Vanocker Canyon...

 

One of the fun "canyon rides" here in the Black Hills.  I shot this video yesterday, after the ride through Sturgis; being 22 minutes long, it took a lot longer in the processing and uploading.

Vanocker Canyon was a gravel road when we first moved to the Black Hills in 1977.  It has turned into a very nice motorcycle experience.  It doesn't have the "fancy features" of Iron Mountain Road (but, really, what other road besides Tail of the Dragon does?), like the pig tails, tunnels, and hairpin curves.  But, it makes up for it with a higher speed limit and broad sweeping turns that are big fun on a motorcycle or scooter.

The video...

 

After riding through Vanocker, I took Nemo Road south, intending to take that to Norris Peak Road.  A few miles before that turn, traffic was stopped.  After waiting for about 20 minutes, I got off the bike to look around the traffic in front of me... no sign of what was causing the hold up (there is bridge work that will have this road closed on 7/9, but not today.  I saw a group of motorcycles on the road, and the riders had gotten off and were waiting in the shade.  I rode the Xmax around the traffic in my lane to get to those other bikes... and found out there was a motorcycle accident just around the next curve.  Traffic was stopped both directions, and an ambulance had hauled off someone.  No word when the debris clean up and investigation would allow the traffic to move again.  I did a U-turn and went back to Vanocker Canyon... yep, just as much fun riding down the canyon as up. 

Back to the video: this one is 22 minutes long, a no-cut riding experience through the canyon.  22 minutes may be longer than the average viewer is willing to watch.  The changes in camera angle are thanks to the 360 camera, not using different cameras and editing.  This is pretty much an experiment.  The Instamic worked good (to me), wirelessly getting the audio to the camera.  Some wind noise, but that is to be expected at the speeds I was riding; all in all, I felt the Instamic with a wind reduction sock (dead cat) did a pretty decent job with the wind noise.  I'm pleased with these first attempt results.

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The preview image for that video...