Time: 5:00 pm
Location: Lovers Leap Trail Head behind the School House west of the Game Lodge in Custer State Park
Length: 3 Miles
Recently I spent a day seeing some of the best fall colors the Black Hills has had in a few years. I spent the day with the best adventurer I know, my brother. We took mountain bikes! I rented mine in Rapid City from Two Wheeler Dealer, a great locally owned bike shop that rents bikes for about $29 for 24 hours.
My brother had a friend that said, Lover’s Leap isn’t too difficult and it’s a ‘loop’ trail so we wouldn’t have to back-track. Sounds good to us! We didn’t read the trail head sign for difficulty because, of course, we had a ‘friend’.
Turns out said ‘friend’ has never attempted the first 1000 feet of the trail or any part of the trail for that matter. The beginning was all up hill, not just a little incline but a stutter step incline with rocks. We just pushed our bikes up. I admit I was internally slandering said ‘friend’ because this was not the easy ride I’d hoped for. After we arrived at the to top of the ridge about 25 minutes later, we handled the ride from there on. It’s not for complete newbies mind you, but definitely a challenging trail for the adventurous type. Another 20 minutes up the trail we arrived to the spectacular view! Lover’s Leap is awesome! See the video here after we arrived. Legend has it that two Native American forbidden lovers jumped to their death from here.
What a view!
After we spent some time taking pictures and watching the sun start to set we realized we had better get down the hill before its dark. We had made the mistake before of watching the sun set from Harney Peak and we hiked down in the dark, NOT recommended. FYI- Bushes and boulders look like buffalo in the dark!
The ride down was absolutely fantastic. It’s VERY steep at first but the last mile or two is sweet! The trail pretty much follows a babbling brook, part of the Galena Creek drainage, and winds through the beautiful deciduous forest. We loved it even though you have to cross the creek a few times but lucky for us the little rock bridges were still there. If the sun would’ve stayed around we surely would have parked the bikes and just soaked in the babbling brook and quaking aspen!
The biggest challenge for us on the way up was the beginning ascent to the ridge. The biggest challenge going down was avoiding fresh buffalo chips on the trail. I admit that we were hollering most the way down “Hellooooo Buffaloooo” to insure that any waiting bulls around the next blind dark corner new we were coming. Fortunately, there were no bulls on the way down. We didn’t stumble across a lone bull until we free wheeled up to our car to surprise a lone bull waiting for us…about 20 feet away….in the dark, NOT A BUSH!
Discover Lover’s Leap it’s an awsome trip, especially with a guy like my brother..thanks Danny!
Rock
Links: Mountain Bikers learn more here
Posted under Off the Beaten Path
This post was written by admin on October 5, 2008
Hellooooooo Buffalooooooooo!!! Not to be confused with “I’m gonna shoot who ever told us this trail was level!”. haha What a great little adventure and definitely worth any minor grunting and groaning. What a great ride down! I only bit it once! Word to the wise: rocks move when threatened with a nooby mtn. bike rider. I swear it!