August 17, 2021
Mad Dogs and Englishmen
Day 1
Had originally planned to begin riding on 8/18 but the weather forecast called for a change in plans. New plan was to ride Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday taking Thursday as a rain day. Knew today would be HOT with forecast for low 90's. Figured I would start early and beat the heat. Instead of riding end to end, I decided to do a bit of a flip flop...start5 miles north of Custer on day one riding south to Edgemont taking advantage of the terrain. Beautiful start...64 degrees under a wonderful canopy. Should have suspected that would not last. The last 25 miles had little to no shade and it was getting awfully HOT. By the time I pulled into Edgemont I was absolutely spent. I had planned on 4.5 hours to cover 50 miles with some time for a couple of short breaks. The reality...more like 5.5 hours. The forecast was correct...it did get HOT...but no one mentioned Edgemont would be triple digits. We checked our phones, the outside temp. from the truck and, for good measure, the local bartender...anywhere from 102 to 106!!
I had planned to begin riding north from where I started today with a goal of finishing on Friday with a short 17 mile day. After today, I am retooling tomorrow's ride with some additional flip flopping and finishing on Friday which now appears to be a rainy day...but way cooler!
Today's ride: 51 miles (82 km)
Total: 1,119 miles (1,801 km)
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2 years ago