Ft. Pierre to Deadwood - taking the old road

In the spirit of rides I'd like to take some day, check out the Fort Pierre to Deadwood Trail Ride.

Held in honor of the 100 year anniversary of the trail closing, the ride's scheduled to start on July 29th, and follows a 200 mile long historic trail between the two South Dakota cities.

I suspect, given the terrain and rural locale, that there won't be live up-links to anyone's blog from the ride itself, but I'm hoping there's coverage in the news, or by some of the participants later, because it sure does look like fun!

If it rains, South Dakota gumbo will make things pretty sticky/slippery, and I'm guessing they'd have to stay up on gravel & blacktop. I hope they get good weather!

Here are a few links to the coverage so far:
Deadwood Magazine - A Trail Rediscovered

Black Hills News Bureau - Historic Wagon Trains to Meet on Deadwood Main Street Aug. 15th

Black Hills Pioneer & Rapid City Weekly News - Ft. Pierre to Deadwood Trail to Live Again

Places I'd love to ride...

I drove out to Pierre Wednesday for a meeting and T and the kids went along for the ride since they've never been. Rather than come back the same way as always, south along Hwy 83 to I-90, we took Hwy 34 all the way across to 37, and then down.


View Larger Map

I would absolutely LOVE to ride some of that country! I took pictures, but unfortunately, they don't do it justice. While I've been lucky enough in past years to ride in the Medicine Creek area (Medicine Creek Ranch, now owned by the Ness Family), the landscape north of the Missouri is equally spectacular.

We had rain on the way...
And haze on the way back... Now wouldn't this be prettier from horseback?Other places I'd love to ride: Ireland, Australia, Iceland... I keep drooling over the pony trekking articles, but unless I win the lottery, I figure I'd better dream a bit closer to home for now. North and West River SD is probably doable!