The George S. Mickelson Trail

Fall is a wonderful time for a bike ride. The air is crisp and the weather is not too hot or too cold. With this ideal weather ahead, we searched the reliable Rails-to-Trails site for nearby bicycle trails in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The George S. Mickelson sounded like a nice challenge - 109 miles from Edgemont to Deadwood.

Unlike the Katy Trail, we decided to camp along the Mickelson Trail. The B&B's of the Black Hills aren't conveniently spread out, nor are they as reasonably priced.

It took us a few days to plan, and a few more days of waiting for the big annual Mickelson Trail Trek to finish. We figured our wait would guarantee availability at trailside campgrounds.

Unfortunately, there was no Amtrak to take us to the end of the trail this time, and we weren't up for paying $50/person for a van to shuttle us down there. (Gosh, looking back, cost seemed to be an issue on this adventure! Mom - send money, please!!! Just kidding.) So we planned on biking all 109 miles and back again - for a total of 218 miles (maybe a bit more). It seems each time we bike, we go a little further than the trail before.

Our itinerary looked like this:

Day 1: Deadwood to Hill City - 50 miles
Day 2: Hill City to Edgemont - 60 miles (50 miles downhill)
Day 3: Edgemont to Custer - 49 miles + 4 miles into Custer State Park
Day 4: Custer to Rochford - 38 miles
Day 5: Rochford to Deadwood - 27 miles


We learn so much on this road trip, and we hope you aren't annoyed by all that we share. There is just so much to absorb! Here are some facts about the George S. Mickelson Trail:

• Part of the Burlington Northern rail line.
• It was abandoned in 1983.
• Named for Governor George S. Mickelson, a key supporter in the trail conversion. He was killed in a plane crash back in 1993.
• The tracks were laid in a little over 100 days, but it took 15 years to convert the tracks to a trail.
• The trail was completed in 1998.

The night before our ride, we rented a "kabin" at a KOA (Kamprounds of America). No one should be allowed to advertise with this much yellow. (And yellow is my favorite color, by the way!) It was our first experience with KOA - and it was a good one. A great alternative to nearby hotels - about 1/3 of the cost! The cabin, oops... "kabin," gave us more space to spread out our gear, do inventory, pack, and the roof kept us dry.

All week, I was nervous about the weather. It was raining and cold, not to mention the hang-on-to-the-street-sign winds. We checked the weather daily - an unusual idea for us - but with the guaranteed winter ahead, it is a habit we should get into.

This is the wind map of the U.S. just before our bike ride.
See that nice yellow oval in South Dakota?
That's right over the Black Hills!

My prayers about the weather were answered. We woke up to pretty blue skies and cool enough weather to warrant our layers.

We left Sally the Subaru at the Deadwood trailhead (mile post 109), and started on the 50-mile day to Hill City.


Some quick facts about Deadwood:

• It was named for the burned trees found by miners
• Final resting place of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.
• It is a gambler's delight with over 80 "gaming establishments" in a population of about 1500.
  

My biggest concern for this ride was the weather, but it should have been the significant elevation change along the trail. The pamphlet says "With its gentle slopes and easy access, people of all ages and abilities enjoy the beauty of the Mickelson Trail in the Black Hills." Well, the brochure failed to mention the insanely difficult 15 miles at the start of the trail. We now know why the annual Mickelson Trail Trek starts in Edgemont and ends in Deadwood!


We cooked lunch at the Rochford trailhead. Some facts about Rochford:

• Known as "The Friendliest Little Ghost Town in the Hills"
• It was founded in 1877 to support local mining.
• The railroad reached Rochford in 1889.
• And the last native black bear in the Black Hills was killed near Rochford in 1968.

Our next break was in Mystic, an old mining town:

• Originally named "Sitting Bull."
• Founded in 1880's as a mining town.
• Name changed to Mystic in 1889.
• Served as the western terminal of the Rapid City, Black Hills and Western Railroad. It was also a station on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.
• The last passenger train stopped at Mystic in July 1947.
• The last freight train went through in November 1983.
• Mystic closed when the George Frink sawmill closed in 1952.

By the time we reached Hill City, we were exhausted.
We always want to be encouraging and positive for each other in situations like this, but at mile post 70, we were both quietly thinking the same thing: "Why are we doing this?"

Our bodies were telling us they weren't ready for 5 days of ups and downs. So, we both agreed to spend an extra night at the Crooked Creek Campground, about 2-miles from Hill City.

Some quick facts about Hill City:

• It was established as a gold camp in February 1876.
• The second oldest town in the Black Hills (Custer being the oldest).
• Known as "The Heart of the Hills"
• They love their sports teams - Go Rangers!

