It’s 5am, the sun is just starting to come up and I’m leaving. At the front desk of the motel I ask the clerk if she knows where Hwy. 308 is. She stares at me like I just asked her for the molecular weight of plutonium and then adds “is that a road?” I could pursue this, and it would have been fun, but the sun would have gone down before I made any progress. It turns out that Hwy. 308 is within walking distance of the motel. By ‘walking distance’ I mean that it would take you all of 30 seconds and that’s if you stopped to tie your shoe along the way. It’s essentially across the road and over a bridge. There’s even a huge sign. The only logical explanation I can come up with is that she’s a vampire and can’t cross water.

 

Glad to leave with all my red blood cells intact, I’m not sure what to expect. My best guess is that the day will be fairly level with some nice curves. As I leave Red Lodge that appears to be the case with a mountain range at my back and altitudes decreasing with each mile. Then I pass through the Big Horn Grasslands and come to Hwy. 14a. Holy cow! The road has the steepest climb of any road I can remember in the continental US. Nothing short of some roads in Mexico comes close to this climb. The green valley is fading in the distance, at least that’s how it looks when I’m not concentrating on the road. The time of day is perfect for this ride and is the day of the week. Not too many people are stirring this time on a Sunday morning.
 

The one person who is stirring is a Lakota tribe woman in a mini-van looking for a medicine circle. As I’m pulled along the side of the road staring at the scenery, she asks if I know the location. With the GPS it’s easy and within seconds I tell her exactly where it is. She appears to have all her worldly possessions in the van, which also looks like it’s never had an interior cleaning.

 

The medicine wheel is large and is the reason the mountain has its name. The scenery from the top of the mountain is fantastic and the drop-off is a solid mile. It’s darn cold and air is in short supply, but the view makes me forget those problems and I spend too much time staring at the scenery. Two guys get out of a truck, put on back packs and walk out into a high meadow. Who knows where they’re headed, but look like they’ve done this everyday for their entire life.
 

 

It turns out that this is part of the national grassland. In the summer sheep graze at the higher elevations and cattle graze at lower elevations. None are around today.
 


 

14a turns into 14 and starts to work its way down the mountain. I’m above the cloud line and run through a cloud on the way down. This is an eerie experience and gives two different viewpoints, above and below the cloud deck. The views on this side of the mountain are also great and I enjoy the ride down. On the west side of the mountain the valley was brown in color. On this side, it is a verdant green.

 

 

I'm staring at the last hint of altitude I'll have on the trip. It’s time to get moving and I head for I-90 east. Little chunks of mileage aren’t getting me home. 75 mph speed limits will help. Passing through Sturgis there is a billboard for the Harley dealer in Daytona Beach. Wow.

I avoid all the places I’ve visited recently, such as Devil’s Tower, Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands. Of all places to stop, I visit Wall Drug after I stop at the usual gas station I always stop at in this part of the country. Why is that. Wall Drug has to be experienced rather than described and I’m not sure why I stopped at all. Either way it gave me time to stretch my legs. Then I’m back on I-90 head toward Mitchell, SD for the night.

 

With the tropical storm churning the in gulf, I’m going to take 2.5 more days to get home. Hopefully, Alberto will have passed through by then.