This last weekend a bunch of us from Mitchell joined Andy from Spearfish to test out some of the trails we’ll ride during the Black Hills Muni Weekend (www.blackhills.unicyclist.com).
The trails are awesome! The first .6 miles of the RimRock trail was a steep rocky staircase climb, carrying our unicycles on our backs. We were rewarded with a 5 mile descent down the backbone of the mountain. The trail was singletrack all the way. In some places the trail was worn deep enough to risk pedal strikes, but that was rare. We rode through several great rock gardens that tested each of us, and we found some really steep downhill switchbacks as well.
After the ride we drove up to explore a different trailhead—one that would allow us to combine the Old Baldy Trail with the RimRock Trail. It looks as if a shuttle would let us start the ride high on Old Baldy (avoiding the .6 mile climb) and ride all the way down to the bottom. There is even an option to hike/ride to the summit of Old Baldy, then ride down. This will be an amazing ride!
On Sunday we got snowed out. We’d planned to test a whole network of trails called Eagle’s Cliff, but the blowing snow was just too cold.
We took lots of photos and some movies. I’ll get them onto the website later this week.
Warning: the lodging is beginning to sell out! I think Wikiup Village might already be sold out. The Timon and the Rod and Gun primitive campgrounds would be great places to stay, but they don’t take reservations. There are lots of options in Spearfish, but they are going fast. You can get into the Spearfish Canyon Lodge. It’s upscale, a great location, and a bit pricey.
David Maxfield