Black Hills BackBone and DoubleBackBone Page - 2025 Bump

Ten years ago, I published the first post on this blog by introducing the Black Hills BackBone.

It was not a race, or public event, or "Grand Depart," or anything like that. It was just a route that I created to ride myself. Then I created this blog to document my journey, in part as a digital scrapbook and in part to share my experience with others. Three years later, I added the DoubleBackBone because, sometimes, more is more.

That all started another 10 years of exploring thousands of miles of gravel and dirt backcountry roads throughout the Black Hills and out into the surrounding prairie. And beyond. It's been a ride.

Here's a link to the Black Hills BackBone & DoubleBackBone Page, which describes the routes in detail and links a series of posts sharing maps, images, logistics, and ride reports.

The broad shoulders of Flag Mountain reveal the granite peaks of the Central Black Hills.

Inspired by the cross-country routes of the TransAmerican Trail and the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route of the Adventure Cycling Association, and by the cross-state races of the original TransIowa, Gut Check 212, and similar races, I wondered whether I could create a remote road route on primarily gravel and dirt roads that spanned the height of the State of South Dakota along the spine of the Black Hills. That whimsical daydream led to many hours of scouring maps, scouting back roads, and pedaling all over Western South Dakota. There seemed to be no end of options.

I struggled with this route, primarily because the Black Hills National Forest offers a staggering number of amazing roads to ride. Scouting a promising road invariably leads to more. At some point, I simply had to stop, prioritize, and choose. The Black Hills BackBone is the result. Here are the cue sheets, from the route first published in January 2015 and updated in 2017. Black Hills BackBone Cue Sheets. Here's a link to a RideWithGPS file that I created in 2021 from those cue sheets. Black Hills BackBone - 2021 Digital Map. And here's a Page with links to posts, photos and maps. Black Hills BackBone Page.

Riding into the sunset at the finish of our 2017 Black Hills BackBone.
Rob Sorge, Dave Litzen, Shaun Arritola & Craig Groseth
(photo by Corinne Sorge)

Conceived as a continuous, self-supported, solo ride, the Black Hills BackBone readily lends itself to a multi-day bikepacking trip or even a multi-day supported tour. In 2017, a small group of friends rode the entire route over three days in the heat and wind of a Fourth of July weekend. For my multi-post report on that ride go to An Idea Takes Shape; Gathering; Crossing The Northern Prairie; Up And Into The Black Hills; Focus On The Finish; A Weekend To Remember; Friends.

Over the years, many cyclists have asked about the BackBone and I know of several other attempts. For example, on a cold, rainy Memorial Day weekend in 2019, an intrepid group of eight cycling enthusiasts from Colorado made a run at it. On that particular weekend of difficult conditions, they rode about as much of the route as one reasonably could. They said they had a great time, particularly their Day 3 from O'Neil Pass to Custer, and have returned to ride Black Hills back roads every year since. New Friends On The BackBone.

The Black Hills BackBone is one memorable ride across the State of South Dakota.

But wait, there's more.

Miles and miles of remote back roads on the Black Hills DoubleBackBone.
Self-sufficiency required.

Say you've ridden the Black Hills BackBone all the way to the STOP sign finish at the Nebraska border. A celebration is certainly in order, along with the photo or two. But then imagine turning pedals westerly on Dakota Line Road to access the Wild, Wild Western reaches of the Black Hills. Back there, a serpentine network of barely used gravel and dirt roads await for you to wind generally north for a return trip back to the North Dakota border.

Now, that's one big, bad loop. 330 miles to add to the BackBone, making over 640 miles, all told.

It's the Black Hills DoubleBackBone. DoubleBackBone Digital. DoubleBackBone Cue Sheets.

Sometimes, more is more. More rolling prairie patrolled by herds of cattle, buffalo, pronghorn, and elk. More obscure canyons scoured by flash floods. More twisty ridge lines climbing to soaring views. More hills stuffed with pine and aspen. More dirt near-roads connecting with Secondary Forest Service gravel. And even more remote than the easterly side of the loop, which is a bit hard to believe until you're out there.

The Black Hills DoubleBackBone, like the original BackBone, is just a route that I think is fun and challenging, however one chooses to experience it. Solo or group. One continuous ride, a series of days, or in sections over time. Self-supported, shuttled, or fully supported. Maybe some combination or even all of the above. 

The Black Hills BackBone. Go big.

