2009 Summer Motorcycle Trip: Day 34 – The Black Hills area. About 325 kms

A great day! Awesome Day!
Started the ride about 9 am, headed for the Crazy Horse Memorial. The roads down were nice 2 lane and a decent variety of scenery and turns. I was a little surprised at the distance it was away from Deadwood, but the ride was nice. When I arrived, I was impressed. This memorial is for Crazy Horse, one of the chiefs who defeated Custer. The Lakota tribes wanted to create a memorial for him, and Crazy Horse himself said one day he would return in stone. He also said “My lands are where my people lie buried”. The work began in the 1940’s when a sculpture named Korczak Ziolkowski was asked by the Lakota tribe chiefs to do this work. It started with a scale sculpture and then a location was selected in the Black hills, where the Lakota wanted his memorial to exist. These hills are sacred to the Lakota tribes.
Ziolkowski (1908 – 1982) was working on Mount Rushmore, so he was familiar with the work required for this memorial. He and the family has refused twice 10 million federal dollars to assist completing the rock carving, which by the way is much larger than Mt Rushmore. Several times larger than the Statue of Liberty. My take on this was Crazy Horse refused all that the federal government offered in the way of lands and treaties, never put pen to paper, so the monument will be created using that philosophy. The monument has a very long way to completion and after Ziolkowski death in 1982, his wife (18 years younger and since deceased) and some of their 10 children have taken on running the work. There is still a very long way to go... only a face exists and the rock removal is underway for many other features, as it will be intricate carving of Crazy Horse on a horse, left hand thrown out pointing in answer to the derisive question asked by a white man, “where are your lands now?” He replied, “my lands are where my dead lie buried”.
An interesting and moving monument. Wonder when it will be finished.... looking at the progress for the past 62 years, it could be another 50+ years. But the early days the work was done by one man, now there are mechanical earthmovers and a small team of drillers and blasters. Amazing the precision they can shape rock with using blasting. The museum has many photos taken at different periods of time showing the progress through the years.
After that memorial, I rode one of the road loops on my map and then started the Needles Hwy, which is a road that winds through interesting canyons of rock formations. It took me to another loop that was the start of the wildlife look in Custer’s Park. At first, I wondered if I would see any wildlife, but then I saw 1 buffalo, then another 2, then a heard of I think deer, (they were a long ways away) and then a small herd of donkeys, then the grand finale, a huge herd of bison, may have been 200 – 300 in the herd, and they were on both sides of the road and the road. Wow.... sitting on my bike with buffalo behind, ahead and on both sides within feet, I wondered if I may be in trouble, but they paid me or the other cars no mind, and went about their business. Truly a good photo opportunity.
I continued on to the end of the wildlife loop and then turned for Iron Mountain Road. This road was like a thrashing snake. Very twisty, it looped under itself several times and was full of 15 MPH hairpins and lots of elevation changes. Truly fun and somewhat technical road to ride.... and was a good length too. At one point I stopped to take a picture of the road display on my GPS, it was curled and doubling back on itself all over the screen. I don’t think I have seen that much road on the display shown at any time before. It ended on a main road from Rapid City, just 2 miles from Mt Rushmore.... which I did not plan to see again as I had in 2005 visit here. But I thought maybe I would ride up and take a picture from the highway, just to add to the photo album of the trip. I found a turnout and talked with 3 bikers who were also on a long bike trip.... but they had covered a similar distance but all in the lower 48 states. They had left home 4 days before me... and were from somewhere in NY State. One rode a ’06 Sabre like what I have at home... only still bone stock it looked. He was asking about availability of accessories for that model, I assure he would find many. Mine has at least 60 items added from stock.
I headed for Rapid City. I have noticed now the clutch fluid was low, I guess the fluid had finally flowed down to the leak in the slave cylinder or a bubble had made its way up to the handlebar reservoir, either way, the level was low. Clutch has been working fine, but I wanted the level back where it should be. I located a mechanics garage in Rapid City, topped it off, and was underway again.
On a map, I saw a set of roads (Nemo Road) that would take me to Sturgis and through a bunch of canyons along the way. Again, a nice leisurely ride of sweeping bends, a few slower spots and changes of elevation. About an hour later, I rolled into Sturgis, found the main street which certainly was not busy in any way. I located a family restaurant – it was closed at 5 pm... then another also closed. There were a few vendors around and I finally found a biker place open, The Bare Knuckle Saloon... where I had a decent steak dinner and a couple drafts to wash it down. That saloon was full of biker details. Posters from old biker movies, old bikes parked around for props, and I can imagine in 2 weeks that place will be jammed with a waiting line out the door. Back at my bike, a couple guys were looking it over, and one, when asked said didn’t like it (an honest fellow... but I expected that response. Sturgis isn’t known for bikes devoid entirely of chrome and that wear mud like a badge of honour.... lol), the other fellow had plenty of questions about some of the aftermarket parts on it. A bit of chat about Sturgis, and I left to find the road to Deadwood and then back to the campground. A swim and a soak in the hot tub are in order. I have to get away from my tent area, a family with small children and a baby has moved in, and they are making quite the distracting (irritating) disturbance. I wish they had taken a cabin.... or a motel.
Well, 2 hours later, my emails done for the night, a long soak in the hot tub and nice chat with 2 couples, one family from Minneapolis Minnesota area and the other couple from Morden Manitoba, and the baby next door is still crying in the tent. The internet at my site is not working, and everyone around me is asleep or in their tent hiding from the baby cries.
My plan is for an early start, ride the Badlands east to the Interstate and head as fast as possible before the winds start.... hopefully they won’t be stiff. There isn’t any change in terrain until the Minnesota border and even then it starts with corn fields I believe. Into Wisconsin and nicer roads and hopefully a ferry across Lake Michigan in a couple days. Across Michigan and into Ontario at Sarnia for a blast down the highways home. That is the plan... subject to change by the unknown. We will see.

Crazy Horse Memorial - a very interesting place