After 4 and a half days (and 4 sleepless nights), 213 miles, and 27,658 ft. of climbing my riding partner and I decided
it was time to throw in the towel on our first attempt at the Black Hills
Expedition bikepacking event. We had
gone back and forth, in a muddled state of semi-delirium, as to whether to keep
going or not, but in the end our reasons seemed clear that we needed to stop
and discontinue with the ride. It was a
tough call, but as I sit here reflecting on all that happened, I believe it was
the right call for us both, for this ride.
So going into the race I had a fair amount of bikepacking
experience, having done quite a few weekend trips with my husband, Perry
Jewett, over the last 3 years. I learned a lot on those trips, and felt
fairly confident that I could succeed on my own on this adventure I was about
to undertake. However, I wasn't quite
comfortable enough to set out by myself, so I was relieved that my longtime
friend, and riding buddy, Heather Heynen was up to try this challenge with
me. Due to busy schedules we were only
able to get in one overnighter practice run, and this would turn out to be the
only experience she would have with bikepacking, before the race started. I tried to give her as much advice as
possible as to what clothing to bring, how to pack, what necessities to carry
with you on the bike, etc. and she is
also a planner and researcher, so she reveled in getting things figured out and
dialed in for her ride.
My personal, biggest
mistake of this ride, was to decide to ride my new bike. I love my new bike because it's a much more
fun ride and handles extremely well as it is a 27.5. But....it's a 1x with a 30
tooth ring, and this proved to be extremely hard pushing with the extra weight
on my bike and the tough BHX terrain, which put a big strain and pain on the old
knees. They started aching in the first
10 miles, and continued to hurt the entire time I was out there. I took Ibuprofen twice a day to try and help
with the pain, but even so, every pedal stroke was irritating and varied
between mild and extreme pain at times.
My next run, I will be sure to switch over to a 28 or maybe even 26
tooth due to the steep continuous climbs that are on this course.
We decided to do an individual time trial rather than start
on the race date due to schedules, and the fact that this was our first time
trying a bikepacking race so we had limited experience, we had no idea how long we could go each day,
and neither of us had ever ridden in the dark much. Our goal was to try to get in around 50 miles
a day, which was actually a lot for us both as we'd both had very little riding
the month prior due to sickness and busy schedules. We were also a bit concerned about the
weather forecast as it called for a bit of rain during the week, cold nights,
and a lot of rain for the coming weekend.
But overall, things looked good and we were both ready to get the wheels
rolling!
Our
Sunday morning start was chilly at 37 degrees. We met at the Conoco gas station
and were off by 7:45 am. I'm very
familiar with the first 22 miles as it takes place on my hometown trail, Tinton
Trail, which consists of some beautiful singletrack through the Northern Black
Hills. When we got to the singletrack I
was however, a bit disappointed as the previous two days of rain had made the
trail a bit muddy and it was pretty torn up the whole way by the cows tramping
up and down the path. Our tires were
immediately coated with a thin layer of mud that stuck with us through the
whole stretch of singletrack. Normally
this wouldn't bother me too much, but when your bike already weighs 48 pounds
(yes I weighed it just before I left) every extra bit of weight makes a
difference. But even with this slight
setback, the ride was beautiful. There
were butterflies everywhere, to the point of it being mystically weird, and the
fall colors were blossoming in the surrounding aspens.
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| Big Hill Trailhead |
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| Fall colors going off on Tinton Trail! |
We clicked away the miles and made it to the first
resupply at mile 22 by noon.
After
quickly filling up our camelbacks and water bottles we headed up Spearfish
Canyon road pedaling pavement for about 3 miles.
We then turned onto Annie Creek road, and
headed into unknown territory.
I had heard that this was a tough section
with a lot of hike a bike, and sure enough, we did plenty of hike a bike
through the rocky and steep sections of the trail.
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| Hiking up Annie Creek |
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| Terry Peak Summit |
We finally summited on Terry Peak, which was
followed by some new trail down into lead.
