June 3--Black Hills

Today was an adventure.  I intended to do the Lost Cabin trail from Willow Creek to Sylvan Lake.  Marilyn walked with me for the first part.  Well, we missed the turnoff to the trail.  Actually I wondered about it but didn't see an obvious sign.  We should have seen it at 0.3 miles.  Marilyn turned around after 1/2 mile and planned to meet me at Sylvan Lake.  I continued on.  Here is the story in pictures:
Here's the lovely trail I continued on:

uh-oh, I'm at mile 1.5 and still on the Willow Creek trail.  I obviously missed the turn.

I continued around to the end of the loop and started over.  I headed to the post that I had wondered about the first time around, and looking closely this time, I see the written mark showing my trail to the right:

Okay, I'm on the right trail now but I'm 1 hour and 15 minutes late.   I have to make up time or Marilyn will get worried and go looking for me.   But now the problem is down trees all over the trail.  So that slows me down.

And I have a very long and steep climb.   Fortunately, after I reach Palmer Creek trailhead, the trail is very well maintained.  So now I get to enjoy the hike more.  The view is lovely.  Here is Black Elk Mountain (formerly Harney Peak) to the left:

And a lovely view of the valley below:

 After climbing about 1800 ft, I crossed the ridge and the walk was quite pleasant.  I figured I had 2 miles to go and I tried to make up time.  Here are some pretty flowers.

 and nice rocks:

My GPS showed that my first hike, the loop, was 2.6 miles with 350 elevation change.  Then I restarted the GPS and did the hike I was supposed to do, 6 miles and 1800 ft elevation change, in 3 hours.  That's faster than I would have liked but I did make up time and made it back before Marilyn got too worried.  I've been reading this wonderful inspiring book called "Grandma Gatewood's walk" about the first woman who walked the entire Appalachian trail, in 1955 at age 67.  I just thought of all she accomplished and overcame and took this all in stride with a sense of humor.  My only worry was Marilyn's worry.  I'm actually glad I got to hike 8.6 miles and climb 2100 ft!   Later on, we walked a few miles on some other trails so I easily exceeded 10 miles today.  My fitbit confirms this with over 32000 steps recorded.

June 2--Black Hills

Today was a fabulous bonus day, because thunderstorms were forecast and they stayed away until 3 pm.  So we got in a 5 mile hike this morning on the Mickelson trail, and then I did 4 miles this afternoon near Sylvan Lake.  Elevation change was 300 ft in the morning and 700 in the afternoon. I wore my vibram 5-toed shoes this morning and my minimal shoes this afternoon.  Both felt good.  I'm reading a book called "Whole Body Barefoot" by Katy Bowman.  She says the whole body is involved in walking and she recommends doing some exercises before transitioning and then transition slowly to minimal shoes.   Of course I'm not following instructions but I do look forward to getting to the section that describes the exercises.  I'm curious to read her other books too.  I find what she says interesting and plausible, though I'm pretty ignorant about physiology so could be susceptible to garbage advice.  Here are pictures from the hikes.  

This morning:

This afternoon's hike:

June 1--Black Hills

Today was an awesome day.   I only climbed 10 floors at the hotel because we wanted to get going, though I also did bear crawl and broad jump in the hallway.  Then we got going.  First we walked around Mt. Rushmore, then headed to the Mickelson rails-to-trails bike path.  We walked 5 miles on that and then I biked 14.6.  I wore my vibram shoes for the walk--my feet have never felt better.  The bike ride involved a long uphill followed by a long downhill.  So a very slow 1.5 hours followed by a fast 30 minutes.  Here are some pictures from the walk and bike ride.

The facilities along the trail are very nice:  shelters, bathrooms, water.

May 31

This morning I climbed 50-60 floors in the hotels stairwell (I lost count at one point and decided to be conservative).  It was at least a 4-star stairwell, even though it looked stark at first, with grey floors and no carpeting.   But I decided that was a good thing because stairwells are usually poorly ventilated and carpeting can get musty.  This one smelled reasonably fresh and it had an extra floor which I prefer.  So it was a good stairwell.  I also bear crawled and broad jumped down the hallway.

Sadly that is all the exercise I did today as it was a long driving day and then I had grocery shopping and food prep at the hotel.  I'm hoping tomorrow will see more activities.

May 30

I did 50 flights of stairs in the hotel.  It was a 4-star stairwell because the decor was pleasant and the air was reasonably fresh.  We arrived at our destination early on purpose so we could enjoy the McCrory Gardens.  Much of the walking area was on grass, so I took off my shoes and enjoyed walking on the grass barefoot.  It was delightful. Then we walked around the arboretum next door.  After we got to our hotel we walked on a recreational path that conveniently runs in back.  I'm not sure how many miles we walked but I got over 16000 steps on the fitbit so after subtracting 3500 for the stairwell, that's over 12000, so probably about 4 miles today.  Pretty good for a travel day.

The 4-star stairwell:

The gardens:

The arboretum

The recreational trail:

These birds were having too much fun jumping onto and swaying on the reeds.

May 29

This morning I did a 3 mile walk, thinking it might be the only walk I do because we were traveling.  But M discovered that there is a state park near our destination so we packed up more quickly than planned and headed to Perrot State Park, along the Mississippi River.  What a wonderful treat that was.  We hiked along the river and then I climbed up onto Brady's bluff and got a wonderful view.  My GPS watch recorded 3 miles and 981' elevation variation, though the bluff itself is only a 500 ft climb.  I wore my vibram 5-toe shoes and boy did they feel great.  I think they make me feel more alive.  Then I rode my bike on the Great River Trail for 7 miles (wearing regular shoes).  What fun.  Then it was past time to get to our hotel.  This park is beautiful and deserves many repeat visits, with the kayak too!

I took a gazillion pictures but am sparing you most of them.

Here was my walk this morning:

Perrot State Park, down at the river:

Starting to climb the bluff: