Sturgis

31^st July On the road again

We said farewell to Bev and the dogs and horses and set off on the road again, going back along part of the route we had come down two weeks earlier.  We had an overnight stop in Lusk.  That afternoon we had a torrential hail storm that left the ground as white as if it had snowed.  Our position in the campsite had us parked directly facing the storm and the driving wind resulted in water leaking in through the windscreen.  So we had towels strewn over the dashboard soaking up the water.

1^st August  Water, water everywhere

Showers and hair washing in the morning left water all over the floor!  We discovered the waste pipe from the shower had worked loose.  The campsite owners were very helpful and lent us some glue/sealant so Paul was able to do his “Mr Fix-it” on the offending joint. 

We drove up to Sundance on the I-90 and from there into the campsite in the middle of the Black Hills Nat Forest.  We had a 10 mile journey on a dirt track which left the car covered in dust.

Cook Lake Recreation Area was very picturesque in the afternoon sunshine.

2^nd August Cook Lake Recreation Area

Our campsite is about 20 feet from the lake’s edge.  Paul spent all day fishing.  Alison did a couple of hikes; one in the morning around the lake for about 2 miles.  The other was a 6 miles round hike and three quarters of the route was uphill!  There were deer, butterflies and even a beaver in the river in the middle of the afternoon.  Unfortunately the beaver was a little too far away for a good photo. 

The clouds came and went and thunder echoed around all afternoon.  Eventually there was a terrific downpour during the night.

3^rd August Deadwood Town

This is the start of the Sturgis Motorbike Rally week when hundreds of thousands of bikers descend on the area surrounding the town of Sturgis in northern South Dakota (estimated at around 200,000 bikes). Although Sturgis is the centre point, every town within a 50 mile radius is inundated with bikers.  This was the 73^rd Annual event and it initially started as a Motor bike Hill Climb Race.  Although the Hill Climb is still held few people actually go to it these days. 

Wild Bill Hickock

We spent the day in the town of Deadwood (Debbie Reynolds fans will remember the song about the Deadwood Stage).  Deadwood is associated with the names of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane – both of whom are buried here.   The town developed when gold was discovered in the Black Hills in the late 1870s.

Just a small selection of bikes

Name the bike?

However, today it was all about Motor Bikes.  There were motor bikes everywhere and people just cruising around enjoying the day. It was a great atmosphere.  We got chatting to a couple of guys over from UK for a few weeks, they had rented Harley-Davidsons so that they could join in the Rally for the week.  

They told us Sturgis was the place to be so we drove up there late afternoon. 

However it was so busy, parking was out of the question so we decided to come back later in the week.

4^th August Rest Day

Today was our day to rest.  Paul went fishing and Alison chilled in the sunshine with a book.  Unfortunately the kayak was punctured by a thorn so the puncture repair kit had to be utilized.  Paul took it out fishing later and all seemed to be in order.  He floated past the muskrats enjoying their early evening swim in the lake.

The weekend has been busy with families enjoying the Recreation Area.  A lot of kids are swimming or fishing and some families have quad bikes and go up into the hills on the dirt tracks.  A couple of people asked us how we found this area as it is mostly used by ‘locals’.

Every evening we have had storm clouds build up but this day turned into a pleasant evening so we sat around the camp fire eating ‘Smores’.  However the storm still came in that night and we were kept awake with the rain and hail thundering on the roof most of the night.

5^th August Sturgis

We got to the town of Sturgis just after lunch.  We drove out to the Crossroads at the Buffalo Chip campground.  This huge campground also has a stage for the evening concerts.  The Crossroads is accessible to non-campers and had a few entertainments going on during the day.  Budweiser Beer advertises here in USA, using 8 huge Clydesdales horses.  The Clydesdales are well known via the media and they were here in stalls to raise publicity for Budweiser.  We arrived in time to see each of them being treated with a syringe of ??? – by the look in their eyes we think it was a tranquiliser to keep them oblivious to the noise of the motorbikes.

