Grizzly No 7

Hi everyone

South Dakota is the land where the buffalo roam and on our first day there they were - great herd of them on the prairie.

This is pick up country and Connie tells me "You can't buy a pick up in the West without a gun rack across the back window".

Harney Peak is the highest mountain east of the Rockies and, with inspiration from Connie and Terry ,we hiