Time to catch up on the summers adventures. I had planned on taking another stab at the Colorado Trail Race again this year but they moved it up a week which lead to some conflicts with some other races I had signed up for. So instead I decided to make up my own adventure and do a ride in the Black Hills of South Dakota and maybe if time allowed a little riding in North Dakota.
THE GREAT BLACK HILLS ADVENTURE RIDE 2013.
I left home about mid morning on Friday and got to Rapid City late that same day. I needed to do a few things in Rapid City so I spent the night in a Walmart parking lot. I've slept in a lot of odd places over the years but that's the first time I slept in a Walmart parking lot. I got up and had a good breakfast and headed over to the visitors center to pickup some maps and info on the trails. Since I started planning this trip I had been having trouble finding info on the Centennial Trail. I could find basic info but there wasn't a lot of specific info like is available on the Colorado Trail and this held true at the visitors center also. After the visitors center I headed over to a local bike shop. I got there about a half hour before they opened and while waiting for them to open I was talking to another customer also waiting, this guy was a true conspiracy theory guy who was sure the government was going to bomb and kill all but the upper class and he was going to be a survivor. Quite the guy. Well the bike shop guy said the Centennial trail was in good shape to ride, and they have been improving the northern part so that it got better as you go north. Well that fit my plan as I had intended to start at the southern end of the Centennial Trail and go north than ride on over to the Michaelson Trail and head south back to the truck. I headed out to the north end of Wind Cave Nat Park and the Highland T.H. for the start.
I arrived at the trail head about 11:30 and had the bike all packed and started riding about noon.
The trail was very reminiscent of the Colorado Trail. It was built with hikers in mind but they do allow bikers and horse riders. This trail looked like it had a lot of horse traffic. The trail was typical mountain single track. It started heading up immediately but was very rideable. After a few hours I hit the first section of hike a bike (HIB) several miles of very steep trail just full of bowling ball size boulders. It was quite a hike I don't know how a horse would make it up here. I was moving along at a steady pace getting much further than I had thought. I got to the first big detour late in the afternoon. The area where Mount Rushmore is is called the Black Elk Wilderness and bikers are not allowed. You can circle around it to the east or west and I decided to go west. This involved a 20 mile section of Needles highway. The first 10 miles were up hill but the second 10 miles were down hill and what a blast, going around the switch backs and hairpin turns at 30 MPH was great. I got around the wilderness by mid evening and went a couple of miles north on the trail and made camp for the night in a big open field.
Totals for the day: 42 miles and 8 hours. Camp 1 just north of Big Pine TH.
Day 2 started about 8 AM I got up packed up and hit the trail.The trail was typical up and down all day, mostly single track with an occasional dirt road. I saw very few people on the trail, only the occasional day hiker. One problem is that the trail did not seem to pass thru any towns so resupply was difficult. about mid afternoon as it was beginning to rain I was near Pactola Reservoir and made a detour to the marina get a meal. The only thing there was a convience store that also sold pizza and chicken so I ordered a pizza and got a pop and had a good meal. After eating I hit the trail again for a few hours till I got to Pilot Knob TH and camped near there at the edge of a field near a creek. Washed up in the creek and hit the hay for the night.
Totals for day 2: 40 miles and 11 hours
Day 3 started at 7 AM I packed up and hit the trail. The trail from where I was at (Pilot KnobTH) and north to Dalton TH was open to motorized vehicles so I didn't think navigation would be a problem. The trail was easy to follow but ya had to pay attention to the signs because there were a lot intersecting trails and the trail was very rocky and rutted from erosion. Detoured into the little town of Nemo for a meal only to find the only restaurant was closed for the day so convience store food would have to do. I did see a few more people in this area mostly on ATV's. Nemo was a nice little town with a cute looking campground but not much else. I continued on to Dalton TH. The trail was along a ridge above the TH and I saw the sign directing the motorized vehicles down the hill to the TH but missed the second turn down the hill and continued on till I came to an intersection where I knew I was off the trail but I thought I could still find the TH by continuing down the dirt road and when I came across some ATV'ers I asked for directions and they told me I was headed for the TH just up the road. I reached the TH about noon but I could not find the Centennial trail going north from the TH. I found 2 trails at the TH and knew the motorizes trail ended here so I picked the non-motorizes trail out of the TH and it climbed a huge hill that was about 45 minutes of HIB and when I got to the top I recognized the ridge trail I had just been on so I headed back down the same trail to Dalton TH and than tried the other trail leading out of the TH and again after about 45 minutes of HIB up the hill again I came to the same ridge trail and had to turn around and go back down. I checked the road about a mile in each direction and could not find the trail out of there. All of this had taken me about 2 hours and now I was at a total of 102 miles into the trip so I decided to call it quites for the Centennial trail and head for Deadwood and the start of the Michaelson Trail.
