When it rains, it pours

Day 6 – Black Hills, SD

Today was our last day in the Black Hills before heading out to Yellowstone tomorrow.  We were both completely beat from our hike yesterday, so we got a little bit of a later start than we had been doing, but today was also our least busy day here so it worked out well.

The stunning George P. Mickleson bike trail. 

The main activity of the day was a bike ride on the George P. Mickleson bike trail, which is named after a former governor of South Dakota.  Of everything we had planned for this trip, this was one of the things on my “Top 3” list of what I was most excited for (along with the hikes at Arches in Utah, and the rafting trip in the Tetons).  The trail used to be a railway that stretched 109 miles from the northern Black Hills town of Deadwood to the southern Black Hills town of Edgemont, primarily for mining purposes. The rail has since been ripped out and is now a multiuse trail (biking, hiking, horseback) made up of a variety of surfaces including packed gravel, packed dirt, and packed clay.  Not as hard as a paved surface, but our bikes (which are not mountain bikes) had no problem with it.

The Mystic trailhead.

 We started at the 74 mile mark of the trail in a town called Mystic, which was north of our campground by about 30 miles.  We started out heading north towards another small town called Rochford, which was 8 miles away.  The ride was incredible.  It sloped upwards slightly as we travelled along, but the wind was at our backs, so it was not bad.  The hardest part of the trip was not stopping every 30 seconds to take a picture and admire the scenery.  The trail followed a creek through a valley that ran between the hills.  The hills towered above us as we rode past Ponderosa pines, spruce, birch, and aspen.  Wildflowers, mostly purple, white and yellow, sprouted up along the creek and in the fields.  At one point we got to ride through an old train tunnel and we also crossed over numerous bridges.  It was absolutely incredible.

Amy about to head through an old train tunnel on the trail.

We made it to Rochford and then went two miles further before heading back.  Although the ride back was into the wind, it was also mostly downhill, so it was a nice, relaxing ride.  When we got back to the Mystic trailhead, we had already biked 20 miles, which was enough for Amy.  It should have been enough for me too, but I was all pumped up and wanted to go some more.  So we threw Amy’s bike on the car and she drove down to the next trailhead south, which was 15 miles away in Hill City.  I decided I  would bike it and meet her there.  We figured that since the bike trail was much more direct, we’d arrive there at about the same time.

What I hadn’t counted on was that the ride going south from Mystic would start with a 7 mile straight climb into the wind.  I was in my lowest gears and still struggled mightily.  The trail was also more exposed and the heat just continued to rise; it was awful.  While the scenery was still nice, it was nothing compared to our earlier ride.  After a short half mile down hill, the trail climbed for another mile before the final 6.5 mile descent into Hill City.  Despite the strong headwind, I flew down that last 6.5 miles, making it in under 25 minutes.

We headed back to camp, started packing up our things so we’d have less to do in the morning, and then took a nice relaxing dip in the pool which felt amazing.  We cleaned up and headed into Hill City for dinner and our “sunset” train ride.  Dinner was at the Bumpin’ Buffalo, and befitting its name, we both had buffalo for dinner.  Amy had the Bump n’ Grind, a buffalo burger with cheese, lettuce and tomato.  I had the Prospector, which was a buffalo brat with sauerkraut, pickle, and mustard.  Both were outstanding.

The 1880 train depot.

The train headed for home.

The train ride was our first “miss” of the trip.  It was supposed to be a sunset ride, but bad weather was rolling in, so clouds covered up any potential sun-setting.  The weather also cut way down on visibility, so some of the views of the mountains were also obscured.  In addition to this, the rail runs right through the hills, so much of the time, all we could see were the trees and rock walls immediately lining the track.  We had round trip tickets, which we thought meant that the ride was a loop, but instead it was a line so we just travelled back the same way we came.  What we could see was nice and I love the narration discussing the scenery (wish there had been more), but definitely not something I would recommend or do again.

We finished the ride and headed straight back to camp.  The weather was getting progressively worse, so we wanted to get in the tent as soon as possible.  Currently there are thunderstorm warnings, but luckily, the tornado watch has ended.  Tomorrow, it’s up early for the trip to Yellowstone by way of Little Bighorn National Battlefield.  Can’t believe the first leg of the trip is already over.  It was a fantastic start to the trip, and I know we will find our way back to the Black Hills someday.  It is an amazing place and I think that both of our expectations for what we would find here were absolutely shattered.