Saturday, June 03, 2006
My friend Dan invited me up to his part of the country (Sheridan, WY) over the Memorial Day weekend. I took a couple of extra days for a longer vacation. There were supposed to be quite a few of us but it ended up just us two. Big thanks to Whitney and Dan for letting me stay with them in Sheridan and major thanks again to Dan for the airport transportation. Let's see, 2 hours or so from Sheridan to Billings, MT to pick me up, another 5'ish to Deadwood, then back to Sheridan and then to various ride spots then back to Billings on Tuesday, ton-o-mileage. Damn. Good food was eaten, stories told, some catching up with each other's lives and LOTS of beer and riding...
A few maps of the rides we did in WY and SD. This is of the Centennial Trail - Alkalai Creek Trailhead near Sturgis, SD. This trail was a great way to start the weekend. A bit of drinking was done the night before in Deadwood so the start was a bit rough. The climb wasn't too bad on the first hill but the second was on the steep side. Saw only a few other riders. One couple were from Utah. Turns out the guy does hydrology for the USFS, the same stuff as Dan for the same agency. Huh. Another couple of guys were from Minneapolis, on SS. The trail got a bit "lost" at the top so we turned around about a mile or so from the trailhead according to the map. Climbing time was 2:20 up and 1:00 down. Nice.
Here is the next day's trail, Twin Lakes Trailhead in the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming. We were also joined by Whitney, Dan's girlfriend. Yeah, we did a lot of climbing that day; from 8200 ft to 9870 ft in the first 3.5 miles. Yeah, there was some pushing involved. Wind was about 30 mph and cold. Snow was ridden through and crashed in. Trail disappeared across sections, especially where they went into the lake or into a 20 ft rock formation that definitely wasn't rideable and across spillways that could very well lead to one's death if you slipped in the crossing. The downhill aspect was a beautiful thing. Glad we didn't take the road bailout even though our feet were wet from the snow. They ended up getting wet again anyway. The final uphill ended up being a hike-a-bike that range between 10% and 34% for about .5 a mile. Doesn't seem like much now...
The final day was a "downhill" ride in Tongue Canyon, also in the Bighorns. Some more lost trail but it was a blast. A few steep uphill sections and some nasty wind and cold. A few tech sections were at the bottom as were people. Dan's girlfriend, Whitney, and a couple of her friends were doing a run *up* then down the trail. I say crazy. While the truck was being picked up, I hung out in Dayton drinking beer at the Crazy Woman Saloon and the Mountain Inn.
I'm going to put up a few ride pictures as soon as I get them transfered to the laptop...
A few maps of the rides we did in WY and SD. This is of the Centennial Trail - Alkalai Creek Trailhead near Sturgis, SD. This trail was a great way to start the weekend. A bit of drinking was done the night before in Deadwood so the start was a bit rough. The climb wasn't too bad on the first hill but the second was on the steep side. Saw only a few other riders. One couple were from Utah. Turns out the guy does hydrology for the USFS, the same stuff as Dan for the same agency. Huh. Another couple of guys were from Minneapolis, on SS. The trail got a bit "lost" at the top so we turned around about a mile or so from the trailhead according to the map. Climbing time was 2:20 up and 1:00 down. Nice.
Here is the next day's trail, Twin Lakes Trailhead in the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming. We were also joined by Whitney, Dan's girlfriend. Yeah, we did a lot of climbing that day; from 8200 ft to 9870 ft in the first 3.5 miles. Yeah, there was some pushing involved. Wind was about 30 mph and cold. Snow was ridden through and crashed in. Trail disappeared across sections, especially where they went into the lake or into a 20 ft rock formation that definitely wasn't rideable and across spillways that could very well lead to one's death if you slipped in the crossing. The downhill aspect was a beautiful thing. Glad we didn't take the road bailout even though our feet were wet from the snow. They ended up getting wet again anyway. The final uphill ended up being a hike-a-bike that range between 10% and 34% for about .5 a mile. Doesn't seem like much now...
The final day was a "downhill" ride in Tongue Canyon, also in the Bighorns. Some more lost trail but it was a blast. A few steep uphill sections and some nasty wind and cold. A few tech sections were at the bottom as were people. Dan's girlfriend, Whitney, and a couple of her friends were doing a run *up* then down the trail. I say crazy. While the truck was being picked up, I hung out in Dayton drinking beer at the Crazy Woman Saloon and the Mountain Inn.
I'm going to put up a few ride pictures as soon as I get them transfered to the laptop...
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