Spearfish- camping alone

7/29

From Wyoming I had quite a bit of land between me and home with not a lot of intent to stop and see much. I left the Grand Tetons at around 7:00am and started riding east. After battling through miles of road construction, I ran into some nasty cold, wet, and windy weather just east of the Bighorn mountains. Realizing that I needed to take a break to unthaw, I pulled off the road to refuel. My fingers were so cold I couldn't feel the turn signal switch with my thumb to indicate my turn.

I managed to fill up and then went inside to warm up. It was still early morning, and I wasn't very hungry, but I ordered a bowl of chili and a cup of hot chocolate from the food counter inside. It didn't matter that chili wasn't much of a breakfast food or that hot chocolate was far from a good complement. They were both producing steam, and I sat down at a booth and hovered over them as if I was warming myself around a campfire.

The chili was bad and didn't mix well with the chocolate, but I left the gas station warmer than when I entered. I even managed to put my pen to a few postcards.

The weather became worse as I made the pass through the Bighorns, but I emerged on the eastern slopes to sunny skies and warm air. Mountains have an amazing effect on weather. I dropped my postcards off at the post office in Buffalo and kept on trucking. I crossed the border into South Dakota as the sun was getting low in my mirrors. I needed to find a place to camp and soon. I picked up a South Dakota highway map at a rest stop and set my sights on the nearest state campground. The little park just north of Spearfish, SD wasn't ideal as I had hoped to make it to the Badlands for the night, but after a summer of experience, I knew the importance of setting up camp before dark, and I still needed to buy food.

I stopped at the local grocery and bought soup and bagels. By the time I exited the store a steady rain had begun. I grabbed my rain gear from the bag which was strapped to my bike and went under the store's awning to put it on. By the time I mounted the bike and ignited the engine to life the rain had turned to a down pour and I became discouraged. Cold, wet, hungry, and alone I envied the four teenagers who scurried through the parking lot giggling as they jumped in their parent's car to drive home and watch a movie. I wanted to ask them if I could join.

Perseverance, the trained and determined motivator, kicked in, and I pressed on according to the plan. Fortunately, the rain passed, and I arrived at an empty and very eerie Belle Fourche Reservoir with the trip odometer reading 11994 miles. I set up camp quickly and quietly as not to wake any sleeping giants. The setting was very quiet and still. I was the only person in the park and there were no fisherman on the lake. The sunset lit up the post-storm sky and provided probably the most brilliant display of the summer. It felt like my lone companion, and after my bowl of soup had been wiped clean with the bagel, I tucked myself away in the tent under its watchful care.