George S. Mickelson Trail

As a rule, in this blog, I try to resist anticipating where the trikers will stop each day and how they will get there, but half the fun of travel is planning the trip, and half the vicarious fun for me is researching the road ahead. I had been wondering, therefore, how Dee and Cal would ride from Hot Springs, SD to Williston, ND, or rather, how they planned to get to Belle Fourche, since north of I-90, US 85 would appear the only route.

Vertical Feet

Route	385	79
min	3255	3146
max	5873	3652
ascent	3507	1411
descent	3678	1608

From Hot Springs to Spearfish, however, the quandary was this. US 385, winding around the west of Custer State Park, is steep, with grades of up to 4% in places, maybe more. The vertical climb is 3500 ft. The alternative route is SD-79, which runs along the east side of Custer Park and is relatively flat and straight. There are a few grades of 2%, but most are 1% or less. This is not readily apparent from the road map, but if you click on the Terrain button in the upper right-hand corner of the Google map, it becomes obvious. SD-79 is also the shorter route to Rapid City, but I had thought they might want to bypass the city because it appears to me that the only direct route from Rapid City to Spearfish is I-90, not so great for trikes. Nonetheless, when Dee mentioned stopping in Rapid City for supplies, I assumed they would take 79, and then I would just have to wait and see how they would get to US 85.

Last night, however, I received an email from Dee saying that they have changed their itinerary, which I take as permission to share it here. They are no longer going through Rapid City, having found a "rails to trails" bike trail called the George S. Mickelson Trail (map). It starts in Edgemont and ends in Deadwood (109 miles). They will pick it up at Minnekahta Junction just west of Hot Springs. It follows the route of an abandoned railroad branch line constructed by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in 1890-91 and last operated by the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1983. Therefore, even though there is still a pretty good climb, its slopes are much more gentle than US 385. It sounds marvelous. Dee says that they plan to sight see in Hot Springs all day Wednesday and leave for the bike trail Thursday, weather permitting.