Thanksgiving

            After reaching the summit of Harney Peak I had an awesome opportunity to stay with a couple that had worked in the National Park Services their entire careers.  They lived in Custer, SD and Penny Knuckles was a biologist for the park service while her husband Dennis was a ranger and bush pilot in Alaska for many years before retiring recently.  They had a ton of great stories to tell and were very fun to hang out with.  Penny also cam through for me as I left the next day I forgot both my water bottles at their house.  I didn’t notice till I was a few miles down the road and since I was already running later I figured I would just deal with it and get some bottles at my next stop.  But as I was riding about 25 miles from their house she drove by and gave me the water bottles back.  That was a great surprise. 

The ride that day was pretty fun as well.  It was mostly down hill and I rode through Wind Cave National Park.  Here I was able to see a lot of wildlife from the road.  Including a herd or bison that were probably no more than 15 feet away.  It can be kind of intimidating when they are all staring at you and you have no protection to speak of.  So I apologize for not getting a picture of them but I felt like it was a good idea to just keep riding.

            The next two days were pretty straightforward but they were both over 70 miles so they made for long days.  Eventually I made it to Scottsbluff, NE where I got another flat about 5 miles from my destination after another 70+ day.  After fixing that I decided to stop by the local bike shop called Sonny’s Bike Shop.  There were some great guys working there and they helped tune my bike up as well as outfitted me with some puncture resistant tubes and a new patch kit.  After that I headed over to the local fire station where I was spending the next two nights because a snowstorm was supposed to blow through the next day.  Both sets of guys were fun to hang out with as we watched football most of the day.

            When I started riding again I headed down towards Pine Bluffs, Wyoming that turned out to be an incredibly long day.  I had a head wind for most of it and ended up having to ride an hour and a half after dark in order to make it there.  But upon arrival a church was nice enough to set me up in a hotel for the night.

            The next day I knew was going to be almost 90 miles because that was going to be the first town I could make it to while also hitting the high point in Nebraska.  In order to get to the high point I had to ride about 8 miles down dirt roads and then another mile on a bison ranch.  You could see the bison heard off in the distance but that was the most exciting thing to see from the summit.  It turned out though that I was not done with the dirt roads.  I still had another 12 miles to go with it changing from a hard packed down road to a loose dirt road that was pretty hard to ride in.  I actually changed in to my running shoes so that I could ride and walk the bike a little more comfortably.  It also made it easier to bail the bike would slide out from under me.  Eventually though I make it to asphalt though and was able to continue at a pretty good pace because what most people don’t realize is that the majority of Colorado is very flat. 

            I didn’t quite make it into town though before it got dark and I was on a pretty busy road without much of a shoulder.  After riding this for a little in the dark I stopped and was going to try and find a ride into town.  Lucky for me the owner of the driveway I had stopped in was on his way to the airport but he got his wife to come get me in the truck and she took me into town. 

            I was worn out but thankfully tomorrow was only going to be about 45 miles as I rode to Denver and where I was going to stay for the next couple days.  My mom flew in to hang out with me for Thanksgiving, which was very nice.  While in Denver I finally got a chance to go meet some of the people that work for the Big City Mountaineers.  We went to lunch right by their office at a very cool little place called the Vine Street Pub.  Afterwards we went over to their office and they showed me around. 

            Heather from Big City Mountaineers actually invited both my mom and I over for thanksgiving dinner the next day that was awesome.  Some of her friends were also there so it was a fun day just hanging out with new people where most of them worked in the outdoor recreation field.  For dinner her fiancé made a really good smoked turkey and the sides were all really good as well. 

            Well after having a great set of rest days it’s on to the rocky mountains and the highest point in Colorado, Mount Elbert.

            - Michael Hunter

Rejuvenation

            There have been some pretty big events that have occurred since my last blog.  I had the opportunity to ride through the Badlands National Park in South Dakota, fly back to USC for the weekend, and then reach Harney Peak for my 8^th summit.

Sunset in the Badlands

            The whole way across South Dakota I had been hearing about how amazing the Badlands are and had gotten really excited to ride through it.  I was actually planning on camping in a section of the Badlands that has a herd of free range Bison.  However, I came to find out that in order to do that I would have to bike in about 12 miles on a gravel road and then bike out about another 13 miles.  So needless to say I decided against that.  But, the rest of the ride was pretty spectacular.  From the second you go through the gate the scenery drastically changes from the rolling plains to involve desert cliff faces a couple hundred feet tall.  The rest of the day I spent riding up and down these cliffs enjoying all the different formations that were created by the passing of time.  I lost track of time a little bit while riding and by the time the sun was setting I still had about 8 miles to go before I made it to a town to stay in.  Luckily it was mostly downhill and I was able to get there pretty fast although it got very cold as soon as the sun went down. 

            The next day I rode to Rapid City, SD where I met the Thurston’s.  They were a very nice couple that offered to keep an eye on all my stuff while I flew back to USC for a couple days.  The reason I was going back to USC was so that I could help out the University with their new Capitol Campaign kickoff event. They wanted me to come back in order to talk a little bit.  My short talk with Brent was focused around our promise to participate in the community as a USC alum.

