BackBone Grande - More Grassland!

Hey, Jude, don't make it bad

Take a sad song and make it better

Remember to let her into your heart

Then you can start to make it better.

Hey Jude, John Lennon and Paul McCartney (1968)

BLM Road 7043 meandering across another piece of Buffalo Gap National Grassland.

When creating the BackBone Grande, I ventured east from Ardmore through private ranch land solely to access primitive public roads within a sufficiently large tract of public land called Buffalo Gap National Grassland. Over an all too short 12 miles, those challenging near-roads vary from decent dirt to barely more than compressed tire tracks surfing a seemingly endless sea of grass extending as far as the eye can see. In Spring, after rains but before grazing, the tall grass renders much of that path practically indiscernible. It's a Day 1 message that this route is outside ordinary. BackBone Grande (Miles 0-46) - Buffalo Gap National Grassland; BackBone Grande (Day 1) - Right Vibe Right Away.

Emerging from that stretch of Grassland, I took the route westward toward the village of Oelrichs for possible re-supply and camping. Although just 46 miles into the route, it seemed like a good idea to swing by there, as re-supply is limited until the route enters Custer about 80 miles later.

Then I rode the entire BackBone Grande route last year and stayed in Oelrichs. Uffda. The commercial campground was little more than a mowed field with an outhouse, the convenience store offered very limited supplies and indifferent service, the bar had limited hours, and the cafe was permanently closed. I concluded that next time I would not stop at Oelrichs at all, but simply disperse camp at the Limestone Butte Reservoir back in the Grassland at about mile 44.

Rough dirt Road 1F crosses private ranch land before turning into BLM Road 7043.

That experience changed how I looked at that part of the route. I realized that I did not need to turn west toward Oelrichs out of the Grassland. With that freedom to wander a bit, I looked closer to see what's straight north, or even a bit to the east.

Shazam! Instead of riding 2 miles west on U.S. Highway 18 toward Oelrichs to reach county gravel north to Smithwick, I can ride 2 miles east on U.S. Highway 18 to access another sizable tract of Buffalo Gap National Grassland. If I can find a way to generally move north through that tract, the route could later turn west to connect with the existing BackBone Grande route near Smithwick.

The Bureau of Land Management hard copy map of the area showed three possible ways through, but satellite images looked marginal, at best. Primitive roads skirted, and occasionally crossed, private land. Time to scout it.

BLM Road 7043.

So, I grabbed a big mug of coffee, a bag of trail mix, and my paper maps and hopped in my Jeep to find out. Several hours later, I worked my way through. Score!

Here's the primo way, as shown by the screen shot below of the RideWithGPS map. From Limestone Butte Reservoir, BLM Road 7026 rolls north about 2 miles to T-bone into U.S. Highway 18. Turn right (east) on that paved highway for 2 miles and then left (north) on graveled BlackTail Road (1F). After 2 miles of good gravel, BlackTail Road abruptly turns 90 degrees due east on an increasingly rougher surface for about 5 miles before entering Buffalo Gap National Grassland on primitive road 7043. Shortly thereafter, Road 7043 turns left (north), away from a better defined, but unmarked road. Then it's another 5 miles of meandering barely-track, running generally north-by-northwest, to finally emerge on graveled Smithwick Road (1E). From there, it's about 8 miles of good, winding county gravel into Smithwick.

All told, the 12 miles from U.S. Highway 18 to Smithwick Road covers about 5 miles of rough road and about 7 miles of near-road 7043. By traveling a few miles east from the original BackBone Grande route and by meandering a bit through the Grassland, it adds about 12 miles overall compared to the original route on county gravel straight north to Smithwick.

But what a great add. This section sings in sweet harmony with the rest of the BackBone Grande. It's in.

Combined with the earlier stretch through Buffalo Gap National Grassland, the BackBone Grande now explores about 30 miles of remote prairie on rough roads and near-roads through the Grassland, with 360 degree views of little but endless waves of grass on rolling hills. This could very well be the same views that people saw hundreds of years ago. It certainly causes pause to contemplate.

Almost 30 miles of rough roads and near-roads traveling through Buffalo Gap National Grassland.
All part of the BackBone Grande bikepacking route.

I love finding little known gems like this and then finding a way to incorporate them into a bikepacking route to ride myself and to share with others. This piece now replaces the county gravel road from Oelrichs to Smithwick in the original BackBone Grande. 

And now that I'm out there, I may look for even more of that sweet Grassland to explore.

Here's a link to the revised RideWithGPS map. BackBone Grande - RideWithGPS Map.

Here's a link to the page collecting all my posts about the BackBone Grande. BackBone Grande Page.

Hey Jude, The Beatles (1968).