Daily Summary

A Great Day With Mount Rushmore, But Crazy Winds Again And One Person Ends Up In The Hospital

It was a beautiful day temperature-wise. We had 12 miles or so of climbing to over 6,200 feet up to start and another 8 miles of climbing in the middle, with lots of downhill between. I once again rode mostly by myself and enjoyed the sights. However, there were major winds gusting to near 40 mph from the northwest direction. This gets into seriously dicey territory. I expected to have to hop into the van at any point when I started the day, but it ends up that the mountainside next to us blocked the wind for most of the day.

You can see in the ride image that I stopped just south of Rapid City. This is where the mountain cover was ending and open fields starting. Plus, our direction would put the wind mostly crosswise and in our face. I just didn’t feel safe. I joined 3 others who had already bailed out due to the wind earlier before the Mount Rushmore climb and descent. I was so happy to be able to safely complete that segment. More on the mishap below.

The Sights

The sights were terrific. 50 miles on the nice gravel trail through the mountains. You can see a series of pictures progressing along the path, including one of the old rail tunnels we went through as this was originally a rail line.

They had a really neat old train museum with a number of trains in Hill City as we neared the end of the trail.

I caught one of many cool rock formations I saw on the climb to Mount Rushmore. 

The highlight of the day: Mount Rushmore! I got one picture with a pretty close side view of Washington as I neared the entrance. Then you can see one of me and the monument (you have to zoom in to see it behind me) and 2 zoom ins of the monument from the same spot.

It was odd to have a traffic light at the top of a mountain, but I guess everyone coming up there is going to the monument.

The last photo is right before I bailed outside Rapid City. You can see how much smaller the wind blocking hills are, and they were about to disappear.

The Bad News – Hospital For One Person

As we rode in the van to the hotel, there were still 4 of the 8 of us trying to complete the last segment of the ride. About 2 miles from the hotel, we got a message that one of the guys had crashed and we needed the van to come back. Cell service was sketchy, so we had no more info. We were hopeful it was just some bike damage.

As we came over a hill, we saw an ambulance and police car. It ends up that he was coming down a hill fast into a turn and couldn’t hold the turn. He went off the road, flipped over his handlebars, and got banged up bad. It isn’t clear if the wind played a role, but right at the bottom of the hill where the turn is, he was turning so the wind would be crosswise to him and would push him toward where he went off.

We learned later that he has 3 broken ribs, a broken bone in his shoulder, and a possible partially collapsed lung. (UPDATE: It was actually 14 broken ribs, a broken scapula, and a punctured lung). It goes without saying that he won’t be able to complete the ride. He’ll still be in the hospital here (I think) when we leave Friday morning, but his fiancé is flying in tonight to help him through it.

We were all shook up at the reminder that cycling isn’t risk free. On the way back to town, everyone was in the van but the one person who had been ahead of the crash and was unaware. We came upon him struggling against what was then a massive headwind and told him to just get in the van for the last few miles so we didn’t have any more mishaps. He agreed and hopped in. At this point, nobody has been able to do literally every mile, just as the owner had told us to expect.