Time for Mike to head home to Rapid City, blerg. It rained hard early in the morning and there was talk of skipping the ride over Buffalo pass in favor of taking the highway. But after breakfast it seemed manageable so we geared up and hit the trail. The conditions were better than expected and soon we were over the summit of the pass with beautiful blue skies. Down the other side and off the mountain on the dirt road to Walden in our windscreen. A glance back made my heart skip a beat, as there was a wall of clouds just behind us and right where I was going after saying goodbye. Ugh. And there was no avoiding it, two minutes after I started back up Buffalo pass the skies opened up and it was a deluge. Getting colder and colder as the elevation increased. My hands were cold even with my heated grips on high but there was no stopping in this. Finally reaching the summit it was snowing and massive amounts of water were flowing over the trail. I pressed on, probably faster than advisable and thankfully the snow let up and halfway down I was out of the precipitation. Whew, more excitement than I had hoped for but I made it back home – as did Mike six hours later after dealing with his own downpours including, the always enjoyable, hail.
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