Transcontinental SD Adventure Ride Sept 2014

[imsunflower]

Transcontinental SD Adventure Trail Sept 2014
Day 1
Crisp Fall day, oh it is just the end of Summer. Temps in the low 40’s but no worries we are not leaving Mitchell, SD until 9am and it should be close to 50 by then. Have my thermals and riding pants with liner and my Belfast with rain liner. We are off on our adventure bikes by 9:30 with 7 riders using Dual sports WR250, KLR650, DR200, CRF250x, 1200 GS, 450 Husaberg, and a WT250. 4 men and 3 women.

It is a mostly Sunny Day. We leave town excited for what is to come. We ride 200 miles over many gravel roads and some pavement. The plans were to go to NE if it was dry, but unfortunately it rained this last week. The dirt on this trail in NE would be very slick and slimy so it was opted not to do them. This left us with some great scenery on gravel roads and a bit more pavement than in the original plan. Jack has some great places to explore like the old living quarters or an old dairy farm, next to the river.
We crossed the James River 5 times, stopped by an Island park that currently houses a baseball diamond, also stopped by an old stone church built in 1948.
Another interesting place was the Bon Homme County, first Schoolhouse built in Dakota Territory. Of course I had to find the abandoned house next door for a needed pit stop. We went through Marty on the Yankton Sioux Reservation. Marty definitely has a place in history, well known for the Marty Mission School.
Jack can find the darnedest things, like a sailboat that was being fixed up to sail again. It was hundreds of miles from a body of water big enough to enjoy this vessel. We ended this day with a meal at the Steakhouse in Gross, NE. This was a few miles through wonderful back country roads to a town of 2!

Day 2
Temps in the low 40’s and mostly clear skies, still wearing my thermals and liners. We start with a ride to a small park with a boat launch and dock on the Missouri river with campground. I can just imagine waking up here on the river with the sounds of the birds and seeing the wildlife live their lives wandering around for their next meal.
We ride about 30 miles to breakfast and last time to fuel up as there are 100 miles before the next gas stop. One of the guys carries 2 gallon fuel cells as he knows he can’t do the 100 miles. My friend C has the same issue. So we stop for gas in the middle of the road to put gas in the two bikes that need it. The roads today are more dirt than gravel and field roads with grass in the middle. We see a sign that says Dry Weather Road. It is dry so we continue through some damp areas that look like it could have been under water in heavy rains, but once again it has not rained for a few days so it looks to be OK. We come over a hill to see a thick wet road ahead. The first two bikes get though, I am the 3rd I get about 50 yard into it and I fall over. I look behind me and see everyone holding in place and the one more bike over in this very sticky clay soil of a road. I find out that I fell over because my tire has a mud guard on it that got filled up with muck and froze my front wheel. We get the tools out to take this off with the 4 bolts that hold it on. With this change I am now able to get my bike to the other side of this sticky muck, but we have one more bike that is down for the same reason. The 1200 BMW. The muck is packed in very tight and it is hard to even get the muck and grass out of his wheel it is really seized and cannot get any farther down the road, unfortunately he is unable to take this mud guard off his bike. After a lot of work, we finally get enough material out between his wheel and mud flap to move the wheel a bit and then more and more movement. We attempt to walk it on the side of the road in the grass, but there is a drop off and it is difficult to do this. We also try to make our own road by putting down sticks, but this did not work well either. It took the help and work by all to get this heavier bike down the road, but it is these kinds of adventure that bonds everyone together and makes the day a real adventure.
Once we get on the road again we continue to travel through pastures watching and running with the cattle. At one time there were two horses behind a fence, they watched us approach. You could see they were excited. They were prancing around, not turning and running away. After I pasted the horses, they started to run with us and the bikes behind me were able to ride along with them and clocked them at 40 mph. We also approached a herd of cattle in the middle of the road we were on. Jack being in the lead slowly approached them to get them off the road. They scattered to the side of the road, Still being careful as you could tell they were jumpy and wanted to get back together in a herd. They ran ahead of Jack’s slow pace and eventually ran across the road in front of him. Jack could then safely get through. The second rider, Cory is watching a cow and calf on the side as you can see they just want to get to the other side where most of the herd is. Cory slow moves forward and the cow and calf run across in front of him and he is now able to get through. This is what was so exciting as we encountered a few of these herds and they all just wanted to herd together and get away from us. If you go slow, watch the direction they may go. They all get across the road with no issues and no close calls as we are as aware of them as they are aware of us. This was my favorite part of the day, which was a lot of the day, thankfully…..riding through pasture land on grass filled roads, with the cattle and other wildlife so close to you.
It was very warm in the afternoon as a few of us peeled off a layer. I had wished my lighter gloves were not on the bottom of the luggage I had packed on my bike as my hands were sweating my my heavy gloves needed for the early morning coolness. We also stopped by a hunting shack. We went through a farmers yard into his pasture land. We had to go through a couple of gates and a couple of puddles to get to the open land, then to follow a dirt farm road to get us to the pasture. Then we made our own path through to get to a hunting cabin. This cabin sleeping 6-8, with a gas grill, was waiting for them to arrive, with a wood stove to help keep everyone warm. Getting here was a little bit challenging as there were dirt hills to climb,. Imagine that when it rains hard and makes its own crevasses that you have to maneuver around. This made it exciting and more technical. I loved making it though these areas.

With the delay of getting through the muck we did miss lunch (we all carry ample supplies of snacks, so this is not an issue), but our host at the hotel was helpful in getting us fed with adult beverages as we sere checking in. It took a while to get across the street for dinner with wine and much fun!

Day 3:
On our way back to Mitchell where we began from, it is only a bit over 100 miles. Hard to believe, when you traveled for two days beforehand. This was going to be mostly pavement and a bit of gravel as we cross the Missouri River. We start our day with a brisk wind and very cool temps. We get going and it seems we can’t get everyone to get close and slowly everyone dropped back. Jack told us always watch for the person behind you. If you do not see them, then stop, eventually no one will be behind the leader and we will know that we need to find out the reason. Today it was a flat tire just 2 miles from the hotel where we stayed. We spent some time on the side of the road changing the tire. We were traveling with great experienced people as they worked at removing the tire, breaking the seal of the tire and taking the old inner tube out and putting in a new one, using a compressor and getting the bike up and traveling again. Chad did not imagine this would be the place that he and Jack would be fixing a flat.
He imagined it would have been Peru instead. This was again all part of the adventure and experience. We continue on our way to breakfast. This road just before the River and breakfast in Chamberlin was beautiful from the top of the valley to the bottom where we found the river. That was the end of the gravel roads and finally made it to breakfast at Al’s Oasis in time for brunch.

We got to Mitchell where we picked up our trailer in plenty of time to travel 5 hours back to my home and tell my family about all the fun we had!

Thanks Jack, It was AWESOME!!!!!!