Travel running lights a special fire for me. I love running. I love new places. I love exploring. Races in new cities are great—you can see so much of a place in 26 miles. But my absolute favorite are the no-pressure, just exploring kind of runs. For our South Dakota trip, I got a few bonus vacation runs that probably would not have happened if the full marathon had gone on as planned (one of the silver linings of Sioux Falls canceling the full due to flooding).
First up, Freedom Trail in Hot Springs, South Dakota.
We had set up camp at Wind Cave National Park the night before at Elk Mountain Campground. Louie needed to get a cell signal for a work thing, and it was up to me: stay at camp, or ride along 20 minutes to nearby Hot Springs. I think on a lot of days I might choose down time at camp, but at that moment I decided to ride along. Louie picked out a café called Wandering Bison Coffee (such a good name). As we pulled up, I noticed a great hill leading up to the Pioneer Museum and I thought: I’d love to run that hill. We got coffee, I did some journaling while Louie got to work.
As I finished up, I started to feel restless, and I had an a-ha: everything I needed to go for a run was in the car. And so I did. It felt spontaneous, freeing, and I lucked into a river side trail, complete with waterfall, a section of dirt gravel road, a fun set of stairs, and you know I took up trip up that big hill. I’m not sure I’ve ever packed quite so much into a 5K run.
Side note: we usually do backcountry camping, where a ride into town would not really be possible. I need to not turn my nose up at car camping—it has its merits too.
If you want to check out the route:
Next up: an out-and-back on Mickelson Trail from Custer, South Dakota.
After Wind Cave, our itinerary called for Badlands National Park. To not get too far behind in my ultra training, I wanted to get in at least a 6 mile run. We had plenty of daylight, it was just a matter of figuring out when and where to fit it in. I learned about Mickelson Trail because it is the route for the other marathon I considered for South Dakota, running point-to-point south from Deadwood. We discovered there was a bike shop in Custer where Louie could rent a bike to ride along while I ran. Perfect.
On the advice of the woman who helped us at the bike shop, we went north from the trailhead in Custer. More scenic that way, she said. She did not lead us astray. With Buckhorn Mountain and the Black Hills as a backdrop and crushed limestone for miles, it was pure bliss. We were going to do six miles, but when we hit three, I just wasn’t ready to turn around. At four, I still wasn’t ready, but I knew we had other adventures awaiting. All the way out was gradually uphill, which meant the return journey downhill felt fast and effortless.
Even though I have no idea how the other parts of the trail compare to the section I ran (I know there are some tunnels as well as sections that run parallel to the highway), I’m feeling pretty sold on the Deadwood Mickelson Trail Marathon when I’m ready to try for my SD 26.2 again. The idea of biking the length of the trail is intriguing too… maybe my first century ride, since the trail is just over 100 miles?!
And finally, a Badlands National Park road run.
It is surprisingly quiet on the roads at Badlands on a weekday morning. I set out at 8:50 a.m. and on the way out I only saw a few cars on the road, though it was picking up on the way back. I suspect if I’d gone out at 7, I would have had the place mostly to myself.
From the Cedar Pass Campground to just past the Cliff Shelf trailhead is one nice, long uphill all the way out. Even better: the ultra fast downhill all the way back. And everywhere you look at Badlands is another lovely vista.