Black Hills BackBone: August 2023

Sunday, August 27, 2023

BackBone Grande - Invitation & Offer

The BackBone Grande is a unique 400 mile bikepacking route across the State of South Dakota along the spine of the Black Hills. I designed this route specifically for a Great Divide type of bikepacking experience that showcases the best of our Black Hills and surrounding prairie. For a series of posts introducing the route, including a link to a digital map, and a series of posts of the first through-ride, go to the BackBone Grande Page.

If you have any questions, ask. If you're thinking of venturing out there, let me know. I'm happy to help.

To kick start things a bit, here's an offer: Ride the BackBone Grande, any or all of it, and send me a story and pictures. I'll send you a BackBone Grande sticker.

As others have noted, it doesn't say "Black Hills," or anything about bikepacking, or even cycling.

Nope. If you know, you know.

Here's the sticker.

Here's the sticker in the wild.

Even in a crowd, the BackBone Grande sticker stands out.

Sunday, August 20, 2023

BackBone Grande - Photo Gallery

In June 2023, Paul Brasby and I rode the length of the BackBone Grande, my new 400 mile bikepacking route across the State of South Dakota along the spine of the Black Hills. For links to all my blog posts on the BackBone Grande and a RideWithGPS map, go to the BackBone Grande Page.

We approached the first through-ride essentially as a final recon to confirm and document the route. Among other things, Paul captured hundreds of fantastic images along the way. He publicly shared many on his daily social media posts and I posted some on my blog.

Paul just took so many great images. To tell the overall story of the BackBone Grande visually, I chose five of them for each day of our ride and collected them here in one gallery. Scroll through for a glimpse of this journey through Paul's lens.

DAY 1 (NE Border to Oelrichs)