Day 24 - Leaving Spearfish via the Spearfish Canyon for Rapid City, South Dakota

We started relatively early from where we left off yesterday in Spearfish Canyon, climbing to a pass at about 6,500 feet where we joined the George Mickleson rail trail. Both Spearfish Canyon and the rail trail were fantastic experiences, especially riding on well-groomed dirt with a gentle grade of 3% or less, suitable for trains of old. We managed to cover about 32 miles on the rail trail before returning to the roads leading to the town of Keystone. Keystone is a tourist town close to Mount Rushmore. We racked our bikes and drove to the national monument, enjoying the best ice cream of the trip so far!

Upon returning to Keystone for some late afternoon miles (24 miles was the plan) to reach Rapid City, where we are staying tonight, we discovered that Jim's bike had a flat tire. I'd hate to say it's a trend, but if it weren't for bad luck, Jim's rear tire would have no luck at all! We decided that 60 miles was a good effort for the day, with over 3,200 feet of climbing. Mechanical work completed after arriving at our Airbnb tonight.

The team is tired but continues to push forward each day. Tonight, we worked on optimizing our route through the Badlands to reduce some miles from our overall journey to New York. Over 24 days, we've been maintaining an average of 68 miles per day. We hope to increase this as we move into less mountainous terrain now that the Rockies are behind us!

On to the Badlands tomorrow once we make up our 24 miles to Rapid City!