Maah Daah Hey 30 miles + 50 dirt roads

If it rains wait at least 2 days to ride the following part of the the Maah Daah Hey trail!

Don't take my word for it, click on the picture for a closer look



A good storm passed over the National Grasslands Monday night. So I decided to not ride on Tuesday and extend our stay one day, enabling a Wednesday attempt of the Maah Daah Hey. After getting the 411 from Dakota Cyclery in Medora and my second ride to the south, I opted to start at road 50, about mile marker 73, instead of at CCC trail head at mile 98. Tammy waited at the trail head for half an hour in case I found that it was still too bad to ride. But it sucked me in and was just OK enough for me to keep going, thinking "This is not too bad and it should get better as the nice sunny day and low humidity goes on". Well I was so wrong. I would get the bike muddy and then shake some off on a fast section. This pattern repeated over and over again. Each time adding a little more than would shake off. Then the turn for the Ice Caves. "Oh, I want pictures of that!" I thought to myself. I had to give it up, after only a tenth of a mile, maybe less. I had to find a stick and dig mud and grass out of the bike, only for it to start building up immediately again. I am glad I brought the derailleur free bike with lots of mud clearance. While there was some sweet single track, it was too far and in between mud, creeks, rivers, deep ruts and trails overgrown with tall grass, sometimes all at once! The scenery is spectacular in places, but starting from Bully Pulpit was pretty damn scenic too and I could see most of this scenery from the dirt roads. I have over four hours of video, I doubt that any of it is that interesting. Just tall grass, cows and me finding my way through creeks, rivers and bogs.

Maybe after a drought, this trail may be OK. But fun, I am not sure. If you want to test your resolve and stubbornness, this is the place. Ride south of Medora if you want. I considerthat  fun single track, before it overgrows. According to the shop, the sequester has taken a lot of park workers out of the equation and trail upkeep has been suffering. Hopefully they get it together for the August race.

I wanted to stay on top of my H2O. I filled up a bottle at the camp Magpie hydrant, with water nearly as brown as the creek of the same name that I just crossed. I still had most of my Camelbak and part of the other water bottle.

Then at about 29 miles, "I had all I could stands, could stands not more!" to quote Popeye. With no race on the line, I jumped on the fire road for the next 50 miles or so. I did detour to the camp Elkhorn trail head in hopes of finding clear water. The water was clear, cool and refreshing. As it was a long down hill dirt road to camp, I thought I would try the trail again. I soon turned back and took my knocks on the dirt road, preferring the climb to the mud and the tall grass trail, that only hinted of a trail.

I was temped once more. With less than 10 miles to go, the dirt road crossed the trail again. The trail I saw from the road looked good. It turned out that once again the cow path was rideable, but the MDH only paralleled it for a short while before getting back into deep ruts obscured by tall grass (a bad combination!). I went back to the dirt road. There was a short section on 94 (apparently legal to ride a bike on, in North Dakota), before exit 24 to Medora and paved bike path into town, where Tammy was waiting for me.

I will reiterate,  for a good time, ride the Deuce from the Bully Pulpit trail head a few miles south of Medora!

Maah Daah Hey Epic

Day one found me starting at the Sully Creek trailhead of the Maah Daah Hey.The creek crossing itself was not bad, only a couple feet deep and water was only moving moderately swift. But don't be deceived by what appears to be almost dry or dried mud. The mud on the MDH is insidious all by itself! Put that mud on a partially dry river bottom and surround that with at least a quarter mile of river sand! Let's just say it does not make for a good time. I tried to talk a group of helmetless riders, some on rental bikes and hybrids, not to start there. In this case, ignorance is not bliss, but they thought better of my advice. Another couple of mountain bikers saw my bike after I cleaned it up after just a couple mile jaunt and chose another trail head and told me about the Bully Pulpit trail head just down the road.

I had the good fortune to run into Lance Larson, Kelly, Steve and Ashley, just as they were getting ready to embark from the Bully Pulpit trail head. See them in action in the preview below. The trail for 15 miles south of Bully Pulpit was really nice and easy to follow and seemed to be getting ridden in. These are newer but more mature than the trails out of Tom's Wash.

It had rained early on day two. I had planned to do Buffalo Gap out and back but the north sections were still wet at noon, so I drove the dirt roads south until the mud did not instantly accumulate on my shoes.

Maah Daah Hey from Tom's Wash south was a lot of hunt and peck for the trail and crossing a lot of fields with no apparent tread. Although there was machine packed trail up to the gate and a new bridge near the next trail head (which I turned around before); I had had enough. But was glad I did not stop when I got back to the car. The trails north of Tom's Wash, were hard to follow in some places, all in all it was much better with more steady riding. The views were great from both sections.I did not make it up to the new campsites for water, but it was getting late anyway, due to the late start letting the rain soak in. The whole ride was less messy than the few miles around Sully Creek trailhead. The first one to ten millimeters seem to dry quickly, but in some areas a greasy goo awaits the uninitiated. particularly where the hillside has sloughed off due to a previous rain.

