Peg's Post

Tuesday, June 4

First thing - Happy Birthday to my daughter, Krista :-)  Secondly, this opportunity to be at Belle Fourche Public Library is being brought to us by yet another NW 40mph S. Dakota wind. R wrote about that, so that's all I'll say, except to add that at least we have a quaint little coffee shop/bakery just one block from the campground and we're paying campground fees this time instead of motel costs.  Speaking of coffee shops and/or coffee.  I think Russell possesses a talent that is little known to anyone but his riding campanion(s).  Yesterday on I-90 from Deadwood to Belle Fourche there was road construction.  I was behind R and noticing how expertly he was dodging the construction cones, manipulating a fully-loaded bike with his left hand while balancing a cup of hot gormet coffee with his right :-)  It was all I could do just to keep from hitting the darned cones! (wind yesterday, also!)

R mentioned that we found a cemetery to bushwhack in last Sunday, but he didn't mention that we had ridden nearly 60+ miles on the Geo. Mickelson trail before getting to that point.  For those bike riders out there, that's like riding 60+ miles on a dirt or gravel road....tough going. The scenery on the trail is totally awesome, would be ideal for several day-rides, but peddling a loaded bike is quite another story.  We got off the trail and onto Hwy 17 about 15 miles outside of Deadwood thinking we'd be better able to locate a campground.  We've been wrong before.  We DID come across the cemetery which R mentioned that was tucked back by Natl Forest land.  We found a nice, flat spot in the evergreen trees to put up a tent.  Unfortunately, that spot was also a favorite of the local deer herd and we were paid a visit that night, complete with loud, mad snorting sounds and pawing of the ground.  R (who is the dog, cow and deer shouter (vs whisperer) yelled something unintelligible out the tent and the deer crowd found another spot to sleep that night.

I'm going to attempt to insert some photos at this point so ya'll be able to see some of the awesome things we've been seeing :-)

 Opps. Sorry.  This computer wanted to upload all 105 pics.  I only wanted to share a few so I cancelled the request and now it won't let me back in.  I'll close out of this and maybe try putting them in a new post. Keeping my fingers crossed. :-)