Touring Home
Mickelson Trail Tour
Tour #5... The Mickelson Trail has been called the "Crown Jewel" of the rails to trails system. I'd have to agree this is a manicured pathway, well documented, good resupply, great views, lots of variety. It's tough to beat. With Deadwood, Hill City, Custer, and Mt. Rushmore all convenient to the trail and water tanks supplied every several miles, it's a great place to do some riding *and* some sightseeing.

 

6 days
288 Miles
Pack List 
 
Daily Waypoints
Map, Elevation Profile, Pics
Miles/Day, Ride Time, Avg Speed
Day 1: Hill City to
Day 1
31.5, 3:19, 9.5
Day 2:
Day 2
23.4, 2:25, 9.6
Day 3:
Day 3
45.4, 4:22, 10.4
Day 4:
Day 4
43.0, 4:12, 10.2
Day 5:
Day 5
24.2, 2:24, 10.0
Day 6:
Day 6
11.9, 1:29, 7.9
Day 7:
3.1, 0:19, 9.8
Total:
182.5, 18:30, 9.9

 

Lessons Learned:

  • The road from Gold Beach to Grants Pass was not the nice paved road we expected. It wasn't something to take a normal passenger car down. Good thing the trip went the way it did and we didn't end up with us on one side and Eric's wife picking us up on the other.
  • Lots of clicks and creaks from what seemed the bottom bracket of my REI Safari. Turned out to be the difficulty of keeping all of the bolts tight on the factory rack. That rack needs to go in the garbage and be replaced with something nice.
  • We both bought Mountain Hardware Phanton 32 sleeping bags. With compression sacks our sleeping bags got really small.
  • Flexilibity in miles/day was a key to enjoying ths scenery and this trip. We just didn't feel like doing 50-60 miles per day. If we had to make our miles it would have reduced the quality of this trip.
  • The state parks in Oregon are the best we've seen. Thanks to the taxpayers for what probably amounts to a $50M subsidy so those of us on bikes for some reason pay next to nothing to stay in your great campgrounds.
  • Our days with presta valves have come to an end. I drilled out my rear rim at an Ace Hardware near Devil's lake because over 3 days of biking along the coast we couldn't find any presta tubes. Not to mention additional failures of presta valve stems. Why is it cyclists have a need to reinvent a valve that works perfectly fine on every tire in the world?

Services Used:

  • Oregon campgrounds can't be beat.
  • There was far more traffic on 101 than I would like as a cyclist. A significant amount of the ride was flat out loud.
  • There was no shortage of good resupply and selection of restaurants along the route.