Good Ride in Badlands

Monday, July 22, 2013
Day 16 - Rapid City, SD to Murdo, SD
148 miles
3,351 feet of climbing

Today was one of the longest mileage days of our Tour.  Because of the long day, we had an early start time of 6:30 a.m.  The forecast called for another beautiful and sunny day, but we would be facing a quartering headwind for the day.  Heading out of Rapid City, we were moving along at a "rapid" pace, until Art got a flat tire at mile 10.  It was a pretty ride through some very remote parts of South Dakota.  We rode through Badlands National Park, which provided awesome views of the landscape, which changed as we rode further.  After lunch at mile 77, we had a short but spectacular climb up Cedar Pass. I'm bummed because almost all of my pictures came out blurry today for some reason - I'm still trying to figure out why.  We were pretty toasted when we rolled in to Murdo just before 5 p.m. - and then lost an hour because we had a time zone change from Mountain to Central.  So, basically, it's an hour later tonight than it was this morning.  What does this mean?  It means I better get my butt to bed because we have another long day of riding tomorrow - 145 miles to Mitchell, South Dakota.

PAC Tour hosted an ice cream social tonight for us to celebrate the "half way" point of our Tour.  Today was a long day, but a great day.  I'm thrilled that my achilles tendon is feeling better -it didn't give me any pain today, even after 148 miles!

The elevation profile of today's route

A dinosaur in Badlands

Me "helping" Art change his tire

Art in Badlands

On the climb up to Cedar Pass

Art climbing

We made it!

Fellow rider, Caelan (age 16) with one of the many grasshoppers we encountered as we headed toward Murdo