Here we quickly stopped for lunch and a few more supplies from the
grocery mart. After this the riding got
interesting. We navigated the streets of
Lead, which included a series of steep metal stairs that almost ended my ride
as I slipped and struggled to get my bike down the "stairway to
hell". Once we reached the bottom,
it seemed we turned around and headed on the steep Lead roads right back to the
top of the stairs!?! then we rode some
new singletrack that wound through the hillsides and ended up right back where
we started...well ok maybe not quite but it sure felt that way.
Finally
after being in the Labarynth of Lead, we got to the Mickelson trail for about
15 miles of rails to trails riding. We
arrived in Dumont just before dark and decided it would be a good idea to stay
in the Dumont warming hut, so we could just throw our bags out on the ground
rather than setting up our tents. It was
handy having a roof over our heads and tables to organize our gear on, and it
stayed much warmer inside than it was outside.
The only downside of it was that I kept waking up throughout the night
whenever I'd hear a car drive by and kept thinking someone would burst in on
us. Due to this I got very little sleep
on our first night out.
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| Packing up in Dumont |
The next morning
we were up before the sun and were both eager to get going. This would be the first time I'd ridden in the
dark for years, and I actually really enjoyed it. We rode on mostly dirt, rocky forest roads
until we began to ascend the Custer Peak fire lookout road. It was really beautiful as the sun was just
beginning to rise.
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| Heading Up Custer Peak |
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| Beautiful Sunrise |
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| TATANKA! |
From
the top of Custer Peak, we descended back down to a small campground called
Mystic. The store wasn't open yet, so we
casually went over to an unoccupied campsite and got water from the spigot. We weren't sure if the water was good for
drinking so we used our filters for the first time, and filled up our bottles
and camelbacks. After riding more
forest road for awhile, the riding suddenly got interesting. We found ourselves on some cow trail, and
eventually the track just turned into the forest. We kept looking around for where we had
missed a turn, but eventually just decided to bushwhack through the brush.
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| What trail? |
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| Learning to trust the Garmin |
We had to trust our track as there was no
trail to follow, just a line on the Garmin.
The non-existent "trail" lead us along a barbwire fence and up
a hill. We were getting a little
frustrated at this point trying to figure out where to go, but eventually were
spit out onto some dirt and gravel roads.
The
roads took us to a really beautiful section of trail that crossed a creek about
6 times? (I've done a lot of exploring
in the hills, but had never been to this area before, and was grateful to be in
such a beautiful setting) We would find
a spot on the creek where there were enough rocks to hop across, as we didn't
want to get our feet wet. We ended up
being very successful at this rock hopping and rolled out of the area happy and
with dry feet!
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| Keeping the feet dry |
We continued to navigate the
unfamiliar roads down into Sturgis where we would stop for our first
"real" meal in two days. I
had the idea to 'drop' our bikes off at the bike shop and go next door to a
brewery/restaurant. It worked perfectly
as we ordered our food, and instead of sitting and waiting, were able to go
back over to the bike shop and get water and resupply for the next section.
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| Top notch service!! |
I need to give a huge shout out to Xtreme
Dakota Bikes at this point as we were treated like royalty. They proceeded to pump up our tires, lube our
chain and thoroughly go through our bikes fixing this and that (my front brakes
were even replaced). We were very
grateful for this as neither of us has much knowledge on the ins and outs of
bike maintenance.
After eating
half a pizza, and stuffing the other half in my camelback for later, with fully
tuned up bikes, we were ready to take on the next section of trail.
Once again I was very familiar with the
trails that lie ahead, and was ready for the next section of easy gravel
rolling out to Bear Butte, and the start of the much anticipated Centennial
Trial!
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| Centennial Trailhead...let's get this started! |
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| Bear Butte |
We once again, filled up our water bottles at the trailhead,
and rode the trail toward the Alkali campground where we would camp for our second
night out. During this section we were joined for a while by local Kent Moore,
and it was nice visiting and letting your mind shift from riding with a
distinct purpose to just riding.
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| Crossing bridge was tricky! |
After
crossing a log bridge we were into some of the Sturgis singletrack and had some
hike-a-bike through a sandy steep area, but
overall this
section was a relief
from the days cow trails, and we had fun twisting and turning on the sweet
singletrack trails and making our way to the next trailhead.
