The Dirty Millennium: MDH 100

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.

Checking out the bike Friday night.

Getting lined up at the start in CCC campground south of Watford City.

Early morning views of the badlands - less than 5 miles into the start.

Looks easy!

More badlands...

Me in front of some cool stuff.

Would be a better picture w/o my shadow. Wooden 4x4 posts mark the entire trail.

I don't know who this guy is, but that is China Wall behind him.

Hard to believe a 100 mile trail is cut through this terrain, but there it is.

Checkpoint 1 - 25 miles in.

The volunteers and support were inspiring.

This kind of stuff was fun & fast.

Lots of trail..

We were treated to derivatives of views like this for about 15 hours.

Somewhere between miles 30 & 40.

Somewhere after the 1st checkpoint - very cool trail.

Devils pass.

50 mile marker. But it didn't seem like it was in the middle of the course.

That's the trail on the other side of the Little Missouri River, just about a mile or two before the 2nd checkpoint at mile 50. Had to wade through it - just above knee deep.

Checkpoint #2 - 50 miles in.

Coming into checkpoint #2.

My photographic coverage basically stopped after mile 50. The course got incredibly tough, the sun intensified the relatively mild temps and I just didn't have the energy to get off my bike to take pictures. Which is really too bad, because the trail continued to provide awesome sights, including a petrified forest just before checkpoint #3 and a few prairie dog towns somewhere around mile 85.