This is a fun one-day ride with 30, 65, and 100 options that go through some of the most beautiful areas of the Black Hills. Although there aren't as many aid stations as you'd find on larger rides in urban areas the ride is well organized and staffed, and it benefits several great charities in the Rapid City area.

The central Black Hills had severe weather the evening before the ride with tornados, hail, and flooding in several areas. We rode past Hermosa, which was one of the hardest hit areas and as we rode on highway 36 towards the Needles Highway there were several places where highway crews had used snow plows to clear the debris off the road early that morning.

One nice thing about doing the 100 mile ride instead of the 65 mile ride is that the shorter ride goes over what locals call Hayward Hill - its a 15% grade for a mile. Even without this particular hill I still spent 7000 calories making 6567 feet of elevation gain for the day.

Here's what you see while riding through the Black Hills.
Some of these pictures were taken with a camera that I mounted to the front of my bike, others were taken the following day as I re-traced the route before starting out for my next adventure.

Since I'd had something of a history with railroad tracks I'm always a little nervous when crossing cattle guards, but they came and went uneventfully.

It was a fun ride, I even saw some wildlife along the way.

External Links:
Mt Rushmore Century Ride web site
Black Hills Regional Ski for Light

Last Updated: 9/28/2007 - Anthony Anderberg - ant@anderbergfamily.net