The ride to Deadwood was mostly dirt road and it was a great scenic ride. It took some concentration to navigate but I didn't have any problems. The last few miles were on pavement and than a few miles on the Michaelson trail into Deadwood. I got the last hotel room in Deadwood because the motorcyclers were starting to arrive for the rally.
Totals for day 3: 40 miles and 9 hours
Day 4
The Michaelson Trail
Started from deadwood early in the morning. The Michaelson is an old RR grade that has been converted to a bike trail. The first miles, about 15 were all up hill. but because it is a RR grade it is a slight grade. Than the next 20 or so miles are all down hill and it was a blst to ride. There are several short tunnels along this section also. After about 50 miles the trail flattens out and you are nearly out of the mountains. Stoped in a little diner in Hill City for lunch. Rode on to the little town of Pringle, It was starting to rain a little and this was directly west of where I left the truck. So I left the trial and rode the roads for about 20 miles back to the truck. Near the entrance to Wind Cave Park I ran into a herd of buffalo on the road had to shoo them out of the way than I sat and watched them for awhile. I was going to ride up to a lookout tower but the buffalo had road blocked. So I continued on towards the truck. About 2 miles from the truck I came across another herd of buffalo who had the road blocked. I yelled and tried to move them along for about half an hour but they weren't moving out of the road and it was a remote road so there were no cars to push them out of the way. I finally ended up riding about a quarter mile cross country to the buffalo fence and than followed the buffalo fence around the herd (The buffalo fence is a 10 or 12 foot tall fence that runs for miles along the border between Wind Cave Park and Custer Park. Apparently they don't want the wind cave buffalo mixing with the custer buffalo.) I figured if the buffalo charged me I could toss the bike at them and climb the fence. But I got around them ok and back to the truck about 7 or 8 PM. Enough time to throw the bike in the back and than I drove a few miles further into Wind Cave Park and dry camped for the night.
Total miles about 80 and 12 hours on the trail.
Day 5
Black Hills hiking
Spent the day hiking. Specifically to Harney peak the highest point in the Black Hills. Took a swim in Sylvan Lake to clean up.Than headed for Medora North Dakota and the southern end of the Maa Daa Hey Trail.
Day 6
Maa Daa Hey Trail.
After breakfast in a diner in Medora headed out on the Maa Daa Hey Trail south to North. The plan was to just have an easy day ride. The start is right along the Little Missouri River in fact you have to walk across the river within the first mile. It was only knee deep but the trail in the area is very sandy. After a few miles the trail became very nice. It seemed to be well maintained very ridable. Unfortunately I was unpreppared and was supposed to take the Buffalo Gap detour around the Theodore Roosevelt Nat Park but It wasn't posted and I continued on thru Theodore Roosevelt which was a big mistake. The trail turned to crap in the park The trail was over grown with a scratchy brush which tore the hell out of my bare shins. I rode about 10 miles in and turned around and headed back. Stopped a couple of times to talk to other bikers, saw a few rattle snakes and had my only flat of the trip about 2 miles from the end.
Total miles for the day about 25 and about 5 hours riding.
Aug 10, 2013
Mar 29, 2013
Mar 23, 2013
Feb 9, 2013
Feb 3, 2013
Arrowhead 135 V2013
Arrowhead 135 V2013
After all the hours spent preparing for really cold weather the forecast calls for temps near freezing and snow on Monday night.
The Arrowhead begins with the gear check on Sunday afternoon, a great time to visit with old friends that you may only see at the race than a short time later it’s on to the racers meeting and the spaghetti dinner. Saw Mike S, Tim E, and Jeremy K. At the dinner along with a lot of other familiar faces. And after a good night’s sleep the race starts not so bright but early at 7 AM Monday morning. The temps were in the mid 20’s for the start. Got off to a good start, the trail was soft as expected but was able to ride pretty well. The beginning was uneventful for the most part, was pushing it a little and had several low speed crashes. The front tire would get off the track and sink down to the hub than I would usually go over the handlebars. This happened several times, jammed my thumb one time. Made good time to Gateway store which is the first checkpoint at 35 miles, pulled in and had some food (which was free this year thanks to the sponsors). I only had 1 can of pop to drink which I regretted later, I should have drunk more. I left the checkpoint at about 1:30 in the afternoon, great time. After this first checkpoint the trail becomes very hilly so it is a little slower going but the trail was actually better, I still made good time, saw John K and Chris W out on the trail and we leap frogged each other several times. With a lot of concentration on finding the best line to ride I still was able to ride most of it. We got a little snow and sleet but not much and I was hoping we were going to luck out and not get any more. Things went well and I pulled into Melgeorges the ½ way check point at a little after 8 PM which was 12 hours of pedaling or 13 hours into the race, right about on plan.
