On Tuesday, September 30, 2025, we traveled to Deadwood, South Dakota to take advantage of the unusually wonderful October weather for riding the George S. Mickelson Trail over the next few days. The forecast for October 1 through October 3 was for high temperatures in the 70s and 80s, with only a slight chance of rain on the 1st. The trail is roughly 109 miles long, and we decided to cover it in three days of riding. The map included here was found at https://gfp.sd.gov/userdocs/mickelson-trail-map.pdf
Day 0 – September 30, 2025
On the first day, we traveled approximately 12 hours to Deadwood, South Dakota. We decided to start at Deadwood and end at Edgemont to minimize our uphill riding. On our journey, we stopped at the Hangar Bar and Grill near Casper, Wyoming. The food was quite good and it was nice to get out of the truck for an hour or so. We arrived at Deadwood around 10 pm and checked into the Tru by Hilton Hotel. We checked with the hotel before booking to ensure they were comfortable with us bringing our bikes into our room. We ride Trek Domane+ SLR 7 bikes, and we don’t want them to disappear from the rear of our truck. While we cover and lock them on the rack to protect them for short stops, we are more careful with long stops and overnight stays. While we understand you can park your vehicle at the trailhead and other locations in Deadwood, we opted to leave our truck in the hotel parking lot for three days. They typically charge $15 per day for parking, but they simply handed us a pass to hang in our vehicle. We suspect this is due to it being off-season, and we will be back to remove our vehicle before the weekend.
Day 1 – October 1, 2025
We weren’t in a hurry to get started because it wasn’t going to get hot the first day, and we couldn’t check-in to our next hotel in Hill City until 4 pm. We ate the hotel-provided breakfast, packed our clothing and gear in our front and rear bags, and headed to the Mickelson Trailhead in Deadwood. The short ride through Deadwood was easy and riding down historic Main Street with its brick paving material was fun.
The entire ride from Deadwood to Hill City was gorgeous. We picked the perfect time of the year to ride the Mickelson Trail. In three days, we saw at most two dozen other cyclists on the trail and a handful of pedestrians. The trail conditions were perfect and the fall colors were gorgeous. The trail surface is crushed stone and well packed in most areas. The only loose gravel we encountered was on the first day’s ride, mostly on the descents. However, most of these were obvious and easily avoided. Our bikes originally had 32 mm road tires, but we swapped those out for 38 mm tires to make our bikes more gravel-friendly. They were perfect for this trail.
The first 15 miles or so were uphill. Being a rail trail, most of these climbs are gradual. We came across a few short but steeper sections. We never encountered climbs that required walking. You can see from the map that after this initial climb, it was mostly a downhill adventure into Hill City. This section of the trail includes numerous bridges, tunnels, and cut canyons. The bridges are surprisingly smooth, and even the transitions from trail to bridge and back are very smooth. The tunnels are very short and don’t really require lights, but removing your sunglasses is advised.
At the Rochford trailhead, about 26 miles from Deadwood, we decided to stop for lunch in Rochford. It was pretty simple getting around and finding your way in this very small town. Everything you are looking for is on Rochford Rd. (see signage). In addition, during this time of the year your choices are limited. So, we decided to eat at the only open establishment on Rochford Rd.
Moonshine Gulch Saloon was great. It was such gorgeous weather, and wanting to watch our bikes, we ate outside. The barkeep was so friendly and helpful, and the food was delicious. I should learn to not judge a book by its cover, but I wasn’t expecting much from this place and it over-delivered. Their attitudes and the food just added joy to our day.
After lunch, the downhill adventure continued for a few miles and then came a gentle climb to Mystic trailhead, pictured to the right. Most of the trailheads along the Mickelson Trail have a shelter, water, and signage, like Mystic. A few of the stops have bike racks and even repair stands. After a brief stop at Mystic, we had a brief climb and then descended into Hill City to end our ride for the day.
We arrived at the Best Western Golden Spike Inn and Suites in Hill City around 4 pm. We checked in, rolled our bikes to our room, swam alone in the heated indoor pool, and then got on our street clothes and enjoyed Hill City. What a fun little tourist town. We had dinner at the Alpine Inn. The food was quite good, but boy were we surprised when we learned they don’t take credit cards. They have an ATM, but we learned that we were carrying an outdated debit card. We talked one of the servers into allowing us to pay her via Venmo, and then have her pay our bill. I am so thankful for her willingness to help us out. Who doesn’t take credit cards in our day and age, heck even the Moonshine Gulch Saloon took our cards. Our day ended with chocolates from the local candy store. Day 1 was a beautiful 51.2 mile ride.
