30.2 miles cycling, 2425′ of climbing (2018.9 tot) – to read from the beginning, click here.
Everyone in Belle Fourche and Spearfish who heard our plans to go to Deadwood said, “It’s all uphill!” It was, but at the end of the climb was a great descent into the Deadwood Gulch. The streets were clogged with auto-show goers and cars and trucks of every age and description. The bikes let us get past the jams and we made our way to the visitor center. First order of business was getting a campsite somewhere close to town.
The first option was right across the street from where we had stopped, but we quickly ruled it out as the parade of cars (and revving engines) was well within earshot at any of the sites. We opted for Whistler’s Gulch and were sent up to the tent sites which were up a steep hill. I was grumbling, esp. because after setting up and going back into town, we’d have to climb up there again.
We set up, headed down the hill with enough stuff to shower and change into our “civis” and went back into town. Our first objective was to visit the gravesites of Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane which are in the Mount Moriah Cemetary way up on the hill above Deadwood. We walked the bikes and eventually locked them up and finished the climb on foot. We covered most of the cemetery’s points of interest and headed back into town for the
We stashed the bikes and walked the streets down to the bandstand. We didn’t miss any of the performances on the way because they had multiple big screens set up on every block. As we walked we checked out some of the “antique” cars & trucks that were lining the streets. Dinner was popcorn and pizza. Also had a bit of disappointment that the daily shootout performance wasn’t going to be staged because of the auto show.
We hung around until 10ish and then headed back up to the campsite. This was our first experience with a cold night on this whole trip so far. It was a chilly 41 and I had to double up on clothes to get through the night. Dana’s sleeping bag has a lower temp rating, so she managed a little better than I did. One bonus of being so high was a mostly dark sky and a clear view of the Milky Way and many unfamiliar constellations.
Tomorrow it’s on to the Mickelson Trail heading to Hill City.
