2024 Black Hills Bounty - Still Aint Worried

I don't know what you've been told,

But time is running out, no need to take it slow.

I'm stepping to you toe to toe,

I should be scared, honey, maybe so.

But I aint worried 'bout it right now (right now)

Keeping dreams alive, 1999 heroes.

I aint worried 'bout it right now (right now)

Swimming in the floods, dancing on the clouds below.

I aint worried 'bout it. 

I Aint Worried, Ryan Tedder, Brent Kutzle, Tyler Spry, John Eriksson, Peter Moren & Bjorn Yttling (2022).

After a couple of days, the reality of another Black Hills Bounty sets in.

The 2024 Black Hills Bounty approaches.

Since becoming the first official finisher of the challenging Cloud Peak 500 in 2020, Paul Brasby has enthusiastically herded friends from Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Colorado to join annual, week long bikepacking group rides through the Central Black Hills (2021), the Southern Black Hills (2022), and the Northern Black Hills/Bear Lodge Mountains (2023). See, Black Hills Bounty Page (2021-present). This year, they chose to start in Nebraska and then follow my BackBone Grande route from the South Dakota border to Spearfish, with a couple of unique twists along the way.

It's all coming up soon. And, as Yogi Berra would say, "It's deja vu all over again."

Every year, in the weeks leading up to the ride, these Bounty-riding friends ask very few questions, about any of it. Same thing this year. And I never quite know how to interpret that.

Maybe by now they know what to expect. Maybe the route is too easy. Maybe they're thoroughly prepared. Maybe.

Nah. This group is like the Top Gun fighter pilots playing Dog Fight Football before their improbable mission. They aint worried 'bout it right now.

The Official Theme Song for the Black Hills Bounty.

I Aint Worried, New Republic (2022).