The Long Way Home

Work is stealing my summer.  Shifting shifts and over-the-top overtime soak up sunlight and drain energy.  Enough.  I'm taking the long way home today, even though it's 90+ degrees and I'm back at work at 3:00 am again tomorrow.

At the top of Tower Road, a paved climb the reaches Skyline Drive at it's southern edge.

Time for a mixed terrain ride, on concrete, asphalt, chip seal, gravel, dirt, trail and just plain bushwhack.  Whatever route and surface strikes my fancy.  Here's a photo essay of my 25 mile round about ride home from work today.

Little climb from the back side of the School of Mines "New Gym,"
at least that's what we called it when it opened in 1977.  I did not clean that today.

Rode a lap of the Robbinsdale CycloCross Race Course, my favorite cross venue in Rapid City.

Found this little gem cutting through some neighborhoods.

Another short cut led to a messy crossing of this drainage.

In-town gravel, much better than fighting afternoon traffic on the paved roads.

Skyline Drive, riding north shortly after the Tower Road climb.  Fast and twisty.

Detour to Skyline Wilderness Park on the Amphitheater Trail, basically a skinny dirt road.

Had to include a climb up M-Hill, here on Cowboy Hill Road, with a stop at the "M" and a cruise down Far West.

A little adventure just riding home from work.  All in town.  All on my Black Mountain gravel bike.  All better for another 12 hour shift tomorrow.

Great Bear Ride

The Black Hills BackBone crosses the state of South Dakota on some of the best gravel and dirt roads around.  But there are many miles of memorable paved roads throughout the Black Hills and into the surrounding prairie.  Here's a special road ride across the Northern Black Hills into Wyoming.

The Great Bear Ride starts at Bear Butte, at the eastern edge of the Black Hills outside of Sturgis.

The family of Pennington County Transport Deputy Cameron Duchenaux hosts the "Great Bear Ride," a 100 mile bicycle ride from Bear Butte to Mato Tipila (Devil's Tower) as a memorial to Cameron's brother Shamus, who died from Type 1 diabetes at the age of 21.  This year, they are riding to raise awareness and funds for a capital building project for the Head Start program of Rural America Initiatives, a local organization that "partners with at-risk and low income Native American families to strengthen the development of healthy, sober, self-sufficient lifestyles."

There are very few cycling events like this in the Black Hills and this one supports a valuable local cause. It is Saturday, October 1, with pre-registration and more information at ruralamericainitiatives.org and event day registration at the Bear Butte start.  You can ride the full 100 miles or form a relay team.  With water stations every 25 miles, it's easy to split the route for a team of four.

The finish of the Great Bear Ride is 100 miles later in Wyoming at Mato Tipila.

I plan to ride it and hope that you consider supporting it.  Several friends have already committed to ride, including some from out of town.  If enough folks express interest, I will plan a get-together of some sort on Friday night.  Look for updates on my FaceBook page.  Hope to see you out there.