After hearing and writing about the Mickelson Trail Trek for years, I decided to join this year as a rider.

I didn't have to pedal far to see why the ride - which celebrates the trail and honors the late Gov. George S. Mickelson, who pushed for its development - attracts riders from across the nation, and even from foreign lands.

What follows is a brief summary of a much more expansive ride through the heart of the Black Hills, and comments and images of just a few of the 535 riders who pedaled along.

I'm somewhat sore but entirely happy to say I was one of them.

There's hoar frost in the grass and a chill in the fall air as a string of bicyclists pedals out of the Custer trailhead, arousing the interest of a small herd of mule deer at the Custer city limits.

Among the cyclists bundled up against the barely 50-degree temperatures on the first day of the 10th anniversary Mickelson Trail Trek are two of the late Gov. George Mickelson's children, David and Amy, and their spouses, Val Mickelson and Jeff Brecht.

"It's hard to believe it's been 10 years," David Mickelson said of the Black Hills biking and hiking trail that bears his father's name.

Completed in 1997, the 109-mile trail that runs from Deadwood to Edgemont through the heart of the Hills honors the memory of the popular governor who was killed, along with seven other men, in a plane crash in 1993.

David and Val will bring their two children, ages 2 and 4, on the trek someday. "We can't wait to show it to our kids," said Val. "We talk about Grandpa George a lot."

Held Sept. 14-16, this three-day ride traverses the trail in its entirety, though not from beginning to end. The first day's installment is a 44-mile ride from Custer downhill to Edgemont, through the pine meadows and sagebrush-studded foothills of the southern Hills. Bikers shed their outerwear as temperatures rise and elevation drops. Though the ride is mostly a gentle decline, after a small rise immediately out

of Custer, even descending 44 miles is hard work riding into a stiff headwind out of the south.

Eight miles outside of Edgemont, the stunning rock formations of Sheep Canyon make the whole trip worthwhile. The red rock canyon offers scenic vistas, along with a wonderful tale about an old wooden train trestle that once stood where the trail runs today.

After riding nine of the 10 Mickelson Trail Treks, Kitty Kinsman of Rapid City knows exactly what to expect from the second day of the trek.

Kinsman was one of the early promoters of the trail and worked for years to see that dream become the reality it is today - a crushed limestone trail that takes hikers and bikers through an amazing diversity of Black Hills landscapes.

She knows that the second day of the trek requires nearly 38 miles of up and down cycling from Custer north to Rochford, including two tough climbs that are followed by equally invigorating descents.

"You've got to pay to play," said a cyclist cresting a five-mile incline north out of Custer to Crazy Horse Monument, before heading down a long, sloping descent into Hill City.

In addition to the grandeur of the granite outcroppings that frame this stretch of the Mickelson Trail, there is wildlife galore. Most riders are treated only to chipmunks, deer and flocks of wild turkey, but David and Linda Sandvik of Rapid City, along with son Lars and daughter Liz, sight a yearling mountain lion about 50 yards off the trail.

Like Kinsman and the Sandviks, many of the cyclists are from Rapid City and other points in South Dakota, but others come from as far away as Costa Rica.

The second elevation rise is six long miles straight out of Hill City to Redfern into a blustery north wind. Eventually, riders are rewarded by a downhill run to the scenery around Mystic and Rochford. This part of the trail showcases the Black Hills' signature spruce, along with the beaver dams, bogs and babbling waterfalls of Rapid Creek, to delightful effect.

Rick Pruch of Omaha and his son, Dominick, 14, are among the last to leave Rochford on the final leg of the trek. Tired and weary after two days on the trail, the Pruches manage to stay just ahead of Paul Bosworth, a National Forest Service employee who is manning the SAG wagon (a Support and Gear vehicle on hand to provide mechanical or medical assistance to riders) , on the long, gradual 10-mile climb through high mountain meadows to Dumont.

Bosworth, at the other end of the cycling fitness spectrum, once rode the entire trail, from Deadwood to Edgemont and back again, in one day.

"I did it on the longest day of the year so I wouldn't run out of daylight," Bosworth said. He started at daybreak and, 17 hours later, he had ridden 218 miles.

Just past the Dumont trailhead, the Mickelson Trail falls rapidly into a thrilling 14-mile descent into Deadwood. Here, the forested hillsides are thick with spruce and dotted with brilliant yellow aspen, a sight as beautiful as the trail is steep in spots - including a 17 percent grade that plummets a short distance to the Kirk trailhead and requires nearly constant pressure on the brakes.

The shortest day of the trek ends by early afternoon for even the slowest of the 535 riders. Cyclists feast on chicken, potato salad, baked beans and chocolate cake at the Deadwood Pavilion while a DVD of the 10th anniversary Mickelson Trail Trek plays on a large screen.

The video is a small memento to the beauty of the Black Hills that they have all just experienced for themselves.

And as beautiful as it is on the screen, the images can't quite match the realities that bikers experienced on the trail.

And this year, I can swear to that myself.

Mary Garrigan is the editorial page editor of the Rapid City Journal. Contact here at 394-8427 or mary.garrigan@rapidcityjournal.com