Written by Dave

Day 36 – July 3 – 48 Miles, 2,700 feet climbing (Edgemont to Custer)

Today we got off the highway and rode the George S. Mickelson rail trail. Rail trails are found throughout the USA. They are mostly disused rail lines that have had rails and ties removed. Some are pretty rough, think big gravel or washboards. Some are have been paved and are perfectly smooth. The Mickelson trail is surface is primarily crushed limestone and gravel. We rode 46 miles on the Mickelson today and found the surface to nearly perfect. It was great fun being away from traffic and not having to call out “car back” every time a vehicle overtook us. The gravel is undoubtedly slower than riding the asphalt but the direction that we rode had nearly constant 1-2% uphill grades so our speed was already somewhat lower. The gravel made little difference.

Our good friends at Adventure Cycling rate the Mickelson trail as one of the top 10 rail trails in the USA. There are 4 tunnels on the trail and over 100 converted railroad bridges. We will be only riding about 60 of the trail’s 109 miles and will unfortunately miss the tunnels. The last operator to use the line, before it was abandoned in 1986, was Burlington Northern Railroad. The trail is named after George S. Mickelson, the South Dakota governor who helped spearhead the project.  Mickelson was a Republican governor who built things (like Tom McCall of Oregon) rather than just focusing on fighting woke (whatever that is) and banning books – just saying…

Anyway, we enjoyed the ride. The uphill became a little tiring and there was a pesky headwind at times but they have positioned rest areas at just about the right spacing and we never got overly hot, hungry or tired. Early on near Edgemont there were more antelope and deer tracks on the track surface than there were bicycle tracks. I thought we’d see more animals than we did but we only saw one antelope and no deer. Nearing Custer we did see a good sized herd of buffalo (with best we could tell there were at least 11 babies). I think they were fenced but it was hard to tell. They didn’t seem at all phased by bikes passing them.

We saw a few other riders on the trail but didn’t get a chance to talk with anyone. Nearing Custer, there were a few more folks on e-bikes, we suspect that they may rent them here. Other riders had complained about un-skilled e-bike riders going too fast but we found all the other trail users more than polite. Tomorrow we have about 12 more miles of the trail to ride first thing in the morning.

When we arrived in Custer, the first shop we saw was a broiled chicken drive-thru shop. Curtis couldn’t resist and bough a 4 piece chicken set. Chris, not to be outdone by Curtis bought an 8 piece chicken set. Nancy and I rode on to the pie shop where I had pie and Nancy had a huckleberry milkshake. When the boys arrived Curtis ate all of his chicken (and jo-jos). Chris looked a little shocked at how much chicken he had purchased and agreed to save half of if for chicken burritos for dinner tonight.

It was a short ride from Custer to the Custer Crazy Horse Campground. Curtis had reserved a tent site that, when the extra fees for all of our tents were added in, would have cost us $55 for the night. There were some very dark clouds about and thunderstorms were forecast so when the owners agreed to waive their three night minimum for the dry cabins, we took it. For the same price as a tent sight, we are now all sleeping inside.

The cabin is small, very small. Chris has promised to take a Benadryl so he doesn’t snore. Nancy will be elbowing me every time I make even the slightest noise. Curtis wears ear plugs so he’ll be fine. We have to walk about 30 yards up a hill to use the facilities and the cabin door squeaks a little so we’ll see how this experiment goes. Thankfully it did rain a little already this arvo so we were all happy to be inside. For the next hour severe thunderstorms are forecast. Nancy just said, “I hope it hails”.

Tomorrow is the 4^th of July and we are riding to Rapid City to stay for a couple days with a friend and former work colleague of Cindi’s (Lynn). We were scheduled to stop at Mt Rushmore on the way past but doing so on the 4^th does seem crazy and Lynn has offered the use of her car so that we can drive out there after the 4^th on one of our rest days. We are only 4 miles from Crazy Horse (the other big rock carving in these parts) and it is right on our way tomorrow, just off the Mickelson, so we’ll be there right when they open at 8AM and try seeing things before the crowds build there.

I think traffic for the 4^th of July weekend would have been building today but honestly, I don’t know if it has. Spending all day on the Mickelson means we had quiet roads and little holiday traffic – hard not to argue with that aspect of a rail trail.