I left the Homestake Mine and Central City and headed for US 14A, the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. It looked good 'n' crookedy on the map, and I just love canyons.
There I was on US 14A in Spearfish Canyon, having just turned north at Cheyenne Crossing -- stuck five vehicles back behind a semi.
An escape presented itself.
"I seen my chances, an' I took 'em," as the saying goes.
Annie Creek Road is basically a one-lane road. I pulled over once to let a little Suzuki 4x4 that I met by.
The road climbed a little, with a few puddles -- some of them pretty much road width -- along the way. Fun. I came up behind an old Chevy Blazer. I stopped to catch my breath and give him some breathing room and shot this pic.
I caught up to him again a little ways up the road, at a fork. He pulled over to let me by. He was obviously a local, so I asked him about the two forks. One -- the one he was taking, to the right -- sounded pretty cool. It went up to an overlook.
To the left, he said, "it gets rougher, but if you squeeze through the rocks, there's an old collapsed trestle."
Squeeze through the rocks.
That sounded cool, but I was alone on an overloaded pig. I said to him that this would probably be a good place for me to turn around. We said our goodbyes, and he took the right fork.
I was about to turn around and thought, "Oh, what the heck." I took the left fork.
The road got narrower. And the surface was loose stone. It climbed a little, but was pretty easy going.
The foliage closed in.
Up ahead was a trail-width mudhole.
I decided that this might be a good place to turn around.
Then I literally thought, "No guts, no glory," so I pressed on, up the little loose slope and through the mud.
That went well, and the track opened up a little and smoothed out some.
It was still climbing ever so little.
The trail ended at the old trestle, which is just on the other side of the bike in these pictures.
The trestle timbers are scattered down the steep hillside.
It was peaceful up there, and I enjoyed just relaxing for a while.
The view toward Spearfish, SD. That's US 14A and Spearfish Creek down there in the bottom of Spearfish Canyon.
I considered camping up there, but I didn't have much water left, so I decided that the smart thing to do would be to head back down.
Back through the mud.
Back through the overgrown part.
Then back down to the fork and out to 14A, the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway.
It had been a pretty full day, and it was early evening or so by then, so I headed up toward Spearfish to find a place to call it a night.
Following signs for NF campgrounds up a gravel road, I saw this and stopped.
I found this great little NF campground and set up camp. When I got there, the four other campsites that were occupied were all occupied by people from Minnesota.
I set up camp while talking to a father/son duo, Randy and Ross, who were on a trip from the Minneapolis area on their metric cruisers.
I went to supper with them back down at Cheyenne Crossing. A really nice couple of guys.
Back at camp, I relaxed in my hammock and was quickly asleep. A great end to a great day.
Stay tuned.
Chris
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Originally Posted by Land
My bike is Harley based. Old school bobber chopper. 96" evo, 6 speed trans, springer front. Oh well, atleast I have a few hammocks to redeem myself.
We're getting colder.
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