It is hot today with severe thunderstorms forecast from this afternoon into tomorrow. Ride tired today or see what the ever changing weather brings tomorrow? Hmmm.  

Pictures Maah Daah Hey 30 miles

For the story see Maah Daah Hey 30 miles + 50 dirt roads

Bruce and Lois

Bruce, messaged Tammy and asked for some medium rides, for a trip they are planning later in the year.  Years ago back in Jersey, Bruce and Lois helped me through a tough period in my life and helped keep me riding after I got slow and fat and depressed.  I don't know if they know how much it helped.  I have had many friends that seem to come into and out of my life.  I like to think of it as our paths coming together for a while, before they diverge.  Even when I met, Bruce and Lois had been riding for many decades and liked somewhat technical riding and would not interested in Strava KOMs or accumulated feet of climbing.  Just having a good ride.  There have been times that they had to put the Mountain Bikes away for various reasons.  It is good to see them even planning such a trip, leaving sunny California.

I would recommend the following Epics:

Kansas Switchgrass
Kerr Scott, North Carolina
Dupont State Park, North Carolina
Ocoee Trail, Tennessee
Big South Fork, Tennessee
Rock Lake, Cable, Wisconsin
Levis-Trow Mounds Wisconsin
Cuyuna Lakes, Minnesota
Alafia River State Park, Florida
Santos, Florida
MOCO Epic, Maryland
Maah Daah Hey, North Dakota
But only well after a rain and when it is not scorching hot, kind of a small window in the end  July, early August I guess.
Copper Harbor, Michigan
This does have some tough climbs, but they are not too long.  But it may be my favorite trail system yet.

For rides not on the IBMA list:
San Felasco Hammock Preserve, Gainesville
Bethel Biloxi Mississippi
Games Loop/UWF Pensacola Florida
Balm Boyette Florida
Lake Leatherwood Eureka Arkansas
Redbug Lake Overstreet Tallahassee, Florida
Tom Brown Tallahassee Florida 
San-Lee Sanford North Carolina
Tannehill Forge Alabama

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Bethel Biloxi Mississippi

Always looking for 20-40 miles of riding, I saw Bethel in Singletracks.com, listed 30 miles.  Well that was an error or old info.  The Directions are for the northern Trailhead, which is now for Motorcycles and ATVs.  I put in a correction to Single Tracks, so it may be accurate when you read this.  There may have been 30 miles when the north trails were for bicycles and the south was for motorcycles and ATVs.  A few years ago, to keep everybody happy, things were switched around.  So while there is a Bicycle TH sign of of Bethel rd to the north, after a fair ways on a graded dirt road, you come to an unmarked clearing with only a couple orange arrows and ATV tracks on the trail.  The current TH is just a short way up FSR 426, just off of route 15, with a map kiosk, cinder block restroom, picnic table and fire ring (bring your own H2O).  Located in the De Soto National Forest, it is easy to feel that you are nowhere near civilisation.  Strange how quickly that happens after leaving Biloxi Mississippi.

There are currently between 19 and 20 miles of mountain biking at Bethel, with only one on the forest service road and another on old double track.  I bumped into and rode with Tracy and John from Bethel Mountain Bike Trail Group.  Tracy said there were plans to replace the fireroad between the  Couch and the Badlands, trail with single track. While there are no bluff on the Badlands trail, the tall grass was reminiscent of the Maah Daah Hey, though it was named for the oppressive heat in summer due to the lack of shade, also much like the MDH of North Dakota.  The sandy soil handles rain much better than the slough of the MDH,  Tracy pointed out several places that used to be big drainage problems, that they had successfully ameliorated.  Some bridges were replaced with spaced pavers on the bottom of the washes.  Different sections of the country have different views on paver is the water crossing, I am not sure why, yet.  There are a just a few places that still hold water.  Pavers have also been used make berms, in certain fast corners to firm up the sand.  There is still sand inside the turns so those die hard old school riders can still play in the sandbox and get their sand on!  They are also working on new sand management methods.   

To me the trails have an old school, natural feel, not overly manicured, yet well maintained.  Some sections flow and some corners test your skills more than others, a nice mix.  Pine needles made themselves known as well, they have good traction up to a point and then just slide out!

No big elevation here, about 1k for the Full Monty.  But it is not as flat as the non-pit sections of Santos, more like Paisley in north central Florida.  It is more akin to the Games loop in Pensacola FL(but longer), which is not surprising as they are so geographically close to each other, even down to the touch of clay.  But not the elevation change of UWF, just across the street from the Games loop.

