Maah Daah Hey trail

[CyclePete]

Tough, rugged country, George, and you made the right choice to enjoy these fat burners for women rather than to create adversity for yourselves.  Great photos, too, and in4's earlier suggestion about your Nomad-and-overlook seems spot-on -- the bike looks right at home in the badlands, and the photo is a fine advert for Thorn's bikes.

What a cool trail, great pics. The weather looked good too.

[SammyJordan]

Mike don't take this up wrong but are you mental, why in gods name would you want to put yourself through all that hardship.

I just HAVE to reply to Anto's post.

When I saw the photos of that trail, my first thought was "Wow! I want to ride that!". Beautiful countryside, fantastic views, no traffic! Perfect.

Have a great trip. And post some photos of your Nomad on the trail, just to make my Nomad jealous.

- Dave

I also want too ride it. It is very amazing.

[John Saxby]

There was an article on riding the trail in the most recent "Adventure Cyclist" mag (i.e., before Feb 2020), the house journal of the Adventure Cycling Ass'n.  (If memory serves, mickeg also wrote about it on this forum, a couple of years back.)

The writer in the Adventure Cyclist piece warned about dangerous weather--heat, and fierce thunderstorms with little shelter.

I had some exposure to the latter a few years ago, when I did a transcontinental ride.  They were fierce indeed, and there was no shelter in the form of farm buildings or bridges.  Happily, on this journey I was riding Hans, my 800 cc airhead, so I turned and fled several kms back east to the wee village of Interior (pop. 59).  There, I took refuge in the resto-bar where I had just eaten lunch, and watched the terrifying glory of a Badlands thunderstorm from a warm'n'dry place.

[mickeg]

ACA article at:
https://www.adventurecycling.org/sites/default/assets/resources/20191201_MaahDaahHey_Haney.pdf

If you go there, I suggest you stop first at the bike shop in Medora to find out the latest trail conditions.  The bike shop also does a shuttle service, so they are talking to bikers that ride the trail almost every day.
https://www.dakotacyclery.com/

[John Saxby]

Thanks for that link, George, and the good practical advice on checking current trail conditions.

(I could have added that the ferocity and grandeur of Badlands thunderstorms reminded me of their highveldt counterparts in Southern Africa--not to be taken lightly.)

Cheers,  John

[mickeg]

We stopped at the bike shop before we biked it, I do not recall exactly what they said, that was five years ago.  But based on the local conditions of the river, we decided to change our plans and start somewhere else that did not involve a stream crossing.  I had my Nomad with dynohub and Rohloff, so I was especially aware of stream crossing issues, those are things you do not want to submerge.

I backpacked that area in the mid 80s for a few days, we had maybe an inch (2 to 3 cm) while I was there all in one quick storm.  Some of the ground became almost as slick as ice, some shale formations will do that when wet.  And the river, you could no longer wade across it.