Where’s a zip-line when you need it?

Carstens Cottages to Sylvan Lake Lodge, South Dakota Wednesday, August 4, 2021

So today I started at almost 6000 feet, and finished at 6300. Why did I have to climb over 2000 feet? The elevation profile tells the tale.

On two occasions I dropped about 1000 feet only to have to climb it again. I wished I had a zip-line, so I could just go from peak to peak.

Well if you have to do all this up-and-down nonsense, it helps to have a great rail trail, the Mickelson, which I followed for 32 of these 41 miles. It was amazing how it cut through the landscape, beautifully graded with bridges and tunnels, avoiding all the ups and downs of the adjacent road. It used to be the Burlington Northern railroad, built many years ago, but what a tour de force of civil engineering.

• 

• 

It’s crushed limestone, generally very smooth, but because it had rained so hard last night, there were some ruts and soft spots in places. For the most part, though, I was able to cruise down the first slope averaging 18 miles an hour, grinning ear to ear, trying not to think about the paying-the-piper climbs ahead.

That last climb was on paved roads, no shoulders, as steep as I have encountered on this trip. In my lowest gear, I was weaving from side to side and having to take up the whole lane. Long lines of cars and motorcycles would pile up behind me, but not one person beeped or shouted, mostly just called out words of encouragement. At the top were the twisted granite cliffs and spires the Black Hills are famous for, you could see how one of them could’ve been transformed into Mount Rushmore.

Distance 41 miles, 4,878 total. Time 7 hours with stops. Elevation gain 2,109 feet

©️ 2021 Scott Luria