You won't find pump or jump tracks or pits, just good old fashioned singletrack, with enough personality change from trail to trail to keep it interesting.  There is a nice section of Couch that follows the Tuxachanie river.  The system can be done as one big loop or shortened at several places that cross the main fire road or FSR 426 or a trail aptly called Bail Out.  All the major intersections are well marked, most with a map with a "YOU ARE HERE" star.  The only tough spot is the Clay climb, which is basically a stair case for giants.  It suffers from erosion, so a much more gradual switchback was made around it.  There are may water drainage, mainly dips between humps and usually small, though a few bigger ones sneak up on you.

They have a really cool Google Earth map for your smartphone.  You need the Google earth App on your phone to open it, but once you load it, it uses your phones GPS signal to show you where you are on the map, regardless of cell reception!  Pretty darn cool.

Here are some videos

There are a few other trails that are available like these from SAMBA

Standard trail Map
http://www.singletracks.com/bike-trails/bethel-bike-trails.html
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BethelMountainBikeTrailGroup

http://www.gulfcoastbicycleclub.com/index.html
https://www.facebook.com/groups/gulfcoastbicycleclub/

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Surly 29er+ Velocity Blunt 35 Knard to Follow

After several months of Knard, Knard and nothing but Knard on the front of my either my Lynskey Pro29 SL, fits nicely in the Black sheep fork, for everything short of the Maah Daah Hey after a rain or on my old Ferrous and Switchblade fork combo (plenty of room there).  Except for some railbed riding.

Click here for my First Look at the Knard.
Click here for Follow Up

The Knard Rolls pretty good on the Velocity's Blunt 35. I am running it tubeless, but I was pretty conservative on the pressure and only ran it 17.5, just 1.5 psi lower than my 2.35 Ikon. I dropped another half PSI when I got back near the car at Games Loop/UWF Pensacola Florida.  It was great in the sugar sand of course.  Slid out on some fresh pine needles. Usually I could feel it slide and hook back up though.  I had to keep it weighted, more on top of the front wheel, kinda like riding a hardtail with a big fork up front.

As I slowly lowered the pressure, like half a PSI each ride, I had to ride on top of the front end less.  I worked down to 14 PSI.  That was just starting to feel more shock absorption at 14.  I stayed here a while, as I am concerned about breaking a bead and rolling the Knard off of the Blunt 35.

I settled at 13.5 psi, getting just the occasional bottom out clank.  I weigh around 200 lbs. No scale in the bus so not 100% sure.

Now I always break something at Stokes, Stokes has my number, you could say,  Stokes is pretty much all rock garden, even though rock gardens are usually my forte. My Stan's sealant was getting thin I guess.  I burped or punctured and was able to put the Knard/Blunt 35 up a few times, but ended up putting in a tube.
Back at a compressor, I removed the tube, added some Stan's and  reinflated and it has been good for a couple months now.

Wet rocks seem to be the Knards nemesis.  Particularly on technical rocky climbs, the Knard hunts around a bit, sometimes finding the wrong line, accentuated on a single speed.

Having a 29er+ up front and a weekend on a fat bike, got me jonesin for a 29er+ rear as well.  The Surly Krampus and the Carver Titanium Gnarvester, if you guys are listening :-) Lynskey said they could build me a custom one.  A guy can Dream.

My Lynskey was down for a while, when I got her back together, the bike's handling felt a little slower than I remember with the Knard.  The Ferrous has slightly steeper head angle, and maybe I got used to that.  I gave the 2.35 Ikon another try for comparison and it just worked better with my Lynskey geometry.

Surly Knard on a Velocity Blunt 35 First Look

Back on February 20th, I built up a Velocity Blunt 35 29er rim, to mount up a Surly Knard 29x3 inch tire, 29 plus to all the cool kids.  Both my bikes are suspension free and riding in Pisgah, particularly Farlow Gap, got me thinking, as I walked way too much of it.  I was calling it semi-fat, but 29+ is more succinct.
See the follow up here Surly 29er+ Velocity Blunt 35 Knard to Follow and Follow Up

Here is the freshly built front wheel

I will only be running it on the front.  Like suspension, it is most important on the front and it would not fit in either of my bikes in the rear.  I was sure it would fit in the Bontrager Switch blade and pretty sure it would fit in the Blacksheep fork(turns out that,except for Maah Daah Hey quality mud, there is more than adequate room).  

Here is the Knard/Blunt compared to a 2.2 Ikon/Stans Arch

On the Blunt 35, the Knard casing measures out to 71.6 mm or 2.8 inches and 75.6 mm knob to knob, nearly 3 inches.  I expected less, considering it is mounted on a rim 15 mm narrower than Surly's intended rim the Rabbit Hole.  Luckily it still fit in the BlackSheep fork.  You have to angle the big old tire past the brake caliper on both forks.

Stay tuned for my trail experiences with the Knard and the Blunt 35, sounds like a superhero team from Jay and silent Bob.

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