We are not sure where we are, but it does not matter. We had a fantastic day cycling, but more importantly we had a fantastic people day. We had a wonderful encounter with a trail angel and met 3 friendly cyclists from Minnesota.
We are staying at the South Whitlock Resort. The resort’s address is Gettysburg, South Dakota but that town is 13 miles east. We believe that it is a fishermen’s hangout on the Missouri.
Leaving Pierre was a lot easier than getting there; and that is one big understatement. We left Pierre via bike trails (Pierre has 50 miles of them) before crossing the Missouri to get on route 1806. From there we again crossed the Missouri over the Oahe Dam (a large earthen structure) to route 1804 where we headed north. If those route numbers sound familiar they are the years Lewis and Clark headed west (1804) and returned (1806). South Dakota is the only state that made such a designation to its roads.
We were about 30 miles into our route when we met 3 other cyclists. These guys are cycling the Lewis and Clark route in sections and this was their last one. Dave, Terry, and Lauren are from the Twin Cities area of Minnesota and are taking turns driving a support van. At that point we had planned to head 12 miles east to Onida where we were to spend the night. However, these cyclists were staying on route 1804 heading north. While their route was twice as long as our planned route it had a strong tail wind. We chose their route and flew at 20-25 mph for the next 25 miles. In fact, this destination puts us further along our route than we expected.
Shortly after we headed north we saw a man sitting on the tailgate of his truck. He was holding a sign that read “OLD GUYS WELCOME.” Of course we stopped. The man knew us by our names and knew our eating habits. Craig McIntyre, South Dakota’s State Bicycle Coordinator had been following our blog and decided to give us a big boost. When he brought out the caramel sticky buns and 2 kinds of cookies, and several types of drinks we knew that he seriously followed our journey. Craig, our Trail Angel, made our travels in South Dakota extra special.
Click to view today's Photos
Click to view an overview Map of our trip
Click for a detailed map of today's ride
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