On the Road Again

After three weeks on the Alaska Maritime Highway System (ferry), Dee and Cal are on the road again, starting out with a bang, riding 91 miles to Terrace, BC. They are on BC-16, which is part of the Yellowhead route of the Trans-Canada Highway.

The Inside Passage

Links: Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS, Inside Passage)

Yellowhead Highway Corridor

Once again the trikers find themselves following an historic road, the Yellowhead travel corridor. Originally, it was the secret trail to the fur cache of its namesake, the golden locked, Iroquois Métis guide known as “Tête Jaune.” Tête Jaune, (literally translated as “Yellow Head”) guided for both of Canada's greatest business rivals, the Hudson Bay Company and North West Company, the foremost fur traders of the world. In 1825, Tête Jaune led the Hudson Bay Company's chief trader, James McMillan, through the pass that still bears his nickname—Yellowhead.

It is my understanding that Dee and Cal will leave the Yellowhead Highway before it reaches the Yellowhead Pass, but it appears that they may come back through it on the return leg.

The Dakota Hogback

Back to plan A. The Mickelson Trail was a great idea, but Dee and Cal received an email this morning from the S.D. Department of Parks indicating that the majority of the trail is still snow covered, so they will be going to Rapid City after all (presumably via SD 79). I am still curious about their route from here to Belle Forche, but apparently there is only 8 miles on I-90 and the highway patrol has blessed this.

Maybe the rest of this entry should wait until Dee and Cal are actually in Rapid City, but since it is on my mind, I will go ahead post it now. When I was looking at the Terrain view on the Google map this morning, I zoomed in close on Rapid City. The interesting thing about this is that the city is cut in two by a ridge of mountains. This ridge is called the Dakota Hogback. There is a break in the hogback on the north end, through which Rapid Creek runs. The ridge takes its name from the Dakota Formation, a sandstone formation that underlies the ridge. The Dakota Hogback also goes past Hot Springs, which accounts for all the sandstone buildings.

Then zooming back out, it is also fascinating to see how the Black Hills stand apart from the Rocky Mountains like an island of mountains and trees in a sea of prairie.

George S. Mickelson Trail

As a rule, in this blog, I try to resist anticipating where the trikers will stop each day and how they will get there, but half the fun of travel is planning the trip, and half the vicarious fun for me is researching the road ahead. I had been wondering, therefore, how Dee and Cal would ride from Hot Springs, SD to Williston, ND, or rather, how they planned to get to Belle Fourche, since north of I-90, US 85 would appear the only route.

Vertical Feet

Route	385	79
min	3255	3146
max	5873	3652
ascent	3507	1411
descent	3678	1608

From Hot Springs to Spearfish, however, the quandary was this. US 385, winding around the west of Custer State Park, is steep, with grades of up to 4% in places, maybe more. The vertical climb is 3500 ft. The alternative route is SD-79, which runs along the east side of Custer Park and is relatively flat and straight. There are a few grades of 2%, but most are 1% or less. This is not readily apparent from the road map, but if you click on the Terrain button in the upper right-hand corner of the Google map, it becomes obvious. SD-79 is also the shorter route to Rapid City, but I had thought they might want to bypass the city because it appears to me that the only direct route from Rapid City to Spearfish is I-90, not so great for trikes. Nonetheless, when Dee mentioned stopping in Rapid City for supplies, I assumed they would take 79, and then I would just have to wait and see how they would get to US 85.

Last night, however, I received an email from Dee saying that they have changed their itinerary, which I take as permission to share it here. They are no longer going through Rapid City, having found a "rails to trails" bike trail called the George S. Mickelson Trail (map). It starts in Edgemont and ends in Deadwood (109 miles). They will pick it up at Minnekahta Junction just west of Hot Springs. It follows the route of an abandoned railroad branch line constructed by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in 1890-91 and last operated by the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1983. Therefore, even though there is still a pretty good climb, its slopes are much more gentle than US 385. It sounds marvelous. Dee says that they plan to sight see in Hot Springs all day Wednesday and leave for the bike trail Thursday, weather permitting.

Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway

From Hazard, Dee and Cal have started northwest on NE-2, the Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway, stopping tonight in Broken Bow. By the time they reach Alliance, our trikers will have climbed nearly 2000 ft in about 230 miles.

Incidentally, I have added yet another gadget at right. In the Gmaps-Pedometer you can click on the "elevation: large" link on the left-hand side to calculate a graph of elevation change over the distance.

The Highway List

This morning while researching the Lincoln Highway and US Route 36, I discovered a fascinating resource (at least to people like me who are easily fascinated by such things). It turns out that Wikipedia has descriptions of all the US numbered highways as well as many of the state highways (KS | NE). So I decided to create another "gadget" on the right side of this page with a list of highways (and their links) that Dee and Cal have traveled. Several caveates. First, I have had to guess in a few places. For example, I assumed they took K-18 from Lincoln instead of going north to US 24 at Beloit, and I assumed they took US 136 west from Red Cloud. Second, some highways run together for a stretch, like K-181 and US 281. Third, there may be back roads or side roads that I miss. Finally, let me say that I will do my best to resist the temptation to anticipate their route, but instead wait for Dee and Cal to report their progress.

The Platte River Valley

It is fitting that when the rain stops and Cal and Dee resume their ride, they will be entering one of the most important travel corridors in our nation's history, the Platte River Valley. Although the river is too shallow to support water navigation, its wide, flat valley invited travel by natives for centuries before Europeans came to the continent. In the 1700's, French fur traders followed the river, opening up much of the west. The name "Platte" is the French word for flat. As settlers began emigrating west, the Platte River Valley formed a crucial part of the Oregon and Mormon Trails, as well as the Pony Express route. The Union Pacific portion of the first transcontinental railroad came through the Platte River Valley. The first road across the United States, the Lincoln Highway, came through this same region, and the first fully paved highway across the country, US Route 30, followed the Lincoln Highway. Finally, the second longest Interstate in the country, I-80, closely parallels (but does not overlay) US 30 here.