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Greetings Riders,

Last week I left you after our visit to Mt. Rushmore. If you missed that newsletter and photos, Click Here to get caught up. The Mt. Rushmore visit was very special to me but we still had a lot more to see on our trip to the Sturgis area. One of the areas I had always heard about was the Ride through Custer State Park, particularly Iron Mountain Rd. and Needles Highway. I had seen a few pictures of the area, but really didn't know what to expect. We started out through the dense forest of the park and soon came upon our first of the pigtail bridges. These are really unique as you ride under the bridge and then circle around and come back on top of the road. It is a really cool sight to see all of the bikes wrapping around these bridges.

It wasn't long until we were heading directly into one of the 6 narrow tunnels that we would go through on our journey through Custer Park. These tunnels are amazingly narrow and small measuring as little as 8 feet 7 inches in width and 10 feet 10 inches tall. Not a place to go cruising with your motorhome, but motorcycles fit just fine and there were thousands of them cruising through the park throughout the day. The tunnel that I had been waiting for was the one with Mt. Rushmore looking directly into the tunnel as you go through. Fortunately we were going the right direction to see take advantage of the tunnel framing Rushmore. I was both surprised and amazed by the beauty of this visual as we rode through the tunnel. It is almost as if they trim the trees to give you this view of the monument.

As usual, wildlife wasn't nearly as plentiful as we had hoped, but we did ride by some friendly burros and a couple of goats or sheep on the road. We continued our ride through the park by following 16A to Hwy. 87 which is also known as Needles Highway. This was a beautiful ride as it took us through the forest and the rock spires that provide the namesake for "Needles" Highway. These rock formations are kind of a cross between the boulders we would see in Carefree and the Hoo Doos in Bryce Canyon. Whatever you want to call them, in your own mind you can almost see faces or images in some of these rocks. See what you can come up with. This 14 miles of road was labeled impossible to build in 1919, but Governor Norbeck provided the 150,000 pounds of dynamite and the determination to construct the roadway.

The ride on Needles took us through 3 more narrow tunnels ending with the one near Sylvan Lake that was a tourist attraction and the home of the "Needles Eye". A 40 foot tall rock with a 3 foot slit in it that resembles a giant needle. As we rode through this tunnel there were bikes parked everywhere watching the cars and bikes fit through this extremely narrow tunnel of only 8 feet wide. This entire loop is a must see when going to the Black Hills area.

We were then onto Sylvan Lake for a photo op and some water before making our way back to Sturgis. As with any mountain roads, you have to pay attention to the curves. This guy must have taken his eye off of the road for just a second and ended up down the hill.

Next we were leaving the serenity of the Black Hills for the mayhem of downtown Sturgis. One thing you will find out about downtown Sturgis is that there are not enough roadways into and out of the area. There are only 2 exits off of the freeway to reach Sturgis and they are both gridlock. If you go in the middle of the day it can easily take you 30 minutes of walking your bike to reach the downtown area. And when you do, there are thousands of bikes parked on the main street as well as everywhere else that you can find a place to park one. Stores that are normally something else throughout the year are converted to vendors from everything from T-Shirts shops to Tattoo Parlors.

There are plenty of places to eat and drink, but we made our stop that night at One Eyed Jack's for dinner and to meet some friends from Phoenix that are regulars at Sturgis. This is one amazing place. I have never seen so many bikes, vendors and people in one little place like this before. We did ride by and take some pictures of some of the places that we had heard about such as The Broken Spoke, The Full Throttle Saloon, Thunder Road, The Knuckle Saloon, Sturgis Harley-Davidson and of course the climb up the ladder for the typical shot of the Main Street of Sturgis. The local authorities must have really put a stop to a lot of the stories that we had heard of Sturgis, because we didn't see anything remotely close to the stories that have been told of past experiences. I guess those activities are confined to the campgrounds now.

Our last day in Sturgis was spent just taking it easy around the area. We rode to Spearfish to ride with the Hamsters and the Discovery Channel to the Legends 50 location where the finale of the Biker Build-off between Ron Perowitz and our own Paul Yaffe would be voted on and filmed. Both were great bikes, but you will have to wait for the show to air to see who won.

As I have stated before, this trip was supposed to be full of wildlife from Banff to the Black Hills. We saw bear signs, elk signs, etc. all across this West, but rarely did we see anything. So we figured that our best opportunity to see wildlife was to go to Bear Country in Rapid City and take the V-Rod bus right next to the wildlife. Well, we finally got to see our bears up close and personal, as well as some mountain goats and sheep as well. There are several photos of these in the gallery.

This year rain was not an "if" proposition, it was a "when" you were going to get drenched. We were on our way to see Spearfish when our drenching was about to happen. We had heard from another rider that there was a storm brewing with hail and heavy rain. It looked like we could go around it, but that wasn't to be the case. We soon found out that the rider we talked to had a very accurate weather report. It rained and hailed so hard that we had to seek shelter with about 200 other riders at the information center for the Pactola Reservoir. As we continued our trip when the rain let up, it had hailed so much down the road that it looked like snow. But it is all part of the thrill of traveling on a motorcycle and we got to meet some new friends along the way.

Later that night we were invited to the Hamster dinner with Myron Larabee, a long time Hamster and owner of the Billet Bar in Scottsdale. I had heard a lot about the Hamsters and seen the special on these guys on the Discovery Channel and was anxious to see this group in action. The Hamsters are a bunch of regulars guys that have been together for over 30 years and meet once per year in Sturgis. The criteria is that you have to be invited to join the group and you have to ride a custom motorcycle to Sturgis. These are a great bunch of fun loving guys. What I didn't know about them was that they are also very giving. They raised over $40,000 in an auction at the dinner that night for their Children's Charity. It was great seeing some of the names in the motorcycle industry in person as well as a special night for the Arlen Ness family as Cory Ness's son was inducted as a Hamster to make 3 generations of Ness's in the group. Thanks to Myron for inviting us to the dinner.

Our time in the Sturgis area during the Rally was great. We enjoyed seeing all of the sites including Deadwood, Sturgis, Mt. Rushmore and the riding in the Custer State Park area. If you haven't made it to this area yet, you should put it on your list of things to do. You will not be disappointed. We were there at the very start of the Rally on a Friday. That seems to be a good time to go as you will miss the massive crowds.

This concludes the report on our Banff to Sturgis Ride 2006. I will soon be compiling this in one easily accessible area that you can refer to again and share with your friends. Hope you will be able to get out and share some of these same roads in the future. Thanks for riding along with us. If you are not currently receiving the Cyclerides.com Newsletter, Click Here to sign up.

Click Here for Photo Gallery
Click Here for Riding Map of the Black Hills

Useful Links:
http://www.byways.org/browse/byways/2459/places/index.html?page=1
http://www.blackhillstouristinfo.com/drives.htm
Needles Highway
http://www.blackhillsbadlands.com/go.asp?ID=161