Leaving Sturgis I headed for Mt Rushmore. A lot of tourist traps on the way but the view was worth the drive and $10 to park. If you have a family with kids there were plenty of things to see and do with them for sure. I headed for the hills, Black Hills that is :) I did a ride 15 minutes away from Mt Rushmore and it was super cool.
Almost forgot the night before I was talked into putting on a number plate for a weekly race series in Sturgis. I believe they do it every Wed for 8 weeks with bands after in town. Well, you can tell from the pain on my face it was a little tough. It was a shuttle start with 130 riders and mostly downhill but it did have 1200 ft of climbing. My start was not the best but got into the second group and was hanging until a couple of wrong turns and not knowing the trail made it tricky. I finished 24th, not too bad since I have not raced in 4 years and have been riding every day since June 2.
Some Black Hills goodness!
There were some big rocks in those hills! I felt like I was at Michaux.
Then on to Crosby/ Cayuga. Attention all those reading who mountain bike. Put this on your list of places to hit. The place has it all from fast flowy to some chunky rocks, to jumps and features. The area has over 30 miles of single track which I spent 2 days exploring. With all the lakes you could spend a week here.
This trail went on for 8 miles of pure fun with very little climbing.
One of the many lakes in the area.
The area was an ore mine at one time and half the trails were red from the ore.
At times it looked like Pa woods except the trails were so smooth most of the time.
This was a red trail I think, I was taking the B lines as my rear brake was not working right.
This was on the Black Hills ride. There were a lot of people out mining for gold in the stream.
You can hear the wonky brake. Shout out to Lewis at Red Raven Bikes for fixing me up. Now on to Duluth an IMBA gold center #redravenbikes @redravenbikes #crosbytrails #mtbblog #mtbtrip #mtbadventure