The Black Hills DoubleBackBone. Go bigger.

The Black Hills. Just go.

New Year - Let's Go!

It's a New Year! I'm dreaming up a ride or two. Hope you are, too!

To spark imaginations and maybe help with some planning, every January I publish a series of posts that highlight my bikepacking Pages on this blog:  the original Black Hills BackBone & Double BackBone, the relatively new, more rugged BackBone Grande, the surprisingly resilient Cloud Peak 500, and the always popular Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. 

Those Pages describe each route in detail and link to series of posts sharing maps, images, logistics, and ride reports. Just the thing to help you get started, and maybe even get out there. Posts bumping individual Pages start next week, although you can go to those Pages anytime.

For 2025, I'm going back for Year 5 of the Black Hills Bounty. Other than that, I'm not sure.

But I'll be out there somewhere, drawing on that big white sheet of paper.

Brain Endurance Training & Paper Maps

"Brain Endurance Training (BET), a combined cognitive and exercise approach, has been shown to significantly improve cognitive and physical performance in older adults."

Brain Endurance Training Combats Age-Related Decline in Focus, Neuroscience News, 10/11/24.

That grabbed my attention. 

Another day finding my way on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route with paper maps.
And I thought I was just out for a ride.
(image by Paul Brasby)

As I understand from a rudimentary reading of some published reports, BET is an approach to exercise both the brain and the rest of the body in a structured, complementary training program. This can be achieved with separate mental and physical workouts, but also with cognitively fatiguing tasks during demanding physical workouts. Although developed for elite athletes, it recently has been shown to apply more broadly, including to those in the MediCare race category.

One report summarized BET as follows:

"BET's core principle revolves around using cognitive stress as a catalyst for a broad spectrum of physiological adaptions, extending beyond mere task efficiency to encompass increased mental resilience, enhanced decision-making capabilities under fatigue, and overall physical endurance."

"Brain endurance training is not merely about getting better at specific cognitive tasks. Instead, it's about expanding an athlete's cognitive and physical capabilities, enabling them to perform at higher levels, with less perceived effort, and make better decisions under fatigue. The misconception that improvement in task performance is equivalent to athletic enhancement misses the core objective of BET:  to forge athletes who can outlast and outperform their competitors by cultivating a more resilient and capable neural engine." Understanding BET:  It's Not About Task Mastery, It's About Capacity Expansion, Soma Technologies, March 21, 2024.

Wow.

What gravel cyclist/bikepacker does not want to increase mental resilience, decision-making capabilities under fatigue, and physical endurance?

I read one example of BET training as solving mathematical problems during an endurance bicycle ride at 80-85 percent effort. That sounds to me like most any gravel race of 100-200 miles or more, especially when navigating by cue sheets. Or most any day bikepacking remote roads and trails, when navigating by paper maps.

From riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, navigating only with paper maps and an odometer, I know that both physical and mental resilience improved significantly over the course of seven challenging weeks. Here's what I wrote shortly afterward:

"Working through a difficult first two weeks, I eventually found my rhythm and rode stronger, longer, higher, and faster as the weeks passed, even as the roads and conditions deteriorated significantly in New Mexico. At the end I believed I could have continued to ride even stronger for many, many more weeks." The Great Divide - Believe, BlackHillsBackBone.blogspot.com, April 5, 2022.

This merits more research.

In the meantime, I'll keep riding with those paper maps.

Merry Christmas 2024!

Merry Christmas! 

Peace and good will to all.

Addendum. I love that Linus lets go of his security blanket when the angel of the Lord says "Fear Not!"

The Meaning Of Christmas, by Linus.

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965).

Coming Home!

On the last day of November two years ago, my Dad died. So, this is already our third Christmas without him. Seems like yesterday. Seems like a lifetime ago.

When I saw this picture and short story on social media, I thought of Dad. We always had a special connection with baseball.

God bless all of you missing loved ones. May you find peace and hope in this season.

"I recently read about a man who collects pictures of hitters who had hit walk-off home runs. He said that the reason he did this is because this is how he views us entering heaven.

Look at the faces of his teammates waiting to welcome him home. Look at their excitement. They can't wait to celebrate with him.

Look at the fans. Arms raised, big smiles, maybe even hugs for a perfect stranger.

Perhaps this is your first holiday season without someone important who is now waiting for you in heaven. Maybe it's just another one with that big hole in your heart and an empty seat at the table. Either way, I hope you can find some encouragement in this picture, what it represents to the man who collected it, and find joy this year."

