Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Thursday, September 13, 2012
25 miles

Had breakfast this morning with Clay's uncle and aunt before we left Fargo. I should have taken a picture of the waffles they made, absolutely delicious!

We started our bike ride a little later today than normal. We checked into the hotel and then went out to ride.  Our hotel is just a few blocks from the trail so it was very convenient to get on the trail. This trail follows the Big Sioux River and loops around the city. What amazed me was there were 16 parks that we passed on this loop. If you can't find a park you liked in this city something is not right.

We ran into 3 different sections of the trail that had construction. One wasn't marked and a vehicle was blocking the trail so we had to dismount and walk around the truck. The second section was marked very clearly and had easy detour signs to follow. The last section had a trail closed barrier blocking the path but bikers and runners were on it so we followed everyone else and went around the barrier. It did look like there had been work along the sides of the trail but nothing today was being done.

We made 1 wrong turn today. We came to a fork in the trail and it wasn't marked which way to go and............we picked the wrong way! The trail ended a little less than a mile later so we turned around and went back and chose the correct way.

The Falls of the Big Sioux River is really beautiful! We were told that because of the drought the water level is down this year. It was still breath taking.

Well, it finally happened. After 11+ years of riding the tandem we had an incident today. We had stopped to look at the Falls and I was still clipped onto the pedals. We decided to go a little further down the trail to get a better look. Clay had to back the bike up and turn it a little so we could go where  we wanted to. When he turned the bike we hit an uneven part of the trail and the bike went down. Clay had 1 foot still clipped in but as the bike was going down he was able to unclip. He has a leg that is now hurting. I ended up on the ground still clipped onto the bike. I got a few scratches but was otherwise unhurt. I figure tomorrow I will have some bruises and will be sore in some unusual places!

Today's weather: Sunny and breezy. Temperature of 75.