A Fast First: 109 Miles on the Mickelson trail in Under 48 Hours By Matt Emrich

by Matt Emrich — Six Moon Designs Ambassador / Undercover Dirtbags

Most big adventures start with months of planning, spreadsheets, and gear lists.

This one started with boredom on a Sunday night.

One quiet Sunday night at home, with my wife at work and nothing better to do, I decided around midnight that I’d hike the Mickelson Trail the next morning. There was no grand strategy, no special training block, just a “let’s see how far I can get” kind of impulse.

The Mickelson Trail stretches 109 miles through the Black Hills of South Dakota, from Deadwood to Edgemont. It’s a converted railroad bed made of crushed limestone and gravel, with a gentle grade that sounds easy but becomes brutal on your feet over long distances. Some locals call it the “gravel treadmill”.

The next morning, I set out and made it just shy of 25 miles before calling for a pickup. My shoes were all wrong for the terrain, and my feet felt like they’d been through a meat grinder. On the ride home, I pulled up the Fastest Known Time website and realized something: no one had submitted a male unsupported time for the Mickelson Trail.

That was all the motivation I needed. By the next weekend, I was back at the northern terminus in Deadwood, ready to establish the first.

To be clear, I didn’t train for this. My “training” this year included summiting Kilimanjaro in January, hiking sections of the Appalachian Trail in June, and logging plenty of mountain miles during wildfire deployments in Utah. Not exactly ultra-specific prep for 109 miles of limestone rail trail. I would not recommend someone do this, or something similar, cold like I did…

But sometimes the best way to find your limit is to go looking for it.

I set a simple goal: cover the entire Mickelson Trail in under 48 hours. No crew. No support. Just me, my pack, and a stubborn streak.

I kept my base weight to 8.5 pounds, relying on some of my favorite Six Moon Designs gear:

For water, I mostly relied on trailhead spigots, since the Mickelson has well-spaced shelters, but I did filter once with my HydraPak filter system that I picked up in Custer, SD during my go at the Centennial Trail earlier in the year. I love it for its speed and the wide-mouth collection bag. Mornings started with cold coffee made from a First Ascent Coffee pack, steeped right in a Smartwater bottle.

My shoes came courtesy of Roam’n Around gear shop in Rapid City, SD. Their staff helped me dial in some last-minute upgrades before the hike, and they deserve huge credit for setting me up for success.

I started in Deadwood, SD early on September 28 and settled into a steady rhythm. The mornings and evenings were cold but manageable. Midday heat was relentless. The crushed limestone surface is great for biking and running, but over dozens of miles, it punishes your feet. By the second day, every step was a mental negotiation between moving forward and giving up.

Wildlife encounters were limited mostly to the nocturnal variety, with tons of random spiders and black widows along the trail in the evenings. The real obstacles weren’t out there on the trail. They were in my head. Pain and boredom became my constant companions. When I had about 10 miles left, the mild hallucinations began.

At one point I stopped in the middle of the trail to squat and rest for a minute. I closed my eyes and immediately dozed off for a few seconds. I awoke to “see” my wife standing next to me saying “let’s go!’. I stood up and reached for her hand which wasn’t there. It was quite a strange feeling, to say the least. I won’t even get into the strange lights in the sky… If you want to hear that story, let me know.

I kept moving. 

As the miles piled up, the simplicity of the goal became my anchor: reach Edgemont, SD before the 48-hour mark. That’s it. One foot, then the other.

The fatigue was peaking in a big way. By this time, I was stopping to elevate my legs or at least squat down every ¾ mile or so. I wanted nothing more than to sleep.

After 46 hours, 18 minutes, and 37 seconds, I touched the SOBO terminus in Edgemont.

Tired. Sore. Hungry. But also deeply satisfied.

My wife and a friend had arranged for a van to be waiting in the parking lot for me to rest in after finishing, as there was nobody available at that time to come pick me up. In the van waited a bag of chips, a pile of ham and cheese sliders, and some other goodies. After eating, I laid down on a bench seat in a stranger’s creepy van and fell asleep right away.

I walked the entire Mickelson Trail unsupported in under two days, setting the first male unsupported FKT in the process. 

Could I have gone faster with dedicated training? Probably. But that wasn’t the point. The point was to say yes to the idea, to test myself against the miles, and to see what would happen.

Big adventures don’t always need perfect preparation. Sometimes they need curiosity, good gear, and a willingness to keep going when it stops being fun.

For me, this hike was equal parts stubborn experiment and personal challenge. It reminded me why I love this kind of thing. It strips away everything else and leaves you with the essentials.

109 miles. 46 hours. One good pack, a silver umbrella, and a “quitting is not an option” mindset.

If you are interested in more info on this hike or any other content, please don’t hesitate to reach out or follow us at @undercoverdirtbags on IG!

See you out there.

— Matt

@undercoverdirtbags