We watched the Wall of Death were a stunt rider rode his motorbike horizontally around a circular wall. (Paul remembers this from his childhood in Southend-on-Sea) One of his stunts was to grab dollar notes from people’s hands. We then went to watch the Uni-motor-cycle Drag Race.  This turned out to be a bit of a non-event.  We waited nearly 45 minutes whilst a TV or radio station interviewed one of the riders. 

When they moved on to interview the next rider most of the audience moved on to!

We then drove back into town passing so many motorbikes along the road.  They had ridden from Deadwood, as Monday was the ‘Deadwood Tour’.  We noticed on the schedule of events that each day a Tour is organised and bikers meet up at one of the towns and then drive back into Sturgis; sometimes they have a reception at the end.

The Main Street of Sturgis was full of motor bikers parked all along both sides of the road and double parked in the centre.  There were stalls selling all sorts of motor bike paraphernalia; although somehow gel pad seats didn’t seem to go with the tough-guy image of a motor-biker. 

We noticed that the majority of people were of our generation and we never saw any children.  It wouldn’t surprise me if the locals vacate the area for this week.  We were told that some shops remove their stock and rent out their shops to vendors just for this week. 

6^th August Devil’s Tower Nat Monument

On our way to Devil’s Tower the clouds came over and there was a down pour.  So we stopped in the town of Hulett for a coffee.  There were several bikers here but we were told tomorrow was ‘Ham and Jam’ Day and they were expecting up to 50,000 bikers.

Devil’s Tower was the first National Monument to be created in 1906.  It particularly gained fame in the 1978 film ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ and Alison kept humming the 5-notes of the theme tune. (annoying little child)

The rock is the core of a volcano which has become exposed as the surrounding rock and soil eroded away.  As it cooled the molten lava contracted and fractured into columns, many of which are hexagonal and it reminded us of the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland, except we were looking up at it as it rises some 867ft from the base.  It is popular for rock climbers and we saw one group going up and another coming down.  It takes approximately 6hrs to climb up and back down.

The American Indians have many legends about the Tower and it is a spiritual site for them.  Most traditional names referred to it as the home for a Bear such as Bear Lodge.  However today it was  surrounded by motor-bikes. The car-park attendants did an excellent job as without them it would have been chaos.

We popped into one of the gift shops on the way out of the NM and who should we meet but the two guys from UK that we had chatted to in Deadwood.  There are over 500,000 bikers here this week so to meet them again was such an amazing coincidence.  They were certainly having a good time and told us about the ZZ Top concert where bikers can park their motorbikes up close to the stage and sit there revving their engines to show appreciation of the performance. 

7^th August Sundance and Hulett

On the way out of the Forest we visited the Fire Watch Tower on Warren’s Peak.  From the 6650ft vantage point we had a 360 degree view for miles.  Devil’s Tower was 20 miles in the distance and looked surprisingly small.  The woman who worked there explained what she has to do for her job.  The watch tower had a bed so she could stay overnight.



Burn out

It was Wyoming Wednesday when even more of the motor-bikers come into this area.  Sundance was to hold the ‘Burn-out’ event.  This is where they fix a motor bike on a platform and rev the engine, spinning the back tyre until it bursts.  Really?  What is that all about?!?!?  Black smoke and bits of rubber go flying in the process and you need a new tyre before you can go home.  We didn’t quite see the purpose of it all but it’s a competition and somebody wins something ...... ?!?!

We watched one demonstration and then left.  The town of Sundance is where the Sundance Kid got his name from and they still have the courthouse which was used for his trial but we never found it.

We drove on up to Hulett, passing the Devil’s Tower in the distance and witnessing an almost continuous stream of motor-bikes on the road. 

We got to Hulett late afternoon so at least we could get parked.  There were still a lot of bikers there enjoying the Bands playing music.  There were some amazing (and expensive) motor bikes to be admired.  The atmosphere was always friendly and everyone was just there to enjoy themselves. 

What does one look at when one got fed-up with looking at bikes? the ladies of course.