This blog post is being published as part of the Birthday Series to my grandmother, Marie Babb, who turned 91 on May 14, 2020. She has been the most devoted reader a grandson could ask for. Owing to the express -- and of course very polite -- observation that I "hadn't written in a while," I have written accounts of my past adventures for her birthday. Happy (Belated/Preemptive) Birthday, Grandma!
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This is the third story in a series about my 2019 summer road trip to South Dakota. The first story can be found here and the second story can be found here.
The third and final story picks up where the second left off: meeting a fellow bicycle tourer named Randy who was also staying over at Andy's place in Spearfish. Randy had a few years on me age wise, but lacked none of the get-up-and-go enthusiasm of being on a bicycle tour. In fact, launching out of his base in Seattle, he has annually ridden to Michigan (a half Trans-America) and taken the same route each time, staying over with old hosting friends. Andy is one of them.
Randy, Andy, and I were overlapping for one night together, but Randy had run into troubles out near Devils Tower in Wyoming. It had to do with his bike frame, it was beginning to splinter and this is basically a no-win solution. A lot of things on a bike can be replaced, altered, or duct taped together to make things work, but the frame is quite literally the bike. If the frame is breaking down, cracking, or bent out of shape, the only real solution is to get another bike. That Randy's frame was breaking was fitting into this picture of him as a grizzled man who didn't do things the way everyone else does or expects. It's not even that he does it out of avarice or a "I'll show them" mentality -- it's just, Randy. While some tourers drop thousands of dollars on 'all the right gear' -- the gear that gets advertised to us or told is top-notch -- Randy rides a bike with gear he finds around his house. The bike he was riding wasn't the supremo, expensivo bike model that others ride. It was just a bike.
Marooned now in Spearfish, SD, Randy began to reach out to his friends in Colorado who could host him and get him to the train terminal to ride back home. While he was planning this, I was thinking of how I could offer my own hospitality back to Andy who had done so much for me.
Andy had been exceedingly generous, hosting me twice in the last week, and now Randy whose tour was also cut short, troubleshooting how to get me home after my swollen ankle, phone-treeing his friends around the area to arrange a carpool, and asking nothing in return. He had also cooked meals and kept a bright cheeriness while doing it all. I thought the only way I could express gratitude was to offer to cook dinner for our group of four: Andy, his roommate Tamara, Randy, and myself, and decided on a shrimp etouffee.
With great weather the four of us dined outside on the picnic table and swapped stories of bike travel. Randy had a storybook full of em and we were all happy to hear of his other close calls on a tour, his dumb mistakes, and some of his wisdom. He also shared that a friend in Colorado would be willing to get Randy from a place halfway between us and them. I didn't have much to do the next day anyway, and with a car and bike rack I thought I could certainly be of help. So, I offered to drive Randy the three-ish hours to Guernsey, Wyoming. There we'd meet his friend at the gas station in town and say our goodbyes.
We woke up early, loaded the car, and started driving. We started on I-90 West, got off at Sundance, and then started down Route 585 towards Four Corners, Wyoming. The sky was vast, larger than I'd ever seen it. We were yapping away, talking about books that influenced us, travels that changed us, and plans for the future. Here I was driving a guy around Wyoming who I didn't even know 24 hours prior, and we were having a great time.
We stopped for lunch at a small diner at the intersection of two highways. It was called the 3 Sisters Truck Stop. Portions were generous, prices were low, and the restaurant was empty save for us. Back in the car, Randy was struck that I hadn't read The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho. It's a tale about self-discovery, of journeying, an allegorical novel that is well-read in the intrepid travelers' community. He told me about this tale, stories of Herman Hesse, and outdoorsy tales of adventure. I was trying to make some mental notes of books to add to my reading list.
Before we knew it we were in Guernsey, pulling into the gas station to the waving hand of a friend. We swapped pleasantries and handshakes and Randy and I exchanged phone numbers to stay in touch. It was a fast day of getting to know someone and then saying goodbye, but with Randy, I'm not certain you ever lose touch. We'll criss-cross paths again one day.
Having said goodbye to Randy and turning to drive back to South Dakota, the last leg of the trip was upon me -- my friend Aaron was arriving at the Rapid City airport at 8pm, his brother Matt 24 hours after that, and for five days we would be rock climbing together near Mt. Rushmore. Let me spend a few paragraphs describing Matt and Aaron and how we got to going on this trip together. I'll try to keep it brief (fat chance).
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| From left: Matt and Aaron |
Matt, Aaron, and I go way back, all the way to elementary school in fact. Matt and I are the same age, Aaron's a few years older than us, and both of our families went to the same church growing up. I was better friends with Matt, what with always being in the same Sunday school class for years and even being in the same confirmation break-out group. As kids at church, we used to do so much together. I remember Matt and I enjoyed playing games like volleyball and four square during Youth Group, the Sunday night get-together for middle and high schoolers. Looking back, I relish the comradery of those years as kids, running around and being part of a vibrant church community. Matt and I never went to the same school, we were really just 'Sunday friends.' In fact, Matt and I went to what would be considered rival middle and high schools: I was in the magnet program and Matt was in the gifted and talented program which were housed at different public schools. Interestingly, my good friend from middle school, Billy, switched to the G&T high school and instantly became friends with Matt (without my help), kind of going to show how Matt and I would be friends if we were at the same school. And then Matt's friend Miranda from middle school came to the magnet high school and we became friends. Our friends intermeshed and, though we were going to church less often in high school, we kept our connection going through soccer games when we would play one another.
