We decided to take a long bike ride.

The George S. Mickelson Trail is a rails to trails from Deadwood, SD to Edgemont, SD.  The entire trail is 109 miles but we only plan to cover a section of the trail.  For one thing, we need to make a round trip so we can get back to the truck but also we don't think we want to ride a bike for too many hours.

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The plan is to travel out from Hill City and up to the first two tunnels on the trail.

After riding through part of town, we turn to the country side.  The trail is wide and a fine gravel most of the way.

Best of all, Shawna did NOT fall this time. She has learned how to use the gear shift and hand brakes better. 

Long ago the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) worked in the area making roads and other construction.

We stopped at "Redfern" for lunch.  This was a stop for the train where logs were loaded from the harvest of trees in this area.  For us it was a pit toilet, water source (we did not need), and a covered picnic table.

Tunnels!  The two we passed through were amazing.  They have been here for a long time and many areas look almost new.  There is a strong smell of creosote.

We also passed lots of flowers and there were raspberry bushes. We picked a few for a snack. We saw cows, deer, and red squirrels. Had chipmunks running across the bike path right in front of us.

On the return trip, another stop at Redfern was needed.

After returning to the truck and loading the bikes, we stopped at the Firehouse Winery and Brewery for an early supper. Our total mileage was 24 miles during the 4 hours on the trail.  We did use the electric assist on the hills. Some hills had 4% grades. If it were not for that, the ride would have been dramatically shorter.  We both agree that someday we want to ride most if not all of the rest of the trail.