Tatanka 100

Course Description

The race start is located at Woodle Field in Sturgis. The first 1.3 miles are on the city bike path before connecting with the Old Stone Road, near the Ft. Meade trailhead of the Centennial trail (#89). Riders will follow Old Stone Rd. east and south until reaching the Alkali Creek trailhead. From there, riders will begin their journey on the Centennial trail, heading south into the Black Hills. The course follows the Centennial trail for over 40 miles before reaching the Deerfield trail (#40) intersection just past the Deer Creek trailhead. Riders take a right onto the Deerfield trail and follow it through Silver City to the intersection with the Mickelson trail (#104). By this point, sixty-five miles of demanding single track is behind you as you turn north on the Mickelson trail and increase average speed. From here the single track turns to a pitch more friendly to tired legs. At the Englewood trailhead riders will exit the Mickelson trail and follow an old railroad grade that is now a Forest Service two-track road east past Woodville Lake and proceed to Tomahawk Country Club. Miles will be passing more quickly, and thankfully so, as riders blaze through Galena, climb through the Red Hill area and roll into Sturgis through the Hog Heaven Campground.

This course has purposefullly been laid out to kick some serious butt until the half way point (the junction of the Deerfield and Mickelson trails) and ease up enough to allow for mortals to actually finish. The breakdown is approximately 65 miles of difficult single track trail and about 47 miles of Rail-to-Trail/Forest Service two-track. This is a one lap grand loop where at no point is any portion of the course used more than once. We are enforcing cutoff times at Silver City, Rochford, and Englewoodbecause we want everyone off the course by dark. Those who do not make cutoff times will not be left fend for themselves as we will provide a shuttle ride back to Sturgis. The 5AM start time will allow for nearly 17 hours of daylight. While we will not know for sure until after the event, we expect very few riders (if any) will break 12 hours.

Course Map/Elevation Profile

Aid Stations

There will be a total of 9 aid stations along the course.

Bulldog (not crew accessible) – Mile 10

Elk Creek Trailhead – Mile 17

Dalton Lake Trailhead – Mile 29.2 (drop bag location)

Nemo – Mile 36.6

Pilot Knob Trailhead – Mile 42.5

Silver City – Mile 50 (drop bag location)

Rochford Trailhead – mile 61

Englewood Trailhead – mile 77 (drop bag location)

Wild Bill’s Campground – mile 86

Aid Station Goodies

Pretzels – Chips/Crackers – Sandwiches– peanut butter and crackers – Oranges – Apples-Bananas – Candy – Brownies – Cookies -Hammer Gel

Water – Heed (Mandarin Orange) & Perpetuem