ride but the OFMC also always wants to do some gambling, so we’ll take a very short ride to Deadwood, give the casinos some of our money, and then complete the leisurely run to Spearfish.

The next day’s run is also very short, so I had to figure a good way to extend it. We’ll run up from Spearfish to Belle Fourche, then west through Hulett and on to Devil’s Tower National Monument. We’ve been to Devil’s Tower before but never gone in and up to the monument, this time we will. And then we’ll ride on to Newcastle, WY, for the night.

Following that we’ll cruise on down the eastern side of Wyoming to Torrington. That’s another short day but when you look at the map there’s not a lot of places to go without going a long way. And in recent years we have made a deliberate effort to stay in towns we’ve never stayed in before. We’ve never stayed in Torrington. Who knows, maybe we never will again.

The day after that will be the most scenic of the whole trip, as well as one of the longest. We’ll head south to Cheyenne and then take the state roads between Cheyenne and Laramie. Most people take the interstate but the state road is much nicer. Then we’ll head southwest out of Laramie down through the Snowy Range and back into Colorado for a night at Walden. That’s our last night out and the next day we’ll head home. So that’s the trip this year. Only about 1,000 miles.

Biker Quote for Today

It’s your road and yours alone. Others may ride it with you but no one can ride it for you.

The Black Hills Are Not Just For The Rally

Saturday, September 29th, 2007

For any of you who have been to the Sturgis rally, or have dreamed of going, I’m going to let you in on a secret: The riding in the Black Hills is fabulous, and it’s a lot better without the rally. Sure, everyone ought to go to the rally at least once. It’s an incredible experience and you’ll never see so many motorcycles concentrated in one area anywhere else. But if you’ve gone, and you’ve taken some rides through the Black Hills, you know that it’s a constant stream of bikes in both directions wherever you go. That’s pretty mind-blowing, sort of like a Jew going to Israel and being in the majority for the first time in their life, but do you really like riding in all that traffic?

It’s September 29 and we just got back from the Black Hills. The difference couldn’t be greater. It’s now the off season, so all accommodations are marked down from their high-season norms. We won’t even mention the prices during the rally. It’s now off season, so the roads are practically deserted. It’s just the locals, a few tourists, and actually a good number of bikes. It seems there are a least some bikers who have figured this out. You get to cruise on nearly empty highways, through gorgeous fall foliage, in weather that can only be described as glorious.

We’ll definitely be going back. You should go, too. The fall colors were just past their peak so probably the very best time would be early to mid September. This was one of the best vacations I’ve ever had.