DakAL 2017

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Abercrombie FJR

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A couple of years a Bigjohnsd from Spearfish told us about the DakAL that runs through SD and has offered up a FJR / DakAL ride next June for the Black Hills Roundup II that would allow us to meet up and ride the great roads and back country the Black Hills of SD has to offer.

I was able to ride the DakAL last week and thought I would offer a little incentive for you to get your enduro tuned up and ready by next June.

Since I am apparently unable to organize my own MC trips I was motivated to ride the DakAL when I seen a guy volunteering to lead a group. The timing was perfect! I retired on the 8th, met up with the others on the 9th and we rode from the 10th through the 15th taking 6 days to ride the DakAL at a fairly easy pace that allowed for pictures and a little flower sniffing. We met up in Custer SD for the first leg from Custer to Aladdin WY. It was a pretty easy day of riding with very little technical riding. The highlight was visiting two fire towers.

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Here is the first group of ten stopping at the first fire tower.

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Second Stop at Cement Ridge Lookout

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looking toward Spearfish through the forest fire smoke.

We ended up in Aladdin the first night leaving one guy a couple miles short with a flat rear tire on his 450 Husky. We had a chase vehicle manned by a couple of wives of the group so they went out to retrieve the bike and bring it back to camp for repairs. At Aladdin WY we picked up a couple more riders including our own Bryan "blrfjr" on this fjriders.com forum. The next morning a KTM 690 was puking gas all over the ground and he was unable to make a quick repair so we left him and he caught up that evening in Buffalo SD. The trip from Aladdin to Buffalo was again not very technical but we rode through a lot of great scenic rolling hills ranch country.

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The parade of 12 bikes and a chase vehicle at a gate stop.

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The group dinner photo at Buffalo. I got Bryan's best side and chopped off half his head. Fail!

The third day the riding and scenery got much better on the trip from Buffalo to Spearfish for the first half a day. We ran into a few road blocks in the afternoon and had to do a few u turns. When we arrived in Spearfish we were greeted by our great friend bigjohnSD who pointed us to a great BBQ place and joined us for dinner just up the street from Bell's Motel.

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Here is Bryan "blrfjr" in the green helmet and another guy named Bob.

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My Honda XR650L all geared up for some serious adventure.

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On the way to spearfish the riding got a little hot when the thermometer topped 100 so we stopped into Hoover SD to clean them out of cold drinks and Gatorade.

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We put John to work taking a group photo out behind Bell's in Spearfish before we filled our face with BBQ. There is Bryan groping the group leader Jack's wife Marlene.

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I live action shot of me taken by flrfjr of me riding up a rutted, sandy, and rocky climb.

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Another shot of my best side.

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Bryan and his trusty DRZ posing in front of some nice country.

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Another handsome dude as long as my helmet is on.

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A little park in Buffalo SD commemorating Tipperary, the bucking bronk that was never able to be ridden
for his whole career as a bucking horse.
 
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Very, very pretty countryside. You're making it difficult to stay away from the dirt bike dealer .....

 
Excellent!

I acquired the GPS tracks for the DakAL quite a while ago but haven't been able to get out there to ride it yet. Sure looks like fun. I recognize Paul in the group photo; I've ridden with him here in MN before. He takes that 690 all over North America it seems.

 
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Funny how you take pics of elevation and the pictures never portray how steep it really is.

Like the pic of cement ridge as we go there nearly every year riding sleds in the black hills.

You can go into the lower half of the tower to get out of the wind and cold and read about the history of the tower ect..

nice ride buddy.

 
Funny how you take pics of elevation and the pictures never portray how steep it really is. Like the pic of cement ridge as we go there nearly every year riding sleds in the black hills.

You can go into the lower half of the tower to get out of the wind and cold and read about the history of the tower ect..

nice ride buddy.
Dang, I never knew you could go into the lower part of the tower.

 
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