Thursday, August 1, 2019

Spearfish Library



A rainy morning with some heavy rain predicted later made it an easy choice to drive into Spearfish for some Internet access.  Getting caught up with all sorts of correspondence, a few pesky bills that followed me all the way out here too.  It's very nice in here though, making bill-paying a bit less painful.

The garage across the street is taking a look at my stuck caliper, hopefully something minor and done today.  As convenient as it could be though that wasn't my only van snafu.  I overestimated the van's battery capabilities.  Apparently thousands of milliamps add up to real amps....the van solenoid barely clicked the other morning.  Luckily, Bob came over with his Florida Tracker and got me going again.  We riders have been joking about traveling adages the last while...."never pass up a chance to eat, to fuel up, to stop for a p__  and finally, "always be charging".  I apparently took that advice to an uncomfortable extreme.  I've lots of gizmo's and they're constantly hungry.

I've only had the drone up a couple of times, last evening was one so that I could get an overview of the Hanna Campground and my site #5.  I've carried it in the backpack for hundreds of miles but conditions/locations weren't always conducive to being airborne.  The high peaks....I've been to all of them but wind and tourists have combined to make aerial photography there a challenge.  It's OK though, views from those places incredible without being even higher.

The first couple of days the Himalayan encountered only rocks and dust except for one major exception, yesterday it was trees down across the road and much more mud.  Mud to the point that I was beginning to pay more attention to the weather and where I was; another hard rain on some of the roads might have made it a bit too challenging to get out, backtracking always in the back of my mind.

I've met no more dirt/off-road bikes than I have fingers.  Everything, everybody has been in side by sides or trucks that use ALL of the oncoming trail.  There was a group of bikes that came in with "great confidence" while we all were waiting for the saloon in Rochford to open.  Guys not tall enough to be on big KTM's came rolling in, at least with the look of being Dakar-ready.  Leaving in a flurry of attempted wheelies, the entire porch-sitting Harley owners on the porch next to me all shaking their heads, a comment that mom wouldn't appreciate here and there.  We have factions among us.

The Himalayn is made for this and for what I do...not sure how many times I've said that by now.  Dropping two sprocket teeth in the rear only helps the relatively large jump between first and second gear, those two gears seeing more usage than they've ever seen before.  Often too rocky or too steep for old Coop, 1st it's been but we can poke along indefinitely and have.

"Your bike is too quiet, I had to yell to the guys on the trail that you were coming....."  Told to me by one of the guys in a back canyon, he part of a large group of Dispersed campers as I passed through their small community.

Yes, yes it is and as we all should be.  Not the first time I've been called quiet this trip.

As of this morning, I plan to leave Sunday morning, one of the NF campsites just west of Centennial, WY my destination.  Hoping to explore some more of the Snowy Range that was cut short a couple of years ago when the KLR rear shock went into pogo-mode.  Communication from there (via Laramie) could be better or worse than it's been here in the Black Hills.  As "Sturgis" gets into full swing, it will be nice to be a bit further away.  As someone that doesn't really know, it would be easy to believe that Rally Week is already fully underway.









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