Day 2 – October 2, 2025
We began our day with a nice provided hotel breakfast. After breakfast, we packed our things and began our short 15-mile ride to Custer. It began with an easy 10-mile climb followed by a 5-mile descent into Custer. The last bit of the trail in Custer is paved, but the paved portion was bumpier than any part of the gravel trail we rode. I’ll mention again, that the Mickelson Trail is exceptionally maintained; in three days of riding, I think I found only three small potholes.
We arrived in Custer about noon and rode to the cabin where we would be staying. We negotiated an earlier than normal check-in time of 2 pm. We rode back into Custer for a nice lunch at the Mt. Rushmore Brewing Company. The food was great and the staff didn’t mind us hanging out there for two hours while our room was prepared.
We checked into our cabin at Rock Crest Lodge and Cabins, at the west end of Custer. The cabin was big enough to sleep eight and had a wonderful hot tub on the back porch up against the mountains. It was a pleasant place to relax for the night before our last segment of the trail from Custer to Edgemont. That night we ate at a very interesting restaurant, Skogen Kitchen, a rather upscale restaurant with tasty and interesting food.
Day 3 – October 3, 2025
We rose fairly early and were ready to leave by 8 am. At 8, we acquired some provided breakfast items and ate them on our cabin’s front porch. About 9 am we rolled away from Custer. We expected this to be a long, but easy descent. We were a bit surprised with how easy it was. We were often riding at 19 to 20 mph, made possible by the descent and the well-maintained trail. Some say this segment isn’t worth riding, but we disagree. This segment is easy and there are a few interesting things along the way. There is the pile of bikes — who wouldn’t want to see this huge collection of junk bikes? What we can’t figure out is how these got here and who keeps adding bikes. This place isn’t on the way to anywhere, and the local town doesn’t even have a bike shop.
Then there is the beautiful Sheep Canyon. The place and views are stunning and the history is interesting to read about. The original train trestle that crossed this canyon was not trusted by the train engineers. One of the engineers would exit the train and walk across the bridge. The second engineer would put the train in gear and wait until the train made it safely across before rejoining his fellow engineer who jumped aboard and stopped the train on the far side of the bridge. If the train didn’t make it, at least both engineers would be alive.
After arriving in Edgemont we rode around the small town looking for lunch. Most places were closed for the season; one wouldn’t take credit cards (thank goodness because it looked scary), so, we chose the only open place, Victory Steakhouse and Lounge. We took our food to the local park, which is also the trailhead, and ate lunch while we waited for our ride back to Deadwood.
After the trip from Custer to Edgemont, and our journey around town looking for food, we ended up adding 46.1 miles to our total trip. While eating lunch our shuttle driver arrived and we loaded our bikes onto his vehicle. We arranged this ride before coming to South Dakota with Touring the Black Hills. Brad and Kelly were wonderful to work with. In fact, on our ride from Custer to Edgemont it was clear we were going to arrive much sooner than expected so we gave them a call and adjusted our pickup time; they were happy to adjust.
Brad delivered us right to our waiting truck and helped us unload our bikes. We loaded our bikes and gear into our vehicle and went to find our mountain cabin we would call home for the next four days. We figured after having completed our bucket-list goal of riding the Mickelson Trail, we deserved a relaxing vacation. During our ride, we enjoyed sunny and warm weather in the 70s and 80s. After moving into our vacation cabin, the weather declined — highs in the 50s, with rain and snow. It was lovely in all respects. After our relaxing vacation, we traveled home and got the bikes ready for our next adventure.
The George S. Mickelson Trail was everything we hoped it would be — quiet, scenic, and unforgettable. We would love to ride this trail again. While we loved our stay in Custer, we might try doing the ride in two days instead of three. On Day 1, we would ride from Deadwood to Hill City, and on Day 2, we would ride from Hill City to Custer for lunch, then continue from Custer to Edgemont in the afternoon. The ride from Custer to Edgemont was so easy that it doesn’t require its own day. Having enjoyed the Mickelson Trail, we can’t wait to experience more rail trails, such as the Katy Trail and the C&O Trail.