Having spent the last three days picking up loose ends and catching up, I think I can say I am back from vacation.
Four friends and I went to Rapid City, SD for eight days, six of which included demanding single track distances of 15-25mi. I highly recommend Rapid City as it is bike friendly to an amazing extent. This includes bike lanes, and the attitude of motorists, which gave me a taste of how pleasant and safe cycling could be.Rapid City straddles the Rapid River which has a good sized flood plain. The city has turned the flood plain into a park with paved bike paths, golf courses, Frisbee golf, soccer fields, baseball fields, horseshoe pits, tennis courts, and at the west end on a 500ft hill, a network of demanding single track.
I have to thank the guys at Acme Bicycles for giving us advise on which trails to use in order to avoid the alkaline clay that gums thickly onto everything. The Black Hills area was receiving much more rain than normal keeping rivers flooded, soil soaked, and wildflowers blooming abundantly.
All told I recommend the area as a mountain biking vacation destination.
Pete Kohlmoos