Shared via Greg Payne.

2024 Black Hills Bounty (Day 7) - Going Home

Well, I'm going home, back to the place where I belong

And where your love has always been enough for me.

I'm not running from, no, I think you got me all wrong.

I don't regret this life I chose for me.

But these places and these faces are getting old,

So, I'm going home.

Home, Chris Daughtry (2007).

Emerging from Lost Canyon onto Old Baldy Road (USFS Low Standard Road 633.1).
(image by Luke Derstein)

Day 7 of the 2024 Black Hills Bounty.

Rapid City, South Dakota is my home and the Black Hills are my backyard. Riding into the Hills for a day, a week, or longer isn't leaving home for me.

But it is for the rest of the crew on the Bounty. They all traveled hundreds of miles from their regular lives with families and friends in Nebraska and Kansas, just to ride together for a week in the Black Hills. 

So, on Day 7, they're going home.

Descending out of Lost Canyon on an abandoned road. 
(image by Paul Brasby)

Camping at the bottom of a narrow canyon makes for a memorable evening, but also a cold morning. So, we break camp quickly and layer up for the relatively short, (mostly) downhill ride into Spearfish. We're rolling down Lost Canyon long before the first direct sunlight reaches our site.

As customary, the final day of the Bounty is, at most, a half-day so the crew can start their drive home. But this is still the Black Hills Bounty, which means a mix of challenging near-roads, USFS Low Standard, Secondary, and Primary Roads, and maybe even some pavement. And at least one steep pitch. Well, just because.

Tracking another unnumbered road along Beaver Creek.
(image by Paul Brasby)

In no time, the crew drops out of Lost Canyon and onto Old Baldy Road (USFS Low Standard Road 633.1) and then Schoolhouse Gulch Road (USFS Secondary Road 222). The reprieve on that moderately developed road is very short, however, as we immediately turn onto another unmarked, unnumbered, barely two-track winding up a valley alongside Beaver Creek.

Just as the crew settles into a rhythm on that rough near-road, we turn ninety degrees to face a climb directly up to a distant ridge line. Looking up that steep, loose, rough two track is a bit daunting, especially on a loaded bikepacking bike. But all it really takes is a little focus and a little patience. And a willful ignorance of speed.

Bounty riders prepare for a 90 degree turn onto a steep pitch directly up to a ridge line.
(image by Paul Brasby)

Smooth ridge line cruising on USFS Low Standard Road 130.
(image by Paul Brasby)

Cresting that pitch, we t-bone into a curiously well built and maintained USFS Low Standard Road 130, which rides much more like a solid Secondary Road. Many roads and trails branch off this road as it follows along a nice ridge line. Now, we're cruising.

But we're not done yet. We eventually turn off USFS Low Standard Road 130 onto another one of those unnumbered, unmarked two track near-roads for a rollicking two mile descent that's just rough enough to keep your attention. Too soon, we drop onto Higgins Gulch Road (USFS Secondary Road 214) for the final, champagne gravel road into Spearfish. 

Loading up Paul's toy hauler at Rushmore Bikes in Spearfish.
(image by Luke Derstein)

All loaded up for the drive home.

The sun never did warm up those canyons and gulches we descended that morning. We were cold when finally stopping at Rushmore Bikes in Spearfish. Hard to believe that we started this trip a week ago in the blazing oven of Buffalo Gap National Grasslands.

After a quick change into warmer traveling clothes, we load up bikes and gear in Paul's toy hauler and hit the open road. 

They're going home.

Addendum. Here's a link to the Black Hills Bounty Page, which describes and links all blog post for every post for every year of this ride (2021-present). Black Hills Bounty Page.

Home, Daughtry (2007).

2024 Black Hills Bounty (Day 6) - The Way To Lost Canyon

This is the way.

Din Djarin, The Mandalorian (2020).

Settling in for the night in Lost Canyon.
(image by Paul Brasby)

Day 6 of the 2024 Black Hills Bounty.

Five days into the 2024 Bounty, we finally loaded up our bikes for self-supported bikepacking to venture deep into the heart of the Black Hills. Over a solid day of pedaling, we rode up rough back roads, through Mickelson Trail tunnels, and along a bucolic valley to a gorgeous Forest Service primitive campground. After a rough start, we were back. See, Back on the BackBone, At Last. 

We awake ready to dive deeper. 

