Tread lightly and ride responsibly

Looking for Trail Area Suggestions

We are coming to ride the BH's in September this year. I understand there have been changes to some of the trail access. Can someone recommend an area to start out in? We will be hoteling it in the Spearfish or Rapid City area and expect to have to trailer to the trailheads. We are heading to Colorado in 3 weeks for some riding and I was going to stop into the Forest Service offices in the BH's (on the way to Colorado) to grab some maps. I have seen some of the maps on-line but they do not provide actual "user" recommendations. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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2013 MemberPermalink Reply by Scott Wittrock on June 7, 2012 at 3:10pm

There is an easy access trail head near Piedmont and one just off hwy 14A between Sturgis and Deadwood at Camp 5 (forest service campground). Both of these wouldn't be far from Rapid City with Piedmont being the closest.

The trails from the Piedmont trail head are some of my favorite trails in the Black Hills. From that point you can ride to Dalton Lake, Nemo and up to the Pilot Knob trail head near Hwy 385. Many side trails through this area also. Refer to map #11 on the forest service website.

The trails from Camp 5 I have only ridden once and have not gotten to them all, but they seem to be very good and lead up to a small town called Galena. Look for trail 306.1 near hwy 14A. I will be riding this area more next weekend and can report more after that trip. Refer to map #9 on the forest service website.

Another favorite area is the Experimental Forest area off of FS 237 on your way to Rochford. This is on map #10.

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Permalink Reply by Don Bergen on June 7, 2012 at 4:59pm

Thanks Scott. Appreciate the info. I have downloaded the muvm's from the forest service, hopefully they are fairly accurate. At least now I have an idea where to start, based on your information.