Last Saturday (9/13) I met up with Matt (Dratharr) for a little ride through the hills. Matt's from Sydney, NE and has been to the hills quite a few times, but I still found a few trails he hadn't seen.
That morning was simply beautiful! Blue sky, no wind, about 55-60 degrees and I had one of those Zen motorcycle moments on my ride up to meet Matt.
I was cruising up Hwy 16 when Rush's "Making Memories" comes on my iPod, one of my all-time favorite songs.
(http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn213/Promo_Yeti/Ride%20with%20Dratharr/IMGP0659.jpg)
I just lost myself in the song, the ride, the wind, the smells....actually got goosebumps. I love those moments!
There was some kind of bicycle race going on that day:
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Saw bikes all over the hills all day. As you can tell, everything is still pretty wet. Just stopped raining about 6am that day.
I arrived at the Mt. Rushmore KOA exactly on time, 9am (thought I was gonna be late cause I got up a little later than I wanted to):
(http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn213/Promo_Yeti/Ride%20with%20Dratharr/IMGP0667.jpg)
We headed up to Hill City, then turned north on 249:
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That's Matt in my mirror if you can spot him:
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Some of the fall colors are already showing, should be very pretty this weekend:
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I love this area north of Hill City, there's a ton of cool trails, however we got shot down by a lot of mud. Had been raining pretty steady the previous week and everything was very wet, slippery and greasy. Every trail I tried to take just got too slick for my almost dead front tire. I'm sure Matt coulda made it through on his KLR, but I was too chicken-sh*t.
Luckily, we kept pushing on, hitting dead-ends, turning around, try another trail...we ended up on Castle Peak Road. This road was GREAT! Only a few mud holes, but lotsa nice puddles to splash through with mostly dry, hard-packed dirt. I love this trail!
(http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn213/Promo_Yeti/Ride%20with%20Dratharr/IMGP0673.jpg)
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The creek here was all kinds of funky orange colors...must be from all the rain washing iron out of the hills:
(http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn213/Promo_Yeti/Ride%20with%20Dratharr/IMGP0678.jpg)
(http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn213/Promo_Yeti/Ride%20with%20Dratharr/IMGP0677.jpg)
Stopped for a little rest at Castle Peak campground, not a sole in sight.
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Didn't have as good of luck after that. Kept hitting dead ends. Chad, Brian, Jared and I were up in this area just a couple weeks ago, and I took Matt right into all the same dead-ends we hit back then...my memory just ain't what it used to be! It was still fun, even when you have to turn around a few times.
This little ATV trail was NOT fun on the 950. I thought it was a shortcut to where we wanted to go. This was as far as I made it before it got too soft/steep for the big 950.
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Matt rode up around the bend and said he didn't recommend me trying it, we turned around again.
No pics after this cause a mean cold front moved in REAL fast! Dropped about 15 degrees in as many minutes, got overcast, and looked like it could rain (or even SNOW) any minute. We high-tailed it outa there, after hitting a couple more dead-ends. We got back to hwy 385 right as the rain started to fall.
Was a good time, Matt, glad you could make it up for a ride!
matt, that's a nice looking scooter, and yeti, as always, nice job on the pictures and write up.
Yes, another fine trip report. I'm really jealous that you get to do this stuff every weekend!
Well, you could build automation equipment here just as easy as Watertown...come on down!! ;D
> This little ATV trail was NOT fun on the 950. I thought it was a shortcut to where we wanted to go. This was as far as I made it before it got too soft/steep for the big 950.
Ya but you're bigger than us 650 guys so you should be able to throw that bigger bike around the same. :evil :evil
Great report, it was a blast thats for sure. I wish I could have been there this weekend, but right now I am nursing a cold, so it would have not been a good idea for me to come. I knew I was getting too wore down, I have been away from home for the last 5 weekends straight, I really needed a breather on this one! Bad timing!