Part of the trail to Harney Peak

            This trip back to Columbia was great for me both because I was able to help out USC after they have done so much for me and Cycle for the Summit but it was also rejuvenating to hang out with all me friends for a couple days.  It was also a great break from the cold windy weather that I had been dealing with up in South Dakota for the last week or so.  But, early Sunday morning it was time to head back to South Dakota in order to get ready for the next stages of my journey.

            The day after getting back to Rapid City I hit the road again by making my way into the heart of the Black hills.  This took me to Mount Rushmore, which was fun to see in person since it is such an iconic landmark in the United States.  After stopping here for a little bit I continued on to the trailhead of Harney Peak where I camped for the night.  I woke up early the next morning to a fresh snow covering everywhere.  This day turned out to take a lot longer than I expected due to some logging going on along the trail I first expected to take.  But either way it was a very peaceful day hiking through the snow towards my 8^th summit.  I didn’t see another soul all day but I did see plenty of deer and I also saw a lot of cougar tracks in the snow.  Upon reaching the summit I was treated to one of the greatest views I had seen on this trip yet. 

            Well now it is time to hightail it south as fast as I can.  Everyone says I have been lucky that a big storm has not come through yet but I don’t want to risk it any longer than I need to. 

- Michael Hunter

Truck, Tuck, and GO

          Since my last blog I was able to reach the Highest point in Iowa, Hawkeye Point.  This summit was probably the easiest one to reach the summit of thus far but, it still was able to provide a nice view of the surrounding landscape.  One cool thing that the summit did have was a sign to each of the other 49 highpoints and showing how far away they were.

            The summit day held true to the last couple days in that it was a decent headwind most f the day.  Due to this I was not able to make it all the way to Sioux Falls, SD as I had planned but was able to find a nice place to stay in rock Rapids, IA for the night.  This left only about 35 miles to Sioux Falls the next day where I had another appointment with a couch surfer.  This ride to Sioux Falls is where I concluded that I have to get a new pair of cycling shoes for the colder months.  It was another very cold day, which at this point I can only expect to become more frequent and get even colder.  But my current shoes were to tight for me to put on one pair of thick wool socks let alone two pairs of socks to keep my feet warm.  I did have the shoe covers but even with them I could feel my feet freezing from the bottom up which just did not make for a comfortable ride. 

Well I made it to Sioux Falls and had a great evening with my host as he showed me around the city.  The next morning I decided to go to a local bike shop before continuing my trip west across South Dakota since there was not much in the way of bike shops for almost 400 miles.  I stopped at Harlan’s Bike and Tour where the guys were incredibly helpful.  Not only did I get some new shoes there but I also got a new chain and a quick tune up on the bike.  They also gave me good directions for getting out of the city on some pretty decent biking roads. 

After fixing the first flat of the day.

As I left the bike shop and hit the road for another relatively short ride I was in a great mood and the weather was just beautiful compared to what the last week or two had been.  This lasted until I had about 4 miles left to my destination.  This is where I got my second flat of the trip in my rear tire.  O well a flats a flat so I took everything off the bike and fixed it.  Or so I thought.  As I was reloading the bike and put by backpack on the back my new tube blew.  I just kind of had to chuckle to myself in disbelief.  After looking at the tube I must have pinched it or something when putting it on as there was a hole in it but no corresponding damage to the tire itself.  At this point my host for the night was actually with me since he rode out to meet and ride in with me.  We were so close to his house that he just offered to ride back and get his car to pick me up so that I could just fix it at home and make sure I did it right this time.  Still a great day even with those two setbacks though.

The next two days were quite an experience for me.  I had consistent wind ranging from 20 to 35 mph with gusts well over 40 mph coming from the SSE.  At least it was slightly towards my back but the brunt of it was definitely coming from my side.  One day I rode on a two-lane highway with little traffic but it did have a good number of trucks that drove by.  As trucks drove by in my direction I had to fight off getting sucked in to them more than ever since there was also no shoulder most of the time and I was already leaning in to the wind which also meant leaning into traffic.  While this made for interesting riding it was the oncoming trucks that made it really interesting.  It actually gave me a sensation of being in the ocean and jumping into the waves.  You see it coming, brace yourself, hold your breath, and dive right into it.  The Truck, Tuck and Go method.  This I found usually worked out pretty well for me.  You got the wobbles a little bit as it passed but as long as you were ready and there was no traffic coming your direction it worked out well. 

On the other side of things I rode on the interstate the next day so I did not have to deal with oncoming traffic but I had a much more frequent flow of trucks traveling in the same direction as me.  This allowed me to embrace the wind the trucks created and get a little speed boost from each one that went by.  The more awkward looking the cargo trailer the better the boost you can get too.

The view from the house I stayed at in Chamberlain, SD.

I have been hearing about how beautiful the western part of South Dakota is since I got in the state.  I got my first taste of that as I made it to Chamberlain and had a great view of the valley below.  I’m definitely looking forward to riding through the badlands and making it to the Black Hills in a couple days.  Until then . . .

- Michael