Upper Rapid Creek was our version of the Slate Creek ride described in the Horning and Marriott book “Mountain Biker’s Guide to the Black Hills.” The MB guide used a start point at the Slate Creek Dam with access via Hill City. Brad and I drove a much shorter way to the Silver City Trailhead, and accessed the route by riding what was then called the Upper Rapid Creek Trail to join their route at Stewart Gulch. This extended the book’s 13 mile distance to a beefier 21 miles.
I’d
been in this area twice previously, the first time on 5-16-87 when I hiked out
and back on the trail from Silver City upstream along Rapid Creek nearly to the
confluence with Castle Creek. This was my first experience with the slatey
canyons of the central Black Hills, far more peopled in the1800s than in modern
times. Then, on 10-28-90 Craig and I had used the Silver City Trailhead to make
a loop up and over the top of 5,810’ Silver Peak on the south side of the creek.
The mountain’s steep slopes, made more slippery by the loose slabs of slate,
were more of a challenge than we’d expected on that short hike.
By the time of our ride, the BHNF still listed the Upper Rapid Creek Trail as extending from Silver City west to Castle Creek. However, this would soon change. The Centennial Trail was already complete between Wind Cave National Park and Bear Butte State Park along the east side of the Black Hills. And, in the central park of the Black Hills, what would become the Mickelson rails-to-trails conversion between Edgemont and Deadwood was under construction. The BHNF had a plan to connect the two trails, like the bar connecting the two main lines in the letter “H.” The connector would be called the Deerfield Trail, and it would also extend further west to the Deerfield Lake Loop Trail. The Deerfield Trail would incorporate the Upper Rapid Creek Trail.
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| Upper Rapid Creek MB ride in yellow. |
To start the ride, we rode west up Rapid Creek. My notes show we had two crossings before making a left turn into Stewart Gulch, where there was active logging in the lower gulch. When using the Mountain Biker’s guide my field notes tend to be sparser than when I’m otherwise riding a route new to me, and this is a case where I have a sketch map, but few notes for most of the ride. Perhaps I was concentrating more on completing the ride.
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| Broken derailleur in Upper Rapid Creek. |
Soon
after entering Stewart Gulch, I broke my chain and derailleur, most likely by
dragging a loose branch into the mechanism. Fortunately, we had a chain tool,
and were able to reconnect the chain around both rings. There was no way to shift
gears, but my trusty Diamond Back rigid frame was still mobile. With no known
major climbs ahead, we forged on.
Stewart
Gulch led us into West Nugget Gulch. With no shifting I just rolled down the hills,
while watching Brad peddle off in the distance. We lost the route temporarily
in some complicated junctions around the Tiffel Mine. Not too long after that we
turned up Skull Gulch and rode BHNF 243 to the Slate Creek Dam. It was about
another mile north from the dam to where the Deerfield Trail was planned to
cross, but we saw no trail markers. From the dam back to the trailhead near
Silver City, our route would eventually become part of the Deerfield Trail.
We
continued up Slate Creek, making seemingly dozens of crossings. My notes
indicate the water was generally knee deep, so the crossings were no fun. By
Flannagan Cabin there was no trail up the creek. However, the last 0.2 mile from
Slate Creek toward Rapid Creek had been rebuilt by the BHNF. We saw our only
person of the trip at junction with Rapid Creek, unfortunately a guy out
scouting for ATV routes.
Turning
down Rapid Creek on the home stretch we were plagued by mosquitos, a surprising
event in the normally dry Black Hills. There was construction on private
property at Kelly Gulch. The BHNF advertised the trailhead at the USGS gauging
station on Rapid Creek, but I never found road access open the last half mile
to the station.
The
first edition of my Black Hills Guide only included the only the Upper Rapid
Creek Trail along Rapid Creek from Slate Creek to Silver City as I had hiked in
1987. But with some 1997 and 1999 trail scouting I was able to describe the
entire 18 mile Deerfield Trail in the 1999 second edition.
5-17-24, Update w/ Jean
Jean and I had only five days in the Black Hills for our 2024 visit, so we wanted to make sure to hit the really high points Jean has always enjoyed the hike up the canyon of Grace Coolidge Creek in Custer State Park, and I hoped that hiking the Upper Rapid Creek segment of the Deerfield Trail would replicate that experience on a new trail for her.
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| A short adit driven along Rapid Creek. |
I remembered Upper Rapid as a rough wet trip, with multiple creek crossings and underbrush, but thought that our recent off trail hiking had prepared us well for those conditions. After getting stuck in a monstrous road building backup on US 385 between Pactola and the Silver City Road we got to the trailhead late in the morning. Our first surprise was the vehicles from other hikers, this had once been a trail I could count on to have to myself.
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| Rapid Creek near the Silver City Trailhead. |
The trail starts out as an old road, with three vehicle bridges built in the early 1960s, leading to a USGS stream gauging station about a mile out. Beyond the station, the remains of the old road was gated off, but there were sturdy wooden bridges in place at all the crossings. I spotted one collapsed mine adit, the partly filled shaft of another mine, and a ~30’ adit driven along a quartz vein as reminders of the creek’s mining heritage.
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| A USGS stream gauging station. |
The trail surface appeared to be an old railroad grade, and despite the recent wet weather the tread was completely dry. The scenery alternated between the rollicking creek and the high rocky canyon walls. We saw hikers and people fishing, but this would have made a fine mountain bike ride as well. Though open to horses we saw only one faint set of tracks. With the obvious footway, there was no blazing,
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| Another view of Rapid Creek. |
But
at 2.8 miles we could have used a sign. Here an old two track road enters on
the right from Kelly Gulch and BHNF Road 142. We hiked back and forth up the
two forks before being sure the entering road was Kelly Gulch. But we liked the
spot well enough to stop there for lunch.
At 3.7 miles we reached the head of upper Rapid Creek, formed by the confluence of Slate and Castle creeks. Castle Creek to the right had a narrow path, but there were signs for Slate Creek and a plank bridge on the left. Beyond the confluence we also saw a sign pointing right for the “Peddlers Trail”, but could see no evidence of a trail there. We had left our turnaround point undecided, but decided to retreat a quarter of a mile in when we found the second bridge on Slate Creek missing.
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| The enigmatic Peddlers Trail sign. |
The
return walk was also pleasant. It was clear and sunny, but there was enough
shade to keep us reasonably cool. This time we stopped at the ghost town of
Canyon City. We found some foundation timbers, pieces of metal sheeting, and a
small garbage pit as the only remains of the old mining town. Someone had made
a small fire pit, and it looked like the site could be a great camp site.
With such easy trail and gentle grades, we were back at the trailhead by midafternoon, even with our late start and the fatigue from the previous day’s drive. Jean was well impressed by the canyon, and thought it a good match for the scenery along Grace Coolidge Creek.
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| Slate Creek just above the confluence with Castle Creek. |
