Last updated on 2012.12.08
(Patience: just like the someday-trail from Kadoka, this story goes somewhere!)
A couple bicyclists from Southern Nazarene University are riding across America this summer, from the Big Apple to Portland, Oregon. See their trip blog here.
They are riding across South Dakota for the next few days. They contacted me Monday via WarmShowers.org about possibly staying here at Lake Herman. I would have been glad to have them, but I noticed that the most direct route would have taken them over the treacherous, bombed-out Highway 34 from the Minnesota–South Dakota border to Interstate 29. Luckily, the riders were still east of Mankato, so they had plenty of time to divert to Highway 14 and avoid a long gravel rumble strip that would have made a bad South Dakota first impression.
The riders chose Brookings over Madison. Still, we had a nice chat on the phone about routes across South Dakota. They're planning to visit friends in the Black Hills. They thought they might take I-90 to Rapid City. Bicycling on the Interstate is perfectly legal in South Dakota, but it's also perfectly dreadful. (Remember yesterday's wind? Try balancing a bike loaded with gear in that wind with semis roaring by at 80 mph.) I told the bikers to look for old Highway 16, that wonderful stretch of pavement paralleling I-90 from Reliance to Kadoka. I met two guys who bicycled from Chadron to Madison this May who took that road and said they rode two abreast and had it almost entirely to themselves all day.
But what about from Kadoka west to Rapid City? They were still thinking I-90, but I told them if they wanted a calmer road, they could consider Highway 44. Fewer rest stops, and you miss Wall Drug, but you also get a stunning view of the Badlands. My family drove Highway 44 from Rapid to Interior this spring, and it was thrilling, like driving on Mars just slightly terraformed. I guaranteed the cyclists they'd see terrain on Highway 44 like nothing else on their cross-country route.
You can thus understand my excitement to read that my favorite government agency, the South Dakota Game Fish & Parks, is working with the Department of Transportation to get public input on a rails-to-trails project between Kadoka and Rapid City. The trail would follow the old Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad line, 104 miles, through the Badlands, Interior, Scenic, and Caputa, as well as old rail ghost towns Weta, Conata, and Imlay. The trail would run by the Rapid City airport, then link up with the Rapid City trail system, which would take riders all the way to Canyon Lake Park.
What a stunning ride that would be! The wild and spooky spires of the Badlands, the Cheyenne River valley, the Black Hills looming, growing on the horizon... that's a tourism jackpot... if we can just make sure the Tatanka Trading Post carries Tanka Bars and spare bike tubes!
I would totally take this ride. We could drive out to spend a leisurely day in the Badlands and spend the night stargazing there. Then my wife could drop me at a trailhead with my bike. She could drive on to Rapid City for coffee and books, and I could catch up with her there after a day of rolling up a hundred beautiful miles on the old rail bed.
The West River Trail Coalition has a great FAQs page on the Kadoka–Rapid City trail proposal. Check it out. Then send our state officials your thoughts on the trail. SD-DOT wants more input on this project: email Paula Huizenga at paula.huizenga@state.sd.us or mail comments to Paula Huizenga, Local Transportation Programs, 700 E. Broadway Ave., Pierre, SD 57501.
Bonus Bicycle Boosterism: My friend Leo sends me an article reporting that Americans who live in places with higher percentages of bicycle commuters are richer, better-educated, more fit, more creative, and happier. Pedal pedal pedal!
Update 2011.06.29 08:28 CDT: One opponent of the trail frets that the Kadoka&nash;Rapid City trail would "ruin our way of life." Outdoorsman Kevin Woster dismisses this anonymous hyperbole:
That seems, well, like a wild exaggeration of the potential problems that, well, sort of hurts the credibility of the commentator — whomever it was.
In truth, like most rails-to-trails projects, I'm pretty sure this one would only enhance the lives of people in this area, and visitors as well. And it's unlikely it would pose grave problems for adjoining landowners. There would be problems, as there have been elsewhere. But it's unlikely anybody's way of life would be ruined [Kevin Woster, "Seriously, ruining a way of life? With a trail?" Take It Outside, 2011.06.28].
Any idea why they are stopping at Kadoka, Cory? Old blue highway 16 has an awe-inspiring view of the White River east of Okaton. Cyclo-tourists use it a bunch in the summer but it ends at Cactus Flat and at Wicksville.
Good question, Larry! I didn't see an answer to that on the WRTC FAQs page. Where does the rail line run east of Kadoka? I need to go see that view east of Okaton!
It parallels old 16 to Oacoma if memory serves.
But as you say, old 16 becomes mud at Reliance.
"Americans who live in places with higher percentages of bicycle commuters are richer, better-educated, more fit, more creative, and happier."
Let's suppose that the foregoing statement is true. (Just because someone says so doesn't make it so.) Is there cause and effect, then? If so, how might it work?
(I suspect, by the way, that the statement as written is in fact true.)
I wish there were cause and effect! The data cited in the report I link establish no such causality, though, only correlation. I could see it going the other way:
---People may choose to ride a bike more because they are richer and have more leisure time.
---More creative people may feel more comfortable being different and thus not mind defying convention and riding bicycle amidst lots of cars.
---Happier people could be more inclined to exercise (I find it harder to get excited about a bike ride when I'm grouchy).
But I can postulate ways biking coud influence all of those stated factors:
---Riding bike saves money, making you richer.
---Riding bike improves blood flow to the brain, helping you learn more. You also learn more trying to fix your bike!
---Riding bike quite obviously makes you more fit.
---Riding bike stimulates creativity as you figure out new ways to lock up your bike, new time-saving routes, and new ways to keep your computer safe from bumps while riding (yes, I'm stretching).
---Riding bike always makes me happier. I'm out in the open, traveling under my own power, not separated from my fellow man and the environment, more in tune with the world.