I left Spearfish at a leisurely hour and took the city path system out of town to a lightly travelled paved road that turned to gravel quickly. It was hard packed and gradual at first but really steep near the top. I had a quick and fun descent and then turned on US 14. No sooner had I crossed the city limits of Deadwood, I spotted a license plate on the shoulder. I spun around, grabbed it and threw it in my bag. It was pretty beat up but readable as a South Dakota plate. At the rate I'm going I'll collect them all soon! I rolled through downtown Deadwood which was much more built up than I expected. It looked pretty touristy but there weren't many people around. Strange as it's a really nice day and Saturday. As I wasn't in need of a t shirt emblazoned with a pithy phrase extolling the virtues of unmuffled motorcycles, I kept going and ended up stopping at a Family Dollar which couldn't have looked more out of place there in Deadwood. Although it was just off the historic downtown part. I grabbed a couple snacks to top off as I wasn't sure how long till the next store. I jumped on the George S Mickelson trail and began climbing. I was surprised because I was already at 4500 feet. Wasn't that high enough? But the grade was never over 4% because it was a rail grade. So it was pleasant. And beautiful. I climbed beside a cold rushing creek through a forest. The highway was not far away thoughand there were lots of lodging and businesses for several miles. I went by a mining town called Lead, and still I climbed. It turned out that the trail had numerous trailheads and it was packed with people. The weather was perfect. Upper seventies, sunny skies. Some of the trailheads had water in addition to bathrooms. So I didn't need to worry about water as much as I thought. The climbing finally ended and I got to enjoy a long downhill. I went through several tunnels and numerous trestles over creeks and roads. The leaves were a brilliant yellow which contrasted sharply with the green of the pine trees. I had another sorta long climb up to a gap a few miles from Hill City, and at the top was a nice little covered picnic area and a water pump. So I filled up here and ate a snack and decided I didn't need to stop at Hill City. So I rode straight through and turned off on a gravel forest service road and found a great campsite underneath some young pines in a grassy area surrounded by a rock garden, nowhere near a paved road.