We arrived at the Alkali trailhead/campground
well before dark, but neither of us wanted to continue on.
We were at mile 112 (with 11,700ft of
climbing), so we had met our '50 miles a day goal', and wanted to stay near a
water source so we could fill up before leaving the following morning.
We set up camp, I ate my leftover pizza, and
we both settled down to another sleepless night, as cars kept coming and going
from the area (next time I'll be sure to camp in a more secluded area!).
I was a little anxious for the following days
ride.
It would be a full day of steep
climbing with all single track.
I'd done
this section many times, but never on a fully loaded bike, and I knew the extra
weight would make this already difficult section, even more cumbersome.
My legs felt great though, and we headed out
in the dark, onto some of the most beautiful trail in the Black Hills.The riding was pretty
much as I expected, with some great flowy trail, followed by long hike a bike
sections.
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| Chilly but beautiful! |
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| Centennial Trail Bliss!! |
This seemed to be repeated
throughout the day, as well as the constant changing of clothing, as we'd hit
areas of chilly creek bottoms, then climb up and out into the higher
hills.
We filtered water at Dalton Lake
and then headed onto the motorized trails that would take us to Nemo.
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| Dalton Lake |
As
we got closer to Nemo, we decided that it might be a good idea to hole up
there for the night.
We knew there was a
small store where we could resupply and we'd have water available.
We also knew that rain was in the forecast
for the evening, and the sky was looking ominous, so as soon as we found a spot
with cell service we called the guest ranch to see what kind of lodging would
be available.
We didn't have any luck
with the guest ranch, but were given the phone # of "Lotty", so we
called to see if there was anywhere we'd be able to rest comfortably for the
night.
"Lotty" ended up having
to call someone else, and after waiting patiently on the hilltop for around a
half hour, we were finally reconnected and told there was a room available at
the old Schoolhouse that we could stay in.
Great, we'd be there within the hour!!
I was very excited to have a warm bed to sleep in, and perhaps get a
good nights rest.
We made it to Nemo in
the early afternoon, so the store was still open.
We stopped here and resupplied food, from a
very limited selection, before heading over to the Schoolhouse.
Lotty was there promptly and informed us that
we were the only ones staying for the night and could have the whole place to
ourselves!
It had a full kitchen and
living area, and was a super cool little place.
We showered, washed our clothes, and I warmed up my can of chicken
noodle soup on the stove.
I felt revived(and
lucky) as I looked out the window at the rain coming down, and felt relieved
that we had just missed it.
We had only
rode a little over 30 miles that day, but it was tough riding as it was a lot of
single track with hike a bike, and about 5,000 ft of climbing.
I was also running on sore knees and not much sleep, so I was eager to
sleep in a warm bed, out of the elements, and give my knees some much needed relief.
Since we quit early we also decided to start early and were up the
following morning at 4:30am. We had packed our bags and filled up our water the
night before so we could make an easy exit onto the trail. After a quick
breakfast of mac and cheese (it was all I could find at the store in my muddled
state of fatigue) it was fun to once again be riding in the dark and navigating
the trails by headlamp.
The temps were
brisk and there was frost on the ground which made for some beautiful scenery
as we clicked away at the early morning miles.
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| Heading up the motorized section out of Nemo. |
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| Frosty, cold morning! |
One of the best moments of the morning was when local Photographer Randy
Erickson met us on the trail to take our picture (he took pictures of all the
riders) and handed us each two strips of Bacon!!! What a treat!
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| The Bald Mountains =beautiful views |
The trail was beautiful and we were both feeling refreshed
from the previous days rest and short mileage.
But we also knew that the dreaded Samelius climb lie in wait. Our goal for the day was to just make it up
and over this section, and then see if we could muster the strength to continue
on to Rockerville. I tried just to
concentrate on what was at hand and really enjoyed the days riding.
We
stopped at both Pactola Lake and Sheridan Lake to filter water.
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| Filtering at Pactola |
At Pactola we were able to find a nice little
stream to filter from, but at Sheridan we had to filter directly from the
lake.
