Hill Country in South Dakota and Nebraska
Phil and Nancy Busching, president and treasurer of the Black Hills Mountain Bike Association, successful race organizers, physical therapists and pro x-c racers for the SoBe Headshock Team kept us very busy in Rapid City. They led us through some of the best trails in the Black Hills including; Storm Mt., Highway 44, Pigmore and sections of the fantastic100 plus mile Centennial Trail.
20 members of the BHMBA participated in our trail design slide show. We spent Saturday assessing and reestablishing tread at highway 44. Sunday we rode what might be one of the finest examples of trail design we've ever seen, on the Alkali Creek to Elk Creek section of the Centennial Trail. Everyone was really great including Tim who took care of our ailing bikes at Acme Bicycles. We briefly ran into Perry who is nurturing hundreds of miles of trails up north. We also met our idols Bruce and Tass (legendary bike tourers and adventurers). Years ago, their book "The Road to Dreams" gave us the inspiration to travel on bikes through out Southeast Asia. It was great to finally meet them and hear their latest tale of walking into a pride of lions in Africa!
The Black Hills blew us away and so did the people of BHMBA, its was awesome to see a group so passionate about the sport. We headed south, across the state-line to North Platte, Nebraska. Patty and George had dinner waiting for us with 12 of their friends. Patty runs Cycle Sport bike shop in North Platte and Steve Potter is developing trails south of Brady. Once again, we were greeted by passionate riders and surprisingly wonderful hills. They listened to our ideas and participated in our trail design slide show. We talked about what makes a trail system unique and sustainable. Steve has 1200 acres of rolling loess hills and beautiful cedar groves.
The next day we assessed Steve's trails with the group, finding some amazing potential. Steve already has over 15 miles of single-track with names like Carcass Canyon, Moots and Church Grove. With some contour adjustments the trail system could double or triple, offering killer views and even twistier forested challenges! We had such a great spring, finding so many great trails all through the west.
Since Europe, we visited trails in Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. It's great to see trails growing everywhere! We'll spend a few weeks in our home state Colorado and then we'll head northwest. See you there.
Thank you,
Joey and Kathy, TCC2
A few more states to add to the list.