The "W" sign was a reminder to train engineers to blow the train whistle
to warn people and animals near road crossings.
The pattern: 2 long, 1 short and 1 long blast.

I read great reviews about The Bumpin Buffalo, so we walked into Hill City for dinner. The 4-mile round-trip was great "active recovery!" We were starving and loaded up on salad, sweet potato "chips," and salmon. It was good enough. We scoped out the coffee shop down the street and decided we would spend the morning there reading and resting.

The next morning we woke up feeling pretty good, but glad we had picked today as a recovery day. On the day's itinerary was another 4-mile walk into town, some good coffee, some good book-reading, and a tasty lunch. As we walked down the path, absorbed in conversation, we saw a black streak fly past us! It was a black cat, probably about a year old. Now most people would think this would be bad luck, but that cat kept us entertained for at least a mile. She would stop, sniff around on the side of the trial for a bit, then ZOOM past us again. That cat must have thought she was a dog!

While we have not been impressed with the food selection here in South Dakota, we were overjoyed when we arrived at The Alpine Inn. This German-style restaurant cooked up some yummy comfort food. We highly recommend it!

Can you see the Crazy Horse Memorial in the background?

We made reservations at Custer State Park for our third night, so we loaded our gear and biked 15 miles south into the town of Custer. It was a refreshing ride, with no pressure to get to point B before nightfall. We zoomed, but only because it was mostly downhill, past Crazy Horse and beautiful landscapes, and thoughts of climbing up these hills tomorrow, in the back of our minds.


Our one frustration with South Dakota State Parks has been their lack of signage and crappy maps. The map of the park showed two camper icons north and south of Stockade Lake, so we thought it would be easy enough to find the South Stockade Campground. Uhmmm... Nope! After circling an extra 10 miles, we finally found the South Stockade Campground. When we arrived, the camp host was roughly scooping black wood from a neighboring campsite. The previous night's campers built a fire outside of the fire ring. He smiled and confirmed our reservations for the evening. Nice fellow.


The next morning, we biked into Custer for breakfast at Baker's Bakery and Cafe. Adorable! The staff were friendly and joked with customers. Richie had their hubcap-size pancakes and I had their muffler-size breakfast burrito. Thankfully, they had to-go boxes that fit on our bikes. No worrying about lunch, now!

We hope you enjoy their logo as much as we did... very clever! Click here.

______________________________

Can we rant for a minute or two, please?

Reading seemed to be this week's theme instead of riding... and we both happened to have completed books ready to trade. While in Custer, we spotted a used book store named The Reader's Retreat.

We were greeted by a sweet dog - playful, yet nervous.

As we entered the store, we saw an angry woman organizing books (we'll call her The Woman). She was commanding the dog to get behind the clerk desk, and she seemed annoyed. The husband (we'll call him The Husband) appeared and told us that the dog was a shelter animal and that she gets really nervous when people come into the store. He asked us to ignore the dog and look at the books. Richie and I looked at each other and said under our breath "Well, if you don't want customers playing with your dog - don't bring her to the store!"

I asked The Woman if they could search their collection by book title (I didn't recall the author's name). She gave me a queer look, avoided the computer, and sharply asked "What are you looking for?"

I couldn't believe this woman was talking to a customer this way! I told her the title Divorce Your Car. She looked at me disgusted and said "Divorce Your Car? Is that a book about divorce or something?" I told her the book was about reducing car usage, and might be in the biking section, but I didn't see it. And without even looking, the woman said "No!"

We finished looking through the selection of books, and each found something we were interested in. Meanwhile, The Husband was barking directions at The Woman (no pun intended).

The Husband was nice enough in exchanging our books, and we quickly went on our way. We spent the next 10 miles in disbelief at the experience.

So if you are in Custer, South Dakota... We highly recommend Baker's Bakery and Cafe, but we discourage a visit to The Reader's Retreat.

Thanks for listening.

______________________________

It was 11am before we left Custer. The night before, we had toyed with the idea of biking to Deadwood (a whopping 70 miles!), or "disperse camp" in the National Forest near the Rochford trailhead. We arrived at the Rochford trailhead, both feeling capable and excited with the full 70-mile challenge to Deadwood, so off we went.

There are signs like this one along highways throughout South Dakota. They are "fatality markers." You can read more about them here.

We arrived at the Deadwood trailhead at 7:15pm. The sun set almost 20 minutes before, and our fingers and toes were frozen, tummies growling.


We arrived a day early at the KOA campground, exhausted, but thankful they had a cabin... urgh... "kabin" available. After a defrosting shower, we ordered pizza, watched a movie on the computer, and zonked out. We spent the next day washing clothes and airing out the tent and sleeping bags.