Try to be out of that area by the 3rd week of July. The bikers come in starting then and the CG's are booked solid, not to mention the prices in the area can triple. Keep an eye out for the bikes, they will be everywhere.

Hi Jest,

Thanks for heads up. I'm headed up there tomorrow and expect to be out of there by this weekend. And by the way the bikes are already here.

Ole' Joe. I think we are planning the same trip to SD but from Williamsburg. In your route planning was breaking down steep grades a concern? I just did a 7% grade going South on I-26 from Ashville NC that got my BP up. Put the transmission in 3rd and tapped the breaks with constant pressure at times (less than a min) but I was tacking 4KRPMs and our big ole chevy was making some NOISE and I'll bet our dual exhaust was sounding pretty. So any route recommendations to avoid steep grades? I do plan to carefully use the TL CD I finally got that does have grade information. Also, plan on disconnecting the Dingy and letting the DW drive it up and down the big ones reducing my load by 3K... Any thoughts?

Hi Marco,
We left out of Virginia Beach on the 3rd of July. Took US 64 to Charleston, WV then US 35 towards Dayton in order to do the 4th celebration in a little town called Point Pleasant. Sandstone Mt. going into WV was more of a pull than I expected with a 3800 lb toad and I crawled up it to the peak. Going Down was not bad at all I geared down and tapped the brakes occasionally and kept a safe 55-60 all the way down. Had no other real mountain roads until we headed up to Deadwood, SD. Used US 70, 74, 29 and 90 mostly. Going up to 4000 ft are soft. easy and gradual on 90. On US 14a the last 1k was also a slow crawl but no real strain on the engine as long as you remember you can't do 55 uphill. Between 25-40. I prefer to keep her out of overdrive going up and feather the power to keep it about 3500 rpm. The first couple of pulls make you wonder about hurting the motor but you soon find the comfort zone and everthing is easy. As for going down I keep it SLOW from the top down. The roads out here are in great shape with climbing lanes where needed and warnings about grades in plenty of time to allow for them. By the time I got on the US 85 roller coaster from Deadwood to Hill City I felt pretty good about my Mt. driving abilities but my highest evevation was only approx. 6000 ft. I know the area on US 26 your talking about and would say I haven't found any worse out here to date. Headed out of here in a couple of days for the plains of NB and KS so it's mostly downhill from here on. Good Luck and be safe.

Thanks! Happy trails good Sir!

MarcO