Finish from yesterday:

Drove North from Sturgis looking for public land to dirtbag on. Miles and miles of range land & no shielded spot. Finally I entered a small piece of Nat Forest land. Drove back an slight road & parked right on it. Cloudy at first but @ pee break it was clear and really black. I was miles from any source of light.

Getting colder, no frost yet.

Slept in w/ same intrepidation of poking my nose out of the covers. Used doubled over down blanket. Concern as it gets colder until I get out of it if the blanket will keep me warm w/o heater on.

More miles of desolate road, range land, cows & hay. Lot of unsold hay round bales. Couple of jogs and into ND. At Belfield on I-94 I bought diesel @ $4.09, borrowed a phone book & found bike shop Dakota Cyclery  Mountain Bike Adventures, & called them. Got Jennifer on the horn & learned that she had a shuttle leaving shortly and I bit. Got into downtown Medora, an entry for Theodore Roosevelt Nat Park. She was running John out for a guided trip and I could buy a shuttle ride.

Off West bound on I-94 to Buffalo Gap XG TH. I rode with them for the entire ride. Buffalo Gap is part of the MDH as it skirts the NP. Trail is non technical swooping among cow pies. A bit of rain and slightly chilly. Actually rode with other people, not JRA.

Oh, at the TH was a double CXT outhouse.

Rode thru some prarie and then into the Badlands:

Then the trail:

FS has installed a new kind of gate:

Then into the Badlands:

But then these really are badlands:

Trail section:

Hit campground right out of town for $3.00 shower and laundry.

Decide to stay here another day and ride some more of the MDH Trail further North.

Off for now,

Cool morning.

Started heater & fixed Bfast. Waited till the sun warmed temps a bit & washed the bike w/ cold h2o, just to get the mud off & clean the drive train.

The Tinton Trail sure was fun, perhaps a harbinger of the midwest with the tread & type of trail.

Drove back to Rushmore Mountain Sports in Spearfish to talk to Jesse before I choose next ride. I am interested in the Centennial Trail as IMBA pasted all kinds of glory about the section in the trees. I wanted to see a showcase trail design.

Christy, Perry Jewitt’s wife, gave me local beta. Good ride.

Drove to TH which is x I-90 from Vet Cemetary & on Ft Meade property. At TH only tent camping.

Trail went underneath I-90 thru a culvert:

The trail was a good design but I have been on others I thought slightly better. I noticed that there was very little outsloping to sluff off the h2o.

It undulated thru P-Pine:

Fall colors are starting to show:

This trail had poison ivy like the North Fork of the Umpqua had poison oak. So far no reaction.

Had lunch @ TH. Cleaned hydration bladder w/ denture tabs to kill anything living in bladder as I never empty it and dry it out. Not city h2o.

Drove to XG & bought shower for $3.00, the price hostles charge as the woman didn’t know what to charge.

Drove to Sturgis, parked outside motorcycle museum creating this. Maybe I’ll find the Harley plant as I leave town.

Next stop is North Dakota for Maah Daah Hey trail part, then a long drive X the state for Minnesota.

Gotta go. Badlands of the Dakotas.