Day 19
Day By Day Notes From The Road
Back To Itinerary
This document updated July 17th, 2004
Newcastle Wyoming to Rapid City South Dakota - 81 Miles
By Lucija:
Hooray! For the wildlife fanatic in me, today was an AWESOME day! First things first - we climbed into South Dakota, which meant that we changed climates. Goodbye to the dry rolling lands and hello to the pine trees and cooler temperatures! Great!
Secondly, for a large chunk of today's ride we rode through Custer State Park, known for its herds of mountain goats and wild bison. The ride through the park was gorgeous, mostly downhill through a winding pine tree valley. I'm shocked that I did not crash my bike because instead of watching the road I was scanning the landscape for mountain goats and/or buffalo. I was a bit disappointed because according to my route map we were about to exit the state park and I had seen NO wildlife. At that point we exited the pine trees onto a camping clearing and wow, there it was, a magnificent herd of bison! What a treat!
Erwin:
Today;s ride was everything it was promised to be; largely downhill, incredibly scenic and with plenty of wildlife. It was fun to take my time, enjoy some ice-cream in the very nice town of Custer and spend some time riding with Lucija.
The highlight of the day for me was a long winding descent through Custer State Park. The road was in perfect condition, cars were largely absent, and the scenery was gorgeous. Custer state park offers nice lakes set between rocky pine-covered hillsides. It reminded me a little of a national park I had been to south of Stockholm and of the pine forest in the southern Netherlands where I grew up.
Another highlight was having a close encounter with a very large male buffalo. After Lucija and I had watched the herd pictured below for about 30 minutes, we decided to get back on our bikes and continue riding. I was clipped back into my pedals and slowly coasted ahead of Lucija, with the herd to the left of my on the other side of a little pond.
Suddenly, I heard Lucija tell me; "Ehh, Erwin, there is one to the right of you". About 4 meters away a large, single, male bison weighing at least a ton was on his way towards the herd. Strangely, I had seen it subconsciously but dismissed the information, thinking I had misread a bison-shaped rock for an actual animal (I remember this clearly). Maybe because of this subconsious process, I was pretty calm, unclipped my pedals, turned around my bike and went the other way. The bison showed no response to any of my movements and continued toward the pond. I respected it and it respected me, but the whole thing left me with a surreal feeling.
Tomorrow I will check out the Mount Rushmore national monument on our day off. The next day is hard; 100+ miles through mountainous terrain in very, very hot weather, probably with a head/side wind. I am looking forward to it!
Photos:
We made it to state #5! And even better news, the pine trees are back! Hooray for South Dakota!
Just as we had given up on seeing wild bison, this herd surprised us near the park exit.
The biggest and the most magnificent, this male was clearly the boss. And yes, we really were that close (though safely huddled behind a parking lot fence).