The Mickelson Trail, South Dakota

July 26, 2019 to July 27, 2019

Two Days, Too much

Actually, that subtitle is a little misleading. Day one was totally too much and Day 2 was just right. But, I'm getting ahead of myself, so I'll back up and catch you up on where we are at this point. As you know, we have taken on this idea of cycling in different places across North America. It seems to be taking forever for us to get from one place to another and sometimes I wonder at the sanity of doing it this way. But, since we have the bikes with us, we will continue to cycle where we can and you, dear readers, will have to suffer through waiting for us to reach the next destination! A thought about that. If it were me reading this, I might say I will wait until they are totally finished with this tour and then read the entries all at once, but that's up to you. I will continue to write here about the cycling parts of our journey and over at thepricesofwandering.com about the rest of it.

Ok, so when we last left you, we had spent a long day in Drumheller, going a bit more uphill than was probably good for us, given our level of fitness at that point. However, we didn't seem to suffer any ill effects from it and that more than likely led us to once again overestimate our current abilities (will we ever learn?). When we looked at the Mickelson Trail in South Dakota, we learned that it is about 175 km in length, going from Custer to Deadwood. Although we would have liked to go the entire length, we were constrained at this time by our plans to spend an extended amount of time in the States beginning at the end of September. Not knowing whether the US government would consider this part of our journey as a portion of our allotted 6 months less a day for one year or the entirety of our time would begin at that time, we thought it best to keep this part of our time in the States to a minimum. So, we had 2 days to cycle the trail. We drove down from Deadwood and stayed at Hillside, which is about halfway down the trial. Here, we found that we were able to wild camp right next to the trail head, thanks to the kindness of Dale, who owns the lot across the street. When we arrived, there were signs at the trailhead parking lot indicating no camping. We still aren't too sure if anyone would consider our form of accommodation "camping", but weren't willing to push the issue. We saw the empty lot across the street and wondered if we could just park there for the night. Thankfully, the owner, Dale, was parked next door chatting with someone. Jim walked up and asked if anyone knew if it would be ok for us to park there, not knowing of course, that Dale was the owner. He said to Jim, "Well, since you have had the good manners to ask, I'll say sure!" And so we had a place to camp for the two nights we would be here - yay! That settled, we did a few things in town and settled down for a good night's rest before cycling the next day. The plan was to cycle to the next trailhead north of us on the first day and return (49km) and then do another similar ride south on the second day.

It rained overnight and so we assumed (mistakenly, of course!) it would be a little cooler for our ride. We had our breakfast and left at about 9, heading along the road for a short ways before getting on the actual trail. At that point (about 1.5 km in) we realized that we had forgotten to pay for our trial pass. On this trail, as with many other trails here in the States, you pay for your usage and the funds raised go towards trail maintenance. Of course, we knew this but in our excitement to get going this morning, it totally escaped our minds until that moment. Oh well, there was nothing for it except to retreat back the short way we had come and put our money in the box ($4.00 each), collecting our passes at the same time. We started off once again, and just as we approached the spot where we had turned around, what did I spy but another fee collection box!!! We could have paid it right there!! Duh!!

What??? I could have paid for it here???? Argh!!!!!

Laughing, we set off once again along lovely trails, over little bridges, enjoying the pastoral scenes. It was warming up, but not too hot yet and so we thoroughly enjoyed our morning, stopping here and there to take pictures and give the drone a try now and then. This portion of the Mickelson Trail had a gradual incline, up 215 meters and then down until the Mystic trail head, our goal for this day. The climb was gradual and not too difficult, but the rain had made parts of the trail really slow and so added a lot more work to the morning's ride. We kept at it until eventually we arrived at Redfern station, the highest elevation for this portion. There, we found a lovely little covered place to eat and pump some cool water. By then it was quite warm and we were looking forward to the downhill coming our way, as well as the tunnels along this section of the trail.

Pretty, but I think they may be an invasive species?

This pretty little stream followed us the whole ride

We coasted down, keeping our speed to a minimum due to the condition of the trail, but not having to work at all, which was fun. In the back of my head, of course, was the thought that we would have to climb back up before too long, but I set that thinking aside and just tried to enjoy the fantastic scenery around us. It is wonderful to be able to cycle somewhere so different from where we normally cycle. The trail was fairly quiet, as well. We saw a few riders both heading up and down, but were by ourselves for most of the ride.

Eventually we coasted down to the Mystic trail head and there we met a couple who were just finishing their morning ride. As they were local, we asked about the trail south that we had planned on riding the next day. They said that really, the best part of the trail was that part north of Mystic and they encouraged us to drive up in the morning and ride north again, rather than south. It made sense and in a way, would be much better since overall, the trail gains in elevation going north (today's section is an anomaly, going both up and down). If we cycled up in the morning, we would have a nice downhill at the end. Thanking them for the advice, we finished up our snacks and headed back out to climb what we had just come down. And this is where we ran into some problems. You see, the second half, coming down from Redfern, was much steeper than the first half, so we had a fairly steep climb to now accomplish and of course, at the hottest part of the day. I'm sure you are shaking your heads thinking, "won't these two ever learn? " but no, I guess not yet!