The water had a bunch of green
moss and dirt, and all I was carrying was a steri-pen, so I resigned to
drinking really nasty water for the next section of hike a bike up Samelius.
And hike a bike it was.
It took us two hours to go the three miles
from Sheridan Lake to the Summit.
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| Hiking the dreaded Samelius |
Then
another hour to descend/walk back down the other side.
Somewhere in the middle of the climb we
encountered an angry rattlesnake that I completely missed as I hiked by.
Heather, wasn't so lucky as I had disturbed
it from its sunning, and it was coiled and ready to strike as she approached.
Lucky for both of us,
we made it by unharmed but much more alert to
watching our step as we finished the hike up and over the summit.
We were determined to make it from here to
Rockerville before the restaurant closed so we could resupply food, and get
fresh water.
We continued on Centennial
for several more miles, before getting spit out onto the highway for a relaxing
and refreshing ride to Rockerville.
We
did have to ride some of the storm mountain singletrack before making it to
Rockerville, but the trails were fun and flowy, and we made it to the
restaurant before close.
Right away I
dumped out my nasty water and filled up with fresh new water, ordered and ate a
whole Indian Taco!, and we headed back out onto the trail.
We made it just to the top of the storm
mountain trails as the sun was beginning to set.
It was warm up top, and we had a nice area to
camp in the trees.
With a full belly,
nice clean fresh water,
a secluded
campsite in the woods, and a long day of riding under my belt, I would get
probably the best night of sleep yet.
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| Another beautiful early morning start! |
Once again, we rose before the sun was up, to start
riding. I felt fairly good, but immediately
new my eyes were puffy and swollen. This
has happened to me before on trips so I wasn't too concerned and figured the
puffiness would subside throughout the day.
The next section of the trail we'd be riding was called Fosters
Gulch. I'd never ridden this section,
but had been warned of the technical riding, and the cliff that I would have to
traverse. I actually ended up enjoying
this section, but it was very slow going, and very technical, and we got a
little lost several times navigating the trail with our garmin.
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| Navigating through all the sections on Foster's was tiresome! |
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| Traversing the Cliff in Fosters! |
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| Pretty steep slope, no room for a fall! |
|
|
|
Apparently
we weren't the only ones having difficulty navigating, as this would be the
first time we would see Rhonda Wright out on the trail.
She had started the day after us and had
slowly been catching us until she just passed us somewhere near Rockerville.
We ran into her as we were traversing the
cliff section of the Foster's Gulch trail, as she was walking back towards
us?!
My first thought was that she had
gotten injured or something had happened to her bike, but she informed us that
she had missed this section of trail and had taken a cow trail below the cliff,
then had to pull/drag her bike up the cliff to get back on the
trail....ouch.
I knew exactly where she
had missed the turn as I had almost missed it myself.
I
guess she was hiking back to the point where she had missed the turn to
make sure she had completed the trail accurately.
We continued forward as she hiked backwards,
and the trail continued to remain elusive as we often had to stop to try to
figure out where the hell we were, and if we were still on the correct route.
My swearing may have gotten a little out of
hand at this point as I was cursing race director, Jason Thorman, and then I'd
find myself laughing at the absurdity of the trail we were on.
We ended up in a gully crossing back and
forth across a stream.
Sometimes we were
on what looked like a trail, other times we weren't. ( Now as I reflect on that
time, I really do appreciate that section of trail as it took us through some
really beautiful spots)
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| This swimming hole was one of those spots that helped me forgive the race director for taking us on such a crazy trail :) |
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| Feeling pretty lost through this creek crossing corridor! |
We were both pretty exhausted at
this point and were starting to second guess where we were at on the
trail. For some reason we got confused
and thought we had somehow missed a turn into Keystone. We were out of water, and thought we had
another 6 miles to go before hitting Horsethief Lake.
We considered going back to the Highway we had crossed earlier, as we knew there
was a stream where we could filter water on the way back.
But at the same time, that would be just as far as going forward to
Horsethief Lake, however we didn't know
if there would be any water to filter before we could make it there. Just to put things into perspective, it had
taken us about 6 hours to go 12 miles through the technical and difficult to
navigate trails of the morning and we were feeling a bit defeated and
lost. I finally got some sense and
decided to check for cell reception....Bingo!
