Two more rides here in Teddy Roosevelt Nat'l Park in western North Dakota:

1. Today we rode the Scenic Loop again, in the opposite direction from a couple of days ago. This direction seemed just a little easier, and is the opposite direction from the way most motor vehicles travel, so that was nice. Again I stopped half-way up all the big hills, rested for a bit to catch my breath, then started back up again. I think two more low gears in the back would enable me to get up these kinds of climbs without stopping. I could have ridden my Bike Friday, but my Trek is more comfortable for me, faster, and lighter, so I preferred to take it, despite the gearing issue. 28 gorgeous miles, one stop for a bison herd to cross, lots of prairie dogs.

2. Yesterday we rode the MTBs from the campground into Medora, then south to Sully Creek State Park (a very hilly couple of miles) to pick up the new section of the Maah Daah Hey single-track trail, known as the "Deuce". That didn't last long. Within the first half mile we hit a steep, curving, narrow downhill section where the tall grasses on either side prevent all visibility ahead. I just can't deal with not knowing if I'm about to plunge into a creek at the bottom of a steep descent. This was followed immediately by a steep and narrow curving climb, so we bailed out. It was just past our skill and comfort level. I think if we'd been early in the season without the tall grasses, so we could see what was up ahead, we might have been braver.

So, we headed back over the hills to Medora and rode down to the part of the original Maah Daah Hey we'd done in 2013. It started off fun and much easier than the section of the Deuce we attempted, with a couple of small creek crossings. We (and our bikes) got muddy! But then we got to creek crossing #3 and encountered a large herd of cattle blocking the creek and the trail. There was no way around them, and they weren't budging, so after attempting to wait them out for awhile, we grew tired of waiting and had to backtrack and give up on that idea!

We had one final trick up our sleeve to try to ride some single track. We could get on the wide shoulder of the interstate (allowed here) briefly to get down to a Buffalo Gap trail access and try that for a bit. After pedaling up the long ramp to I-94 westbound, we realized there was construction taking the interstate from four to two lanes, and almost no shoulder on the part we'd have to ride (since it was really the left lane of the eastbound side, temporarily re-commissioned to take westbound traffic, including big semis, etc.) So, we had to turn around and give up on that idea too. There's no other way to access that trail that we're aware of, so we were stuck. The singletrack gods were just not on our side this time!

With all our attempts and riding around town plus to/from the campground, we still managed to get in 25 miles, but only about 2 of those were on singletrack!