There's a lot of great stories about Matt from those years, I can't possibly write it all here. But as we grew older we started to, naturally, wander away from church, the youth group activities, etc. Through the high school years we were doing our own things and even as we entered college at LSU we stayed on our own tracks. Though one day I was at the gym in the little bouldering area (the small room where the rock climbers congregated and trained) when Matt and Aaron walk in. Somehow, after these years of friendship, the ebbs and the flows, we were both pulled back together through rock climbing. We were basically all novices getting our feet wet, but over time Matt and Aaron got semi-serious about it, going on trips as far away as Alabama and northwest Arkansas. Like our days before, Matt and I became 'gym friends' expecting to see one another at the climbing wall and catching up there.
We stayed in touch over the years, and Matt invited me to his wedding in 2018 down near Tampa. A few months later in April, by chance, I had a layover in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where Matt and his wife Tetiana, now lived. What was supposed to be a short half-night layover became a three day trip soaking in the area, going paddle boarding, rock climbing at their local gym, and relaxing. The idea came to us then that we should really plan a climbing trip, stop leaving things up to chance! With Matt working full time, Tetiana finishing her dissertation, and my starting graduate school in August, there seemed to be a slim possibility. We kept the idea on the backburner.
Rewind to my first post in this series and you'll see that the climbing portion of the trip naturally evolved out of the idea of doing a bike tour in the area. I looked at the website Mountain Project to see if there was climbing in the area and sure enough there was, about one mile behind Mt. Rushmore National Memorial.
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| About a mile down the road from here is the entrance to the Wrinkled Rock campground, a free campsite for travelers |
I texted Matt and Aaron to see if the dates could work for them, that if they were able to get to the Rapid City airport I would be able to pick them up (no need for car rental), that I had a tent to use (no need to lug a bunch of gear), that there was a free campground at Wrinkled Rock behind Mt. Rushmore (Matt found it using freecampsites.org) and that we could keep costs down by making our own food on my camping stove. Keeping costs down as much as possible, the only hurdle was time off work. Luckily, it worked out and so set up our great trip.
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| Belay station of our first climb: rope at the ready, Aaron's harness is on. Getting the climbing shoes now |
Aaron got in 24 hours earlier than Matt, so we decided we'd start the day warming up on a few routes. If they were good we'd make a note of it and come back again. If not, we'd tick them off our list and move on. Given that we were just looking to have some fun on Day 1, we climbed in the 5.6 -5.7 range.
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| Looking up at our first ascent of the day: Second Hand Rose Arete |
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| Aaron coming down after a great lead climb |
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| My view as I climb up the route. Just follow the rope and grab the biners |
The three pictures above are all from the same climb. When we first walk up to the route we want to climb, of course, there is nothing there except for bolts spaced out every 7-10 feet (picture above, if you can make it out). The first climber is what's called the leader. They climb upwards and bring the rope, which is in a pile at the ground, up with them, along with gear we call quick draws. These are a pair of carabiners connected by a strong tether. One carabiner locks into the bolt on the wall, the other carabiner is what the rope goes through. This is the safety process of rock climbing! When the leader climbs, all of the rope is below them, blank rock above. As they climb they lock the carabiners on the bolts and pass the rope, which is attached to their harness, through the carabiner (or biner for short), which creates the point-of-contact should a climber a fall.
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| Matt's first climb of the trip with Aaron belaying |
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| Among the large granite outcrops of rock are nice little fields, shaded from the beating Sun |
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| Matt, the tiny speck at the top edge, getting ready to come back down to Earth |
Our days were filled with climbing. Wake up, prepare breakfast, decide which sector we want to climb, talk about how we're feeling strength wise and if we have any goals, get the gear, and set out. Occasionally we'll run into another climbing pair either in the parking lot or out near the rocks. We meet one couple, Jesse and Gabriel, who have arrived in from Hawai'i and are road tripping from San Francisco to Wisconsin, climbing and camping along the way.
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| You don't see these license plates every day |
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| Aaron getting the rope ready to climb |
Matt was our designated lead climber: strong, cool under pressure, experienced and safe. I wasn't feeling as comfortable in my leading ability on this trip but I was more than happy to offer the belay to either Matt or Aaron. The five days we spent climbing went off without a hitch: no inclement weather, no physical injuries (except for some bloody fingertips - normal!), no lost or broken gear, no animal encounters, nothin. It was a straightforward, relaxed climbing trip with great company. We had our fair share of inside jokes, ranked the flavors of our various Pop Tarts, and slept well. Below are more pictures from the trip.
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| Matt finishing the route Baba Cool |
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| Okay, we did have one caveat! We were climbing a rough route that produced a fair bit of rope drag. As the belayer (me) pulled more slack I was inadvertently severing the mantle, or sheath. Lucky for us this was not catastrophic but could have been much worse |
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| Matt leading the route Kiss my Aspen, a mostly blank face |
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| Me, I think, topping out |
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| Aaron and I preparing to climb and belay |
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| Aaron making some progress on Baba Cool |
When it was all said and done I dropped Aaron and Matt off at the Rapid City airport and headed back east, retracing my stopovers from the drive in. I spent nearly a week with buds from home, putting my overall trip close to three weeks since I left DC. The trip was coming to an end but in a fulfilling way. I wasn't sorry to be leaving so much as I was happy that it had occurred. I had made good on my first multiday bike tour, flexed a little bit to climb, met wonderful people along the way, and visited new vistas, new horizons that had long been part of my imagination. After three days of driving, I returned home to unwind, volunteer at church, and prepare for my move to Princeton, NJ two weeks later, where I would be moving for two years as I studied for a Masters degree.
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| View from the top. One of the many reasons to climb -- how else ya gonna get that view? |
