The brochure says the trail is generally a 4% grade. So, pretty much, you’re always riding uphill or flying downhill. Hill City is at one of the low points on the trail which means every ride that starts from here will be UPhill. Today we rode north from Mile Marker 60, the first 8 miles were uphill .. I’m not used to this.
We had ridden a very nice 2-mile downhill to MM 70. I was ready to turn around and .. climb back up that “very nice” 2 miles.
Billie had a flat tire on the way back. She only had a short walk to a shelter and the tire change + insertion of a boot didn’t take very long.
Just 21 miles in total, but so beautiful. It took about 2 hours to get to our turnaround and just 45 minutes to get back to Hill City – a wonderful 8-mile downhill run, but not too fast – gravel and sand were definite hazards. In Hill City, we veered off to go to a grocery store. Our saddlebags easily held 2 bags of groceries. Yikes, my legs are tired!
arletelouise 