Well the first trip to the Maah Daah Hey trail is over and we’re on our way home. This years ride was dry and sunny all weekend long as opposed to last years mud fest. Our hosts at the Buffalo Gap Ranch we’re awesome and treated us to some excellent steak meals. We consumed quite a bit of prime beef
On Saturday we arrived at the south end of the original MDH trail and parked at the very beautiful Bully Pit Golf course to catck a little sleep and wait for the sun to come up. Eric was out early riding the new bike around the parking lot while the rest of us waited for the temperature to warm up. Later Scott “stole” a golf cart and took it for a joy ride.
Eventually we braved the cool temperatures and changed into the gear. Just befoer we left we were visited by the local sheriff who informed us that the golf course was open and that perhaps we should park somewhere else. I think it has something to do with the gold cart incident. He was pretty soft about it and later we checked with the course people and got the OK.
Our warm-up was a quarter mile steep climb up followed by a lot more steep climbing on the trail. At this point we’re on the MDH II trail a newly opened extension of the original and the gravel on the trail is quite soft and loose as it hasn’t been packed down by too many riders. The scenery is gorgeous and the trail is challenging. One we turn around the ride back seems quick as there more down than up and the howling wind is at our back.
A short drive back to Medora and some of the guys are looking for a place to eat but tourist season hasn’t started yet and nothing is open. We share the food some of us brought and then head out on some familiar trails behind town starting at about MDH mile 5. Right away we cross 3 streams and got our feet soaked and then a killer long climb to the top of the plateau. We came close to the scene of my 2005 crash but managed to take a different trail to explore some new trail.
Back at the ranch some guys had some lunch and then while some napped Doug, Eric and I went out for another short ride. After that it was bring on the beef for a big steak dinner. That pretty much did everbody in and we called it a night.
Day 2 in the next post.