Loaded up at Black Fox Campground to search for Lost Canyon.

On Day 6, we roll up Black Fox Camp Road (USFS Secondary Standard Road 233) to access even rougher roads that eventually claw up to picturesque USFS Hanna Campground. The walk-in camping area there would be a great place for bikepackers to stay, but it's far too early for that today. So, we drop a few miles to popular Cheyenne Crossing for a scrumptious meal.

Then we coast down cliff-lined Spearfish Canyon to Roughlock Falls Road (USFS Secondary Road 222.3). Motorized vehicle traffic picks up for a mile or so as we spin up the well-traveled, wash-boarded gravel road to the falls. After that tourist destination, traffic thankfully dwindles, even with two USFS campgrounds further upstream.

Not surprisingly, the striking scenery does not let up. Bright fall colors paint the stark canyon.

Roughlock Falls Road (USFS Secondary Road 222.3).
(image by Paul Brasby)

Western reaches of Roughlock Falls Road (USFS Secondary Road 222.3).
(image by Paul Brasby)

Emerging from that canyon, we obligingly grind a very short stretch of Tinton Road (USFS Primary Road 134), a veritable autobahn of a gravel road, to connect with Schoolhouse Gulch Road (USFS Secondary Road 222). Sigh of relief. Let's get back on the good stuff.

Schoolhouse Gulch Road starts out pretty smooth, rolling up gently along grass filled meadows and pine stuffed hills. It's a relaxing, contemplative spin into the Northern Hills backcountry. There's little development, other than the nice gravel road, fence lines, and a small reservoir for cattle.

Schoolhouse Gulch Road (USFS Secondary Road 222).
(image by Luke Derstein)

School house Gulch Road (USFS Secondary Road 222).
(image by Paul Brasby)

With the oh-so-pleasant ride and a hardly signed road, it would be very easy for the inattentive rider to miss the turn onto Pettigrew Gulch Road. So, we pay attention and continue on the way to Lost Canyon. For the next half mile, that USFS two track winds between fence lines and a few structures, before abruptly turning 90 degrees to drop down a little hill back into Black Hills National Forest. 

Then the "road' slowly dissipates to little more than grass occasionally trampled by cattle. It's National Forest land, but the road is long ago abandoned. It does not even show up on official USFS maps.

Pettigrew Gulch Road. Yes, that's a USFS Low Standard Road onto which we turned.
(image by Paul Brasby)

One fence to open/close on the abandoned road near Bonanza Gulch.
(image by Luke Derstein)

But it's there, generally tracking a creek and sometimes discernible from the remains of a built road bed long since covered and re-covered with vegetation. After negotiating a gated fence, we round a corner and there it is.

Lost Canyon.

Seeking sites for tents in Lost Canyon.

Sheer rock walls close in from both sides, creating a narrow canyon through which flows a happy little creek. The abandoned road bed reappears on the now rocky ground, revealing a bit of a shoulder and the makings of an old two track. The road bed forms the only somewhat flat surface between canyon wall and creek, so we fan out to find spots to pitch our tents. 

As shadows from the setting sun crawl up the opposing canyon wall, the sights, sounds, and smells of dinner drift over our small encampment. A small campfire draws the crew together as the evening fades to black on our final night on the 2024 Black Hills Bounty.

This is the way.

Jeff''s tent as shadows lengthen in Lost Canyon.
(image by Paul Brasby)

Small tent city emerges in Lost Canyon.
(image by Paul Brasby)

Paul's choice site along Beaver Creek.
(image by Paul Brasby)

Dinner time as the sun drops.
(image by Luke Derstein)

Memorable final evening on the 2024 Black Hills Bounty.
(image by Paul Brasby)

Addendum. I found Lost Canyon while scouting "roads" for the BackBone Grande, my bikepacking route that crosses the State of South Dakota through the best of the Black Hills and surrounding prairie. See, BackBone Grande Page. This little known canyon is featured in an introductory post of the BackBone Grande (Northern Black Hills & Beyond) and a post on the first through-ride (Low Standard & Lower). I also included it on a Black Hills Bike Hub 2024 group bikepacking ride. Searching for, finding, riding, and sharing such gems is what I love to do. 

Back to the Bounty, here's a link to the Black Hills Bounty Page, which describes and links all blog posts for every year of this ride (2021-present). Black Hills Bounty Page.

The Mandalorian, Ludwig Goransson (2020).