I quickly called my husband and told him to look on Trackleaders to see
where the hell we were at, and that we were lost, and there was no trail! He told me to calm down and that I was acting
Delirious!! Ok maybe I was, as we found
out that we had not yet made it to Keystone and were only about 3 miles
away. What a relief! Feeling a little more confident, we blindly
followed the garmin route through some grass (with no trail) where it
miraculously turned into a trail and then a road, and then dumped us out onto
the highway for a short stretch into the town of Keystone. We
found a restaurant and ordered food, and decided we should discuss what our
plans were for the remainder of this trip.
We were 4.5 days in, with 213 miles and 27,600 ft of climbing completed.
We knew that we only had the rest of the day and the following day to
ride before the weather took a turn for the worse. Rain was in the forecast....a lot of
rain. And at the pace we were going we
knew if we tried to wait it out, we'd be out there longer that either of us
wanted to be. We weren't willing to try
to ride through the rain and hike-a-bike for miles upon miles of muddy trails. We pretty much knew our tour would be over be
the end of the following day. So the
question was, do we keep riding or just quit now? We tried to work out a few details of where
the next water supply would be at, where we could camp for the night, and where
we could end up the following day that would have shelter and a phone to call
for someone to come get us before the rains started. At some point during all of this, I went to
use the restroom, and removed my sunglasses and looked in the mirror. Yikes!!
My eyes were really puffy with fluid pockets, and my whole face in
general looked a little puffy. I've had puffy eyes before...but never quite
like this. I also noticed my lower legs
were a bit swollen. And for some reason
I also started thinking about the wreck I had a few days previous where my tires
slid out and I took a tree to my left side.
I hadn't been hurt, but I smacked it pretty hard, and I started thinking
about concussion issues (I've had 3 concussions in the last 2 years and seem to
get them very easily now). Was it stupid for me to continue? In the end we both decided that we should
probably call it quits as we were both a little delirious and warn down, and
only had 1 day of riding left anyway, and I think the final straw was that I
started getting paranoid about the concussion stuff.
Anyway, now I know that it was
the right call. My husband came and gave me a Ridge Rider Rescue, and brought
me home where I showered and slept like a baby for the first time in 4
nights. The next day I noticed my stomach
area was very sore. At first I thought
it was just sore muscles, but as the day progressed, it just didn't feel right,
so I decided to go to Urgent Care. They
pushed on my stomach and it was very tender to the touch. They then did blood work and found elevated
enzymes (triple the normal) in my liver.
They sent me to the ER for a CAT Scan and Ultrasound where they found a
large amount of fluid around my liver.
They mentioned Hepatitis, Liver Disease, Gallbladder issues. They brought in the surgeon. Luckily after asking me a multitude of
questions, they decided to wait on surgery and hooked me up to an IV and pumped
fluid and antibiotics into me. They also
wanted to keep me overnight. My blood
pressure was high and my pulse was low at 47 beats per minute. They also gave me a dose of Morphine for the
stomach pain...that was wierd, felt like my head was on fire for a moment. After a sleepless night they released me the
next morning and told me I needed to get a HIDA scan. I scheduled an appointment with my doctor the
following Monday, and the first thing she said when she came into the room was
"well this is weird". Yeah
right?! My blood pressure and pulse had
returned to normal, and my stomach wasn't nearly as tender to the touch. She told me we should still get the HIDA scan.
So now I sit at home, wondering what happened?
Was it the water I drank, the food I was eating, all the ibuprofen I was
taking for my sore knees?? The
Hepatitis test came back negative, and I'm scheduled to get the HIDA scan next
week. My stomach no longer hurts, but I
don't feel 100%. Hopefully I'll get some
answers, and eventually heal up. I need
to figure out what caused the swelling so I can continue on this crazy ride,
live life, keep pedaling forward. I
could never quit riding, it's what I do, it's what I love, so my body is just
going to have to figure things out.
-and thanks Heather Heynen for
being such an amazing friend and riding partner! it wouldn't have been nearly as fun without
you!! Looking forward to many more
adventures with you......