Got some food and drink and tried to sleep but couldn’t so I packed up and left at 10:41 PM.
Chris and John had left about 40 minutes before me so their tracks were out there and a few others but by now there was 3 to 4 inches of new snow on the trail. I could see from the tracks of the others that they were riding some I was walking the whole way since leaving Melgeorges. And eventually all the tracks ahead of me were walking. When somebody had broken trail ahead of me I could walk at about 2 MPH. At about 2 or 3 in the morning I passed John and Chris and 1 other person(Sam H) bivied alongside the trail at the same time I saw the light of 1 other biker ahead of me. Within ½ hour I had caught up to Jill from CO, we stopped and talked for a minute and then continued on taking turns breaking trail since there was now about 6 inches of new snow. Well I ended up walking a lot faster than Jill and got well ahead of her, and after a couple of hours of breaking trail at the amazing speed of 1.5 MPH I was beat and at 5 AM decided to bivy for awhile. So I stomped out a depression in the snow, rolled out my sleeping outfit and as soon as I was inside of it I was asleep. I slept fitfully for 2 and ½ hours and by 8 AM was out on the trail again.
When I got out on the trail again I saw a skier (Mark Scotch) had passed me during the night and Jill had also passed me. A few miles down the trail I passed a shelter and I could see by the tracks that several bikers had bivied there and now they were out on the trail ahead of me also.
About 9 AM I reached the Hwy 23 crossing and Jill was there loading her bike up into a truck. She told me she had walked all night and now was pulling out of the race. She said she had seen the 3 bikers who had bivied at the shelter and they had also withdrawn at Hwy 23 and ridden into town. She also had seen the skier Mark Scotch during the night. When she had gotten to Hwy 23 the film crew that was following Mark was just leaving and they had given her a ride into the town of Orr where she had called for a ride. She offered me a ride but I said no, I was going to continue on.
Well now I was back to breaking trail thru 8 inches of new snow again. Even though there were ski tracks ahead of me they weren’t much help in breaking trail so I was back to moving along at about 1.5 MPH. I was hoping all along that trail conditions would improve i.e. a snowmobiler would come along or I would come across the tracks of some other bikers but things didn’t improve so after another hour of this trudging along I figured I was not making fast enough forward progress, and the next place ahead of me that I could withdraw from the race was 20 miles, so I decided to drop and I turned around and headed back to Hwy 23. It took me about another hour to get back to Hwy 23 and when I arrived there were 4 other bikers there contemplating whether to drop. Well we all decided to withdraw there and ride into the town of Orr. Myself, Chris W, John K, Sam H, and Kory. Kory’s ride arrived before we got to Orr but the rest of us rode into Orr and sat at the only bar in town till our rides arrived. I hitched a ride with Sam and his wife back to the finish line at Fortune Bay and from there caught a shuttle the next day back to I Falls where my car was.
I really would have liked to finish this year and completed the trifacta (run,ski,bike) but it wasn’t to be. It probably was a good idea to withdraw when I did because by the time I got to Orr my feet were really raw and blistered from all the walking in wet boots.
Maybe another time.
Jan 7, 2013
I've gotten a few opportunities to get out on the trails lately. Mostly the North Shore Trail. Its amazing who you run into out there. Last weekend I went out for a ride and ran into Jay who was on foot pulling a sled, we stopped and talked for a bit. A hour or so later I ran into a biker going the opposite direction an it was Todd M. so we stopped and talked for awhile. Than this weekend I drove to the Normana Rd trailhead and biked north from there. When I was at the trailhead I noticed Steve K's truck. A few miles down the trail I run into Jay again, He tells me Steve and others are a few miles back, he had gotten a head start back to the cars because he was on foot. So a couple of minutes later I see Steve K with Chris W, John K and 1 other. They had gone in last night and camped at the Sucker River shelter and were now on their way out. Getting to stop and talk to other bikers and runners is a great break from the long rides. I also noticed I see a lot more walkers, runners and bikers out on the snomo trails than snowmobiles.
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