What a contrast with yesterday! America is so varied.
But first I should report on last night in Spearfish. There was a classic car rally in the main street – about 100 massive American cars from the 1950s, mostly. Can’t say I liked any, but it was fun!
Dinner was yet more steak, in a really nice cafe in one of the oldest buildings in town – built early 1900s.
This morning we set off up the Spearfish Canyon – a spectacular quiet road up a winding, wooded gorge overhung with orange/yellow limestone cliffs (Cotswold stone).
At the head of the canyon we had a second massive breakfast in another good cafe, only just over an hour since the first!
Then onwards and upwards. We passed some guys building a covered wooden bridge.
We were now back over 6000 feet and the scenery was alpine. Quite stunning high valleys with scattered farms, fast flowing streams and, away from the pasture, low density woods with a thick carpet of grass and beautiful wild flowers. I could live here!
In the tiny hamlet of Rochford there is a quirky saloon, Moonshine Gulch, with a great atmosphere. We sat happily drinking and swapping cycling stories with the owner.
Next came a section I had been nervous about. The Micklesen Trail is an old rail line cutting right through the centre of the Black Hills, away from roads and the noisy motor bikes that are everywhere. It looked fantastic. But could we ride the ‘crushed limestone surface – fat tyres advised’ on our road bikes?
We did so … very slowly and gently. And what a reward! We rode across trestle bridges high above fast rivers, straight through a fabulous slate cliffed canyon, and through three tunnels. What’s more, we met other cyclists and basked in their adulation!
Altogether a fantastic day – a very short one, at only 60 miles, but another 5000 ft of ascent! Tomorrow we are off to Mount Rushmore.