George S. Mickelson Trail

We just returned from this beautiful epic trail. We rode the trail from Custer to Deadwood in two days.We stayed in Custer as our base. Highly recommend the Rocket Hotel as a place to stay and its easy access to the trail. We started out heading North from Custer to Mystic. You begin a five mile gentle up hill climb. After ten miles is the welcomed sight of Hill City. Get any items you may need here. This is a larger town and has places to eat, drink and food stores. Most right along the trail path. Heading out of Hill City northbound you will be rolling downhill for about 8 miles before entering the beautiful area of Mystic. There is no town of Mystic. We unaware of this were caught by surprise and were nearing the depletion of our food and water. The next town north is Rochford. We were informed by a native that the trek would take us 8 miles up hill and that the Rochford establishment may or may not be open. We opted to return to base. This required a grueling 9 mile climb back to Hill City. This was the steepest portion of the trail. This was a 4 degree grade up hill. Once we returned to Hill City we restocked our food and had lunch. We returned back to Custer in the early evening. The next day we drove from our base at The Rocket Hotel and traveled to Deadwood and rode the trail from Deadwood to Rochford. This was a great ride and we were well prepared for the journey. All though hilly and some steep grades especially neat Deadwood we found this portion of the trail to be relatively easy compared to the day before. The trail is spectacular from Custer to Deadwood and at every curve the scenery changes. The northern section of the trail is mostly forest. In my opinion. There is no section to start at to make it less hilly as you will climb hills. This trail is rated as easy and we all found it to be more of a intermediate trail.We also had expectations of riding a century ride on the trail and and we were 40 miles short. Primarily due to the missing town of Mystic and questionable food source in Rochford. The 60 miles we did in one day felt like a century ride though. All in all this trail is all it is said to be. There is ample wildlife. We saw Cows, Horse, Wild Turkeys, Deer, Elk,Falcons,Eagles,Green Snakes, Raddle Snake.The trail was lightly traveled on our visit (weekday). The town and surrounding area establishments close up at 9 p.m.. This trail rocked and we rocked 84 miles of it. Highly recommended this gem. Packing List: Venture Pal Lightweight Packable Durable Travel Hiking Backpack Daypack Fox Outfitters Ultralight Series Self Inflating Camp Pad LifeStraw Personal Water Filter