Category: Range roaming: A nerd unleashed

Range Roaming – Nebraska 2013 – Day 28

Range Roaming – Nebraska 2013 – Day 28

E Sharp

Getting blown away by history: Fort Robinson State Park to Fort Robinson State Park

Sunday May 12, 2013

The history at this state park is overwhelming. There is so much of it. And so much of it is sad.

Fort Robinson was an active military post from 1874 to 1948. It began as a temporary camp protecting the Red Cloud Indian Agency during the Indian Wars. In the late 1880s it became the most important fort in the region after the closing of Fort Laramie. In the 1920s, it became a remount depot, responsible for supplies, equipment, horses, dogs and mules. In the 1940s, when the calvary regiments were dismounted, up to 12,000 horses were sent here to be surplussed. Also in the 1940s, this was a K-9 training center with 14,000 dogs trained here. A prisoner of war camp housed 1500 to 3000 enemy soldiers during World War II.

And that is just a tiny fraction of the history here. Read more →

Range Roaming – Nebraska 2013 – Day 29

Range Roaming – Nebraska 2013 – Day 29

E Sharp

Heading out to Toadstool Geologic Park: Fort Robinson State Park to Toadstool return

Monday May 13, 2013, 46 miles (73 km) – Total so far: 1,200 miles (1,931 km)

Toadstool Geologic Park lies about 19 miles northwest of Crawford within the Ogalala National Grassland. It features stark, rugged badlands topgraphy rising up from the grasslands against a backdrop of the Arikaree buttes. It’s not really a place you stumble upon. It’s a place you have to decide you want to go see. Read more →

Range Roaming – Nebraska 2013 – Day 30

Range Roaming – Nebraska 2013 – Day 30

E Sharp

Health scare: Fort Robinson State Park to Fort Robinson State Park

Tuesday May 14, 2013

Word travels fast in small towns.

Crawford is a town of 997, its business district just a few blocks long stretching east-west and a couple blocks long stretching north-south. Out on the highway, there are a couple motels, a gas station, a BBQ place and a Dairy Freeze. Not a whole lot seems to go down in Crawford.

I head into town to mail home my Nebraska geology book and some receipts and brochures. As I’m leaving the post office, a farmer with sad eyes, a worn and frayed baseball cap, and a belt buckle twice as big as his belly, looks at me. He looks at me again, and then says: “Excuse me, is that your bicycle outside”?

My heart sinks. Someone’s taken off with it! I reply, “Um, yes.” Read more →

Range Roaming – S Dakota 2013 – Day 32

Range Roaming – S Dakota 2013 – Day 32

E Sharp

That climb out of Blue Bell: Hot Springs to Custer

Thursday May 16, 2013, 40 miles (64 km) – Total so far: 1,308 miles (2,105 km)

Some days you amaze yourself with what you can do. And some days you just meet your expectations. I think today was a mix of both.

I’m out of breath and feeling unfit before I even get out of Hot Springs. There is a short, steep hill on the way out of downtown that kicks my butt before I’ve even had time to warm up. But, luckily after this, it’s just a long, gentle, continuous climb to a gap, before descending into Wind Cave National Park. Read more →

Range Roaming – S Dakota 2013 – Day 33

Range Roaming – S Dakota 2013 – Day 33

E Sharp

Like Thunder Mtn rollercoaster – The Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway: Custer to Custer

Friday May 17, 2013, 56 miles (91 km) – Total so far: 1,364 miles (2,196 km)

If cycling the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway is not on your bucket list, it should be. I have no idea how it wasn’t on mine.

My plan to start at daybreak is thwarted by a thunderstorm. I lie there, awake, pumped, ready to go. I’ve got no idea if I’m going to be able to complete this ride today, so I’m antsy with anticipation. I just want to get going. Read more →

Range Roaming – S Dakota 2013 – Day 34

E Sharp

Just a quick hop up the road: Custer to Hill City

Saturday May 18, 2013, 19 miles (31 km) – Total so far: 1,383 miles (2,226 km)

After a week or so of good weather, the forecast is pretty awful. After this morning, it looks like there is going to be at least 2.5 days of very poor weather. My plan is to just do a quick ride up to Hill City, positioning myself to make a run up the Mickelson trail from there once the weather clears. Read more →

Range Roaming – S Dakota 2013 – Day 38

Range Roaming – S Dakota 2013 – Day 38

E Sharp

The soggy, recently-graded Mickelson Trail: Hill City to Spearfish

Wednesday May 22, 2013, 62 miles (100 km) – Total so far: 1,445 miles (2,326 km)

I know they’ve been here. I can see their tire tracks softly indented into the surface of the trail. I can see their footprints in muddy sections. Between Mystic and Rochford, there has even been enough of them to have the trail compressed into a fairly hard surface. But in all the miles I ride today on the Mickelson Trail I do not see a single trail-user, except for one guy in the parking lot at the trail’s high point. Read more →

Range Roaming – S Dakota 2013 – Days 35-37

E Sharp

*&@#!!! Waiting out another cut-off low pressure system: Hill City – May 19-21

Sunday May 19, 2013

Before this ride, I don’t think I’d ever heard the term “cut-off low”. Or if I had, I’d never paid much attention. It is a term I am now all too familiar with. It refers to a low pressure system that gets cut off from the jet stream and therefore doesn’t go anywhere. It just sits and spins in place, whipping nasty weather at whomever happens to be on the back side of the anti-clockwise winds. It will sit in place until another, stronger pressure system finally moves it on. Read more →

Range Roaming – S Dakota 2013 – Day 39

E Sharp

@&#*!!! Waiting out a high wind warning: Spearfish to Spearfish

Thursday May 23, 2013

I’m not sure where I built up the bad karma. But here we are – on hold in another weather delay.

I will consider riding in a high wind advisory (sustained winds 25 to 38 mph – depending on direction and consistency of the wind, and amount of traffic and width of shoulder). But my personal feeling is that there is no good reason to ride when there is a high wind warning (sustained winds over 40mph), unless you are on a deserted road way out in the middle of nowhere. Read more →