Meltdowns, biking and dinosaurs

Friday, July 20 6:00am - One perk of waking up early is that sometimes you get to witness beautiful things like the sunrise. Yesterday morning I heard an odd noise while walking the dogs. When I looked up I saw a hot air balloon come over the hill behind our campsite. Of course I didn't have my phone and since I was only walking the dogs didn't bring my big camera with me so unfortunately no pictures to share, just my memory.

This is where my "wandering" hit a snag. The night before I had asked the boys and Lin if they wanted to hike or bike and "nobody cared." I was also trying to figure out how to fit in all the stuff we wanted to do while still meeting the needs of the dogs and keeping everyone (the boys) moderately happy. Mentally I was kind of freaking out without a solid plan. After about an hour of running different scenarios through my head I figured out one I thought would work. We were going to do the bike ride and then meet my Dad and Gail in Hill City to see the Museum at the Black Hills Institute. Luckily my Dad was on-board with taking the dogs out for a break while were were gone. Feeling more calm and collected at this point! We had a plan for the day!

As we were getting ready to go Dizzy was freaking out and barking. She was probably feeding off my "I don't have a plan" freak-out as well as being upset at the prospect of being abandoned. And then one of the boys announced that Lin's bike tire was flat. No problem - we stocked up on tires before we left town. Oops - we forgot to the get the type of tire that Lin's bike needs. Luckily we found a bike shop listed in Hill City which was on our way to the trail we were doing. Back on track, we loaded up and headed toward Hill City.

The bike shop had the tire that Lin needed and Aidan found a new bike seat for his bike so all is good! The bike shop guy asked where we were going biking and when I told him our route he looked skeptical and showed us an elevation map of the trail. Of course, I had researched the whole think and was well aware of the fact we would be going uphill on the way there and downhill on the way back. I guess I hadn't really shared that with the rest of the family....

We got the Mickelson Trail trailhead at the ghost town called Mystic, got Lin's bike fixed and ate a quick picnic lunch. We were about 20 miles into the middle of nowhere so the trailheads all have water, bike repair stations, little shelters with picnic tables and a pit toilet.

As we started out the gravel trail went up and down a little and we enjoyed the scenery. As we continued we went over trestle bridges and through a really cool tunnel but of course we also started heading up.

And the incline just kept going. Since the trail was built on an old railway line the incline wasn't that big but it just never stopped. We found out that Lin does not enjoy biking uphill for 8 miles. The good thing is that being in the middle of nowhere, nobody had to hear him. I stayed away and the boys would take turns riding/walking with him before coming back to me to report his latest comments. At about mile 7, I wasn't sure we were going to make it so I offered to turn around but determination won out and Lin decided he was going to conquer this ride or at least "get it...over with." I'm skipping a few words there!

Aaron and rode on and we made it to the Rochford trailhead. There was a local rider hanging out in the shelter so we talked to him while we waited for Aidan and Lin.

Eventually they emerged and we rode down to a little saloon I had read about. We walked inside the little hole in the wall and had to squeeze past tables and chairs to make it to the counter. The boys ordered cream sodas and Lin and I got IPAs (11th Hour from Crow Peak Brewery) from a local brewery. We walked outside to hang on the porch with some other bikers. Not bikers like us but Harley riders. The resident dog kept us entertained by pouncing on the reflection from my watch face every time I moved and we chatted with some Canadians that were on a bike trip. At this point everyone was happy again!

We headed back toward Mystic on the trail so that we could meet up with my Dad and Gail. The trail down was of course much easier and everyone (Lin) was in a better mood. We found raspberries along the trail and the boys gobbled them up. I did turn on my phone for a minute to upload the bike ride information from my Garmin. I was good and didn't peek at anything else though. My Garmin reports that on the way to Rochford our total elevation gain was 993 feet.

Back to Hill City to the Museum at the Black Hills Institute. It is has a really cool collection of fossils. This is the group that actually found Sue the T-Rex that the government ended up seizing from them. We watched a documentary called Dinosaur 13 before coming so knew some of the background of the place and their story. Although they no longer have Sue, they do have Stan the T-Rex along with a lot of other cool specimens.

After a long day we headed back to the campsite and enjoyed Gail's delicious chili and raspberry cake. Shhhhh...don't tell the boys about the cake. They were off exploring so more for us!

I think although the biking wasn't a favorite activity for some it was still a successful day. We got to see the area in a slower manner and enjoyed the little museum. And both Lin and I got to have our own unique little meltdowns. Wouldn't be family vacation without a few of them!