The Maah Daah Hey 100 was insane.
The trail is absolutely amazing, totally exceeding all of my expectations. 100 miles of single-track winding through the badlands of North Dakota. Riding the entire trail in one day was nuts, so much harder than I anticipated. As per my GPS we covered about 105 miles with nearly 11K feet of ascending and 11K feet of descending trail. I wouldn’t characterize the trail as technical, but it is relentless. The ups and downs in the badlands were mostly steeps – not a lot of rollers or long gradual hills. The sections between the badlands on the grassy prairies were the easy stuff and provided the closest thing to an opportunity to recover. Of course these sections also provided a good chance to make some time so I found myself pushing even here.
Yet we managed to make it to the finish in a mere 15 hours. I can’t say that I’ll do the Maah Daah Hey in a day again, but I am glad to have done it and I’d love to come back for a multi-day trip to explore a bit more.
I’ve got lots of great pictures from the first 50 miles, but just didn’t have the energy to get off my bike to snap many shots from the second half. Se la vie.
I don't know who this guy is, but that is China Wall behind him.
The volunteers and support were inspiring.
Checkpoint #3- following a brutal 25 mile stretch.