From the triangle, ride in Victoria Lake Road. Cross the the cattle guard and after a tenth of a mile, look for a jeep road on the right. About 20 yards in there is a large rock placed to block vehicle access.<br />
From here the trail is fairly well defined, and there are signs as needed. Initially arrows on small, white signs, and later orange paint on trees, then back to the signs. <br />
There are a couple of navigational gotchas: <br />
First, at 5.8 miles, immediately after crossing a creek bed on a short section of jeep road, look to the right. The trail goes back to singletrack here and the sign for the turn is easy to miss.<br />
Second, you will come to a well defined jeep road (the same road you left after the creek bed) and it will be unclear which way to go. Go right for a short distance and look for the orange paint on several trees on the left side of the road. Continue the singletrack here. <br />
Heading on, the trail continues to be well defined, and most of the intersections are marked with orange paint, cairns, or signs. There are a couple of singletrack intersections that are not marked, but either go straight, or take the one that is obviously more traveled. It's easy to get a little lost, even using the printed directions from the local club's website, so it is HIGHLY recommend to download the GPX file from here and load it into a smartphone or GPS device.<br />
The trail itself is a solid intermediate ride with lots of rocks, both loose and embedded. There are some small ledges and a handful of mild switchbacks. The few technical features are well marked, giving riders enough time to either dismount and check them out, or let out a WHOOP and drop in. 100% of this trail is ridable, including the tech features once you scope out your line.<br />
The terrain is rolling with short, fairly steep descents immediately followed by quick, punchy climbs. The scenery is amazing as you traverse deep forest, hillside meadows, and the tops of several cliffs. There are lots of sharp rocks, so tubeless tires are ideal. With tubes, run slightly higher pressure to help avoid pinch flats.<br />
There is cell service only on the ridgetops, and there is not much traffic, so keep that in mind if riding it alone. Also, there is poison ivy everywhere. <br />
The trail is a 'lollypop' with a very short stem consisting of the doubletrack just off of Victoria Lake Road, as well as the short section of road leading back to the parking area.
From Rapid City:<br /><br />Head south on US-16 W/Mt Rushmore Rd.<br /><br />Turn right onto Moon Meadows Dr. It is next to the Black Hills National Forest Research Facility and 4.3 miles from the Colonial House Restaurant back in town.<br /><br />Go 2.3 miles, then turn right onto Dunsmore Rd.<br /><br />Go .1 miles and turn left on to Sheridan Lake Rd. It's a 'T' intersection with a convenience store on the left. <br /><br />Go about 3 and a half miles and look for Victoria Lake Rd on the right. It's a triangle entrance, and there is parking area the triangle.
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