Trip report: 3 nights on the Maah Daah Hey trail

[Tjaard Breeuwer]

I just finished a 3 night bikepacking trip on the Maah Daah Hey trail in ND.

Trail report Maah Daah Hey trail on bikepacking.net

[Steven Paris]

Awesome, Tjaard! Very cool report

[David Chenault]

Great trip and report.

Could you say a bit more about the taxi you took to the start (who, how much, distance) and the logistics of checking a bike on the train? I've long though about a bike and packrafting loop on the MDH, and could take the train from here in Whitefish, making it totally non-car.

[Tjaard Breeuwer]

I will put logistics info on the route page on bikepacking.net , so it is more visible to others.

The packraft idea sounds great, the Little Missouri river intersects the trail at the north end (CCC Camp), the middle (between Elkhorn and Magpie the trail crosses the river) and near the south end at Sully Creek State park.

As you see Elkhorn camp is about a mile up the road from the river, and the National Park Campgrounds in both the North and South unit are on the river. Since they are accessed by road, that means you could bike to or from there as well. The rest of the NP is Wilderness and so off-limit to bikes.

So you could ride from CCC south, detouring around the south unit on Buffalo Gap trail and then pull out the raft and float back north.

If you really wanted to, you could do a complete no-car trip by paddling from Williston down the Missouri, through lake Sakakawea and then upstream on the Little Missouri to the trail.

Or even more self propelled: Bike across Glacier from whitefish and get on the a tributary of the Missouri then float that!

[Erik Basil]

Tjaard, can you tell us more about your gear list, food and cooking?

[Tjaard Breeuwer]

We used a Jetboil SoLTi with 100 g cartridge, homemade windscreen and used the Jetboil bottom cover as a cup and lid.
We ate quick cook oats with powdered milk, raisins and nuts and added shots of liquid 'I can't believe it's not butter' to it to boost calories.
For lunch/snacks we took Lu brand 'little schoolboys', Probars, nuts, jerky, chocolate, super old Dutch cheese, true artisan hard salami and and snickers bars.
For dinner we had freeze dried meals with desert of the above and cocoa.

[Tjaard Breeuwer]

I added my full list to the gear list forum:

gear list

[Travis Leanna]

Awesome stuff, Tjaard.

David, have you done any more thinking on a packrafting/hiking trip on the MDH?

Haven't looked too much, but it appears that if you start in the middle of the trail where the Little Missouri crosses, you could do a figure-8 combo. Hike south, catch the river and raft all the way to the northern terminus, then hike south to your car.

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