Sandhill Trip - The Great American Desert

[usranger74]

Trip Report – Sandhills Nebraska (The Great American Desert)

The Sandhills are 13 million acres of open grassland (very few acres of crops). They are the largest grass covered sandhills in the Western Hemisphere. With a few exceptions, the hills are treeless and have been that way for eons. Referred to as part of the “Great American Desert” by the first Europeans crossing (they did not stop) the Great Plains because they are treeless, they are far from a desert. Water abounds in the Hills with the headwaters of 3 rivers and 1,100 lakes with 80,000 surface acres of water.

Trees should cover the Hills. But, the Hills are a man altered/manipulated ecosystem and have been for thousands of years. Today cattle grazing maintain the grassland. Prior to Europeans the Natives maintained/manipulated million of acres that would have supported tress with the tool of fire. The Natives did this to maximize the production of Buffalo which were far more numerous than the 600,000 cattle there today.

To prove the point trees would grow in the Hills, in the 1930s the USFS and CCC planted 30,000 acres of tress that is now called the Nebraska National Forest.

This is big sky country. This is the land of wide open spaces, small towns (and very few of them) and big ranches (up to 400,000 ac). Inside the Hills few towns are bigger than 300 folks. Most counties have only one town in them. Six man football is the game played here and it takes two schools (40-50 miles apart) to field a team.

There are 1,500 - 1,800 miles of paved road in the Hills which are, by the way, bigger than CT. RI and NH combined. The Hills are 9 times bigger that Yellowstone NP and 21 times bigger than Great Smoky Mountain NP. There are some nice clean Mom and Pop motels. Many of the towns have a city park with free camping and the USFS has some campground.

So off I go for a three day 1,200 mile trip. I have to go Loan Ranger as I could not find anyone to ride with. Leaving Omaha I beat feet to Thedfor, NE where I get a room at the Arrowhead Motel ($44.00/night). Because NE Highway 2 is loaded with folks returning from Sturgis (all on HDs) I spend the rest of the day doing a loop ride to the southwest and back. During part of the ride I go 37 miles without seeing one other vehicle! At the end of the day I go to the Nebraska NF and watch sunset. And, by the way, if you like stars at night there are very few places in USA that are as dark as the Hills at night. The Milkeyway is within reach.

Day two it’s off to the west finding the headwaters of both the Loop and Dismal Rivers. The Nomad and I did about 350 miles on day two. At the end of the day a fiend shows up from Omaha on his Honda 1100 Shadow and we do a late day loop ride then sit back and watch all the HDs go by the motel, all going east.
Day three we start back to Omaha by going south to the southeast edge of the Hills and then turn east and beat feet back to Omaha.

If you like riding in wide open spaces where you can experience the flavor of the old west and ride with little traffic (you will NEVER get stuck behind a slow RV) try this part of the “Great American Desert”. And, if you need a partner, drop me a line.

The following link will take you to some photos of my ride.
http://s1001.photobucket.com/albums/...%20Aug%202010/

PS
• Rode with my new Air Hawk seat pad – loved it. Day one was a 500 mile day and zero butt pain.
• Rode with my lowers off – no problem even at 70 MPH on I-80
• Used Seafoam for the fires time. ????
• Longest trip between fill ups was 179 miles and the fuel light did not come on.