This is me after a steep rocky descent on the “easy” route for today. Most of today’s riding was easy gravel. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I woke up early, left my wonderful campsite in the Badlands (I’ll have to remember that one), and hopped on I-90. While the speed limit is 80, I set the cruise to 65. There’s so little traffic out here that I didn’t hold anyone up at all. I stopped in Rapid City for supplies. It took over 15 minutes and multiple pages to get someone from Walmart’s automotive department to unlock a locked cabinet so I could get a $3 package of ring terminals to fix my electrical connections properly. From there, it was a short drive to Sturgis and the Buffalo Chip, a drive I’ve actually done before when I was here in 2019. This time I was in my home on wheels instead of a rented Lincoln MKZ.
I checked in and got parked in the RV camping area. Unlike Overland Expo I don’t even have to detach the trailer and park next to it. I have a nice chunk of land to call my own for the next few days. I even set up the awning for a little shade.
I took the morning to get the lay of the land, visit vendors, and so on. My swag bag included a $25 gift certificate to Revzilla during the event, so I put that to good use buying a set of saddlebags. I’ve been wanting some since I got this bike, since they’re so handy for small grocery runs when I have the van all set up at camp. I may or may not use them all the time. I’m not sure yet.
After lunch, I decided to take myself on the “easy” ride for today. All of the rides at this event are self-guided using the Rever app. I haven’t had great luck with it before, and had trouble getting it to work with a few false starts. Fortunately, Rever has a tent in the vendor area, and they got it straightened out for me. Turn-by-turn directions don’t work for these routes, so I have to follow a track on the screen instead. The route promised a good mix of pavement and easy dirt, with a couple of double-track sections to spice things up a bit. This sounded like something I could handle.
It was a blast zooming down Vanocker Canyon Road out of Sturgis. This was on my list of must-ride routes in my RideApart article. But before long I diverted onto well-maintained dirt roads. These were a lot of fun, and what my bike is set up for. After a while, I had that short rocky downhill. I got through it okay, certainly the most serious dirt riding I’d done on the V-Strom up to that point. It was good to know I could do it, but I was happy to be back on smooth gravel.
That continued for quite a while. I rode some National Forest fire roads, which is exactly what I loved to do on my KLR. The V-Strom handled them just as well as I’d hoped, except I have to be careful with the throttle. This bike has a lot more power, and can spin the back wheel easily if I’m not careful.
Later the track turned onto more double-track. I was in first or second gear. It was tricky, but nothing I couldn’t handle, mostly. There was an extremely rocky water crossing I managed to bounce across, then stopped for a drink where a group was also stopped. When I turned my bike, and therefore my Apple CarPlay unit, off and on again, Rever refused to display the track on my screen. It was on my phone, but not the CarPlay display, no matter how many times I restarted both. Fortunately, the group I’d caught up to was happy to have me join them.
Before long, one of the less experienced riders took a hard tumble. It was an off-camber section, and he fell over and rolled several times downhill. It was awful to watch, and worse knowing that I had to keep riding past him until I could find a safe, level place to stop, or suffer the same fate. He got up and was walking and talking, but in pain. He suspected he might have cracked a rib. But we still had to get off the trail, so we all helped pick up his BMW, then slowly led the way off the trail. At this point, his goal was to get back to pavement, then back to the Buffalo Chip, or to a hospital. Fortunately, my offline maps in Sygic allowed me to plot a paved direct route despite having no cell service. (Thanks, Dad — your suggestion really came in handy here.)
I have no pictures from this point on, because the priority was helping the guy who got hurt get to help, so please forgive this wall of text. We followed the official route back to pavement and US 385. The rider who had been leading us wanted to finish the route. It was getting late — this was NOT a three-hour tour like the app said — so I was happy to accompany our hurt rider back to the Buffalo Chip. The fourth rider, his brother, came with us as well. The guy who continued on only did so because he knew the rest of us were going to be okay, and had each other’s backs. They had the route, but asked me to lead. It’s easier to follow a moving target than to have to think about navigation yourself, and at this point the pain was certainly distracting him a bit. His brother brought up the rear, keeping an eye on him the whole way.
We had a beautiful ride all the way back to Deadwood. By pure luck, we rode right by a hospital, so they decided to stop and get him checked out there. I returned to the Buffalo Chip alone, to an upset Lister with a late dinner. I still only got to ride half of that route, but what I rode was both fun and challenging. Based on what I saw today, though, I don’t think I’ll venture out alone again. I don’t mind easy dirt roads on my own, but it’s good to have help if something happens on more challenging terrain. Keep in mind, this was the EASY route.
I met several YouTubers I know, either personally or just from their videos, at the rider’s meeting. Jess, a.k.a. Her Two Wheels, wanted to know how the “easy” route was. Amanda Zito was there with her brother, Gary, who also rides a V-Strom. I had a good chat with Spite, and met Jake the Garden Snake, who I’ve followed for years. I’m beyond getting star-struck. I just enjoy meeting people whose work I enjoy. Dinner was quite tasty, and then I returned to camp to give Lister some outside time.
I got chatting with my new neighbor a bit. Among other things, it turns out we’re both interested in trying tomorrow’s easy route, which says nothing about any challenging sections the way today’s route did. It’s 171 miles long and is supposed to take five hours, but tomorrow’s high temperatures are supposed to barely hit 80, so Lister will be fine inside the van as long as I leave it well ventilated. The event makes it easy to meet people who want to ride the same route as you and form groups, but it looks like I’ve already found a riding buddy in my next-door neighbor. He’s on a full-size BMW GS of some kind, so it’s not like I’ll be trying to keep up with people on street-legal dirt bikes.
It’s been a long day, but it’s been fun, if a little more adventurous than I’d planned on. While I regret not finishing the route, helping the guy who fell was the right thing to do. I recall the last route I didn’t finish, three years ago, when the guy who fell and got hurt was me. Everybody stopped and was amazingly helpful. So this time, it was my turn. It’s just what you do.
Smokey Da Van 