Taking a breather on one of the many wooden bridges. They reminded us of the Lochside Trail on Vancouver Island

Slowly, slowly, we climbed, up the rough parts of the trail and through the muddy sections that sucked at our tires, slowing us down even further. It was a tough, tough slog and we were once again confronted with our lack of fitness. The thought even entered my head that if we were on e-bikes we would be sailing up the hill! But I banished those thoughts and we just put our heads down and ground our way back up to the top where we once again enjoyed the refreshing cooling waters from the pump at the Redfern station. It sure is nice that this trail has such lovely places to stop and take a break!!!

Once we passed this section it was all downhill and we were able to relax a bit and enjoy the ride. Some dark clouds were looming up ahead, which made us a little anxious, but we made it back with no rain falling and since it was early yet, had time to drive over and see the Crazy Horse monument.

This is quite the monument - I wonder when they will ever finish it?

The model of what it will be like when finished, up against what is there now

For our second day of cycling, we drove north. It wasn't very far in kilometres, but most of the drive was along gravel roads, which slowed us down a lot. Eventually we arrived at the Rochford trail head and parked the van there before hopping on the bikes and heading north to the Dumont station, 27km away.

Compared to the day before, this was just a perfect cycling day! The elevation gain was about the same, but spread out over the entire first half of the ride made it totally manageable. As well, we were immediately in such beautiful countryside we just enjoyed the heck out of our ride. Of course, we stopped on numerous occasions to take pics and try out the drone. We are slowly getting the hang of flying that thing and so don't need as much set-up time, which is good. I will add links to the video when we get it posted up. We were so busy with the drone for this part of the day, we didn't take as many pictures as we should have, so you will have to take my word for it, the scenery is just spectacular.

Some cloud, but perfect cycling conditions

We reached the trailhead up at Dumont and as we were having our snack, another group of cyclists came in, having ridden down from Deadwood. They told us about a wonderful sanctuary a few miles away (and up a hill, of course!). Since we had time, we decided to make our way up to it and wow, were we ever glad we did! Pathways Sanctuary is a wonderful peaceful place for people to come, walk and/or sit on a bench and appreciate the peace of this place. There are sculptures spread throughout and on all of the benches, writing materials in case you want to record or draw your thoughts. Since we, of course, could not fly the drone here, we took plenty of pictures. Had we been wearing our other shoes, we would have taken the 1 1/4 mile walk all the way around, but as it was, we certainly found this to be a wonderful place to sit and feel the peace of this area. Truly special!

We reluctantly left Pathways Sanctuary and made our way back to the Mickelson Trail. Our return trip was even more fun than the beginning as we coasted most of the way down. We went for a mile without pedalling once! However, we eventually had to step on the gas as we were racing against some pretty ominous looking rain clouds. Of course, we didn't beat them, but the cloudburst only added to the magical quality of the day. We sat in the one tunnel on this portion of the ride to wait out the worst of it before working our way back to the trailhead in Rochford.

I had really wanted to fly the drone up the face of this beautiful slate rock formation, but the rain was threatening again and so we had to satisfy ourselves with a few pics

When we arrived back at the trailhead, it was lunch time and so we headed over the the Moonshine Gulch Saloon for a bite. This place has been open off and on since 1910! It is popular with the local atv crowd as evidenced by the many mud covered vehicles parked out front. The interior was interesting for sure. This is an authentic place, not something redone for the tourists. In fact, they don't take credit cards so if you are in the area, make sure you bring cash so you can enjoy their delicious burgers!

Some interesting items hanging from the ceiling

Good burgers! And that's root beer, just in case you're wondering - we still had a ways to drive, lol!

Some of the vehicles that surrounded the place

Thus satisfied, we ended our two days on the Mickelson Trail. If you are looking for some great cycling in the backroads of the Dakotas, you really need to ride here. It would make a nice 5-7 day trip up and back from Custer to Deadwood and you would not only enjoy some fantastic cycling, but get to see a little of American history as well! Our next stop will be back up in Canada where we will spend a day cycling in Collingwood before heading over to Montreal to ride on part of the Route Verte. Stay tuned as it will take us some time to get there!

Today's ride: 103 km (64 miles)
Total: 188 km (117 miles)

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Comment on this entry	Comment	3

Michael ReynoldsI thought that the six months was how long you could be out of Canada before you have problems with whether you get health care or something. The six months is one U.S. limit?
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5 years ago

Michael ReynoldsTo Michael ReynoldsIs *a* U.S. limit
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5 years ago

Sue PriceTo Michael ReynoldsIt’s actually both - we have to be in B.C. for 6 months in a calendar year for our health insurance, but as a Canadian, Jim is only allowed 6 months in the US in “a year” but they don’t specify when they might start counting that 6 months, so it’s tricky for us since we come down at various times of the year - confused yet? We sure are!!!!
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5 years ago