Day 25 Wall to Murdo SD

Highlights: Badlands, frontage rd, 'no' motel, and a skunk

I planned to ride through the Badlands Loop and then along I-90 for a
dozen miles before heading north to Philip SD. When I got up thos
morning there was a heavy overcast and the weather channel had a severe
storm watch for the area where I would be riding. Curses! Maybe I should
just stay in Wall for another day? I could ride through the Badlands
unloaded and come back to Wall. Then I could a long ride to Pierre
tomorrow. I talked with Ann (of Anns Motel) about the forecast. She said
the forecasts were almost always wrong. The weatherout heris highly
unpredicatable - there was a lot of hail 'half an hour south' last night,
but no bad weather in Wall - and the overcast would clear by 10:30.

I, after breakfat a Wall Drug - OK, but not enough food for a cyclist, I
left Wall about 9 AM heading towards the Badlands Park on SD 340. It was
heavily overcast and muggy with temperatures in the mid 60s. The wind
was initially out of the west at maybe 5 mph. Wind direction varied a
lot during the day, but wind speed was never very high. The overcast
remained till about 2 PM, which was probablya good thing as the severe
storms didn't develop until late evening - just as I was finishing my
ride. 

Even with clouds, the ride through the Badlands was great. Much of the
ride is pretty flat - it goes along the ridge tops and they are flat,
but the climbs up to the ridges are steep, at least 10 % grade, so bring
a low granny gear or be willing to walk. None of the climbs are more
than a hundred or two hundred feet vertical, so walking would not be a
big deal. The road mostly does not have a shoulder, but the traffic
moves slowly and I didn't have any problems. The traffic increased a lot
by early afternoon, but I rode through on the Friday before the Fouth of
July weekend. It would be best to ride on a non-holiday weekday morning. 

I stopped for lunch at the Cedar Pass Center. This is the only food
concession in the park and I had a pretty good 'indian' taco. I rode
out of the park and up to I-90 at milepost 131, planning to ride on I-90
to milepost 143 where SD 73 goes north to Philip, but much to my relief,
I found that I-90 has a frontage road starting at milepost 131. This is
the old highway that I-90 replaced and it is very good, if a bit hilly,
riding. It is nine miles from Wall to the park on 240, and about 30
miles riding through the park. 

Coming out of the National Park is a let down, since you ride back into
the world of tacky signs and tourist 'attractions', but when I got to
the interstate, things improved. I expected to have to ride I-90, but
instead I got to ride the 'old road.' Two lanes, no signs, nothing but
farms, hardly any traffic - a vehicle an hour! - and lots of wilflowers
and birds. This road runs from a hundred feet to a mile or so south of
I-90. All the services - not many! - that are available on I-90 are also
available on this road, but little of the noise, and none of the wind
blasts or smell, is present. There are some steep hills - I used my
granny gears on some of them - and a few potholes.

When I got near the road north to Philip, I had just climbed a big hill
and I could see Philip off to the north and Kadoka off to the east.
Kodoka looked like it would have a lot more services and I could see
that the road I was on continued to Kadoka. I decided to keep riding
east. I knew there would be services in Kadoka, less than ten miles
away, and Murdo, fifty miles away and I hoped there would be services in
Belvidere, 20 mils away.

I stopped in Kadoka for a rootbeer float at Happy Chef. Slow service,
lousy float, darn! I didn't fee like stopping at anyof the motels, so I
rode on towards Belvidere. Nice riding, but the old road wnet out of
sight of the interstate andI got worried where it might be heading. My
paper map didn't show it all, so I stopped and cranked up Street Atlas
on my computer. I got the infomation I needed, but also got very muddy
in the field beside the road.

Coming into Kadoka I crested yet another hill (did I say it was hilly?)
and saw a motel sign, but hwen I got the motel, nobody was home. Kadoka
would have been a good place to stop, close to half way between Pierre
and Wall. I went to a gas station/convenience store nearby and the nice
lady there thried to find the motel owner for me, but couldn't. It was
thirty miles more to Murdo and about three hours to sundown, so I rode
on. I could hav stopped at a KOA ten miles later, but instead I stopped,
ate supper from my supplies and continued riding east.

It was clouding up behind me as I rode and I had a gentle head wind.
Still nice riding conditions and I knew the next day would be hot (I
haven't been hot all week!) and humid, so it was good to be able to take
advantage of this cooler weather. The clouds continued to build until
they blocked the sun. I didn't see it again till I got to Murdo and it
was setting and shining below the clouds. It was a long twenty miles,
but pleasant. All the folks I met (two or three vehicles) were friendly
and, although the weather was building behind me, I wasn't too worried
about making Murdo before it got nasty. For the last ten miles I had a
gentle tail wind.

Shortly before Murdo (five miles?) I decided to pull over to turn on my
rear flasher. When I headed towards the edge of the road, I was greeted
with a black and white tail hat suddenly poped up in front of me. The
working end of a skunk was pointing right at me! I quickly changed my
course and the skunk did not spray. I rode on down the road a ways and
stopped in the lane to turn my flasher on. It was good that I did since
I had a car without lights pass me as I was coming into Murdo. I also
had a few drops of rain hit me as I entered town and heard distant
thunder. A couple of hours later the thunder was very close and very
loud.