Samuel J. Greear

Yesterday at the Tinton Trail Time Trial outside of Spearfish, SD we setup the GoPro HD Helmet HERO Camera on a GorillaPod to capture riders as they came by. It was a great event with interesting weather, check out the video compilation below.

Recently shot this video with the GoPro HD Helmet HERO Camera at Buzzards Roost with local riders Sam R. and Dan S. I suppose it seems logical that I should start putting these videos on the actual trail and network pages …

After several days of rainy weather in the Black Hills the trails are finally ride-able again. A ride at Buzzards Roost yesterday presented less than optimal conditions, but by this morning the trails at Storm proved to have dried to a tacky brilliance.

The Sturgis BAM website has been updated to include a link to PahaSapaTrails.com, check out the new new Knifeblade page.

The 6’th annual Tinton Time Trial will be held this weekend on Sunday the 26’th of June, check out the event website for more details. This is a fantastically fun and relaxing event for those of all ages and abilities, as much a get-together as a race.

Buzzards Log: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/94179225

Storm Log: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/94336475

The route for the BAM event is now live on the site, albeit probably in need of an edit or three. See it here

Last week I bit the bullet and invested in a GoPro HD Helmet HERO Camera … Among other things this will enable me to more easily compile photo collections of various stretches of trail for this site.

Initial impressions (things that weren’t obvious from the marketing literature):
While the GoPro is fairly small and lightweight, once strapped to your helmet it is a definite burden, although one to which you will quickly grow accustomed. Your helmet straps may require some adjustment in order to keep everything in the right place.
Battery life is highly dependent on the video capture mode. Capturing video at 720p @ 60fps yielded 2 hours 15 minutes on a new freshly charged battery, while 720p @ 30fps yielded 3 hours. These are the highest and lowest bitrate settings, respectively.

Once you have a whole pile of video, you need to edit it … Unfortunately it does not edit itself, as well there are no magical editing fairies that will show up to help you. This seems like it will probably be the largest stumbling block for most people who make this type of purchase. Having some prior experience with Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas I decided to try out some more consumer friendly options. The first video below was edited with Cyberlink PowerDirector. It seems quite easy to get the hang of for a timeline-based editor, but is somewhat limiting. The biggest example of this is that the transitions seem to all be fixed duration. The second video below was edited with Avid Studio. This software was also fairly easy to dive into, although not as straightforward as the Cyberlink option. Avid Studio was also clearly the more powerful and feature-rich of the two, but irritatingly it seemed quite imprecise in terms of frame selection, mouse control only?

This video is of the Centennial Trail from about 8 miles south of the Elk Creek Trail Head (a few miles north of Dalton Lake) to the Elk Creek Trail Head. This covers miles approximately 10-18 of the Sturgis BAM Knifeblade race.

This second video is several miles of Trail 40 leaving Silver City (near the Pactola inlet) to the west.

I rode most of the rest of the BAM route this week, staging out of the Elk Creek Trail Head. It seems the best route (there are several depending on where you are coming from) to the trail head is to hit Sturgis on the way and head up Vanocker Canyon, making a left on Runkle Road. The trail head is a few miles down this gravel road. The other options are either narrow and gravel for many miles or narrow, twisty and tourist-laden.

This is great riding in both directions, rough and sometimes tough, but excellent.

Log 2/4: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/90522675

Log 3/4: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/91143622

Mileage (car): 120mi

Mileage (bike): 32mi

Traffic to the site is up considerably, no doubt as a result of attendees of the Black Hills Fat Tire Festival checking things out. Welcome to town from PahaSapaTrails.com, we hope you enjoy your stay!

Had a good little rip at Storm earlier this morning, quite damp down in Coon Hollow but by and large the trails are tacky and fun!

Log: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/88504356

Mileage (car): 28mi

Mileage (bike): 7.5mi

Yesterday we (myself and Sam R.) made an easy pace around the 15 mile loop at Victoria Lake, taking nearly three hours of riding time to cover the 15 (16 really) miles. This was my first time around this particular loop and it makes an exceptional ride, everything is well routed and no pitch is overly steep. There are some epic climbs on this ride as well as some epic descents, but every bit is enjoyable and ride-able. I will be doing this loop again soon now that I have found my way around so that I can generate route notes for this site.

Log: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/87678386

Mileage (car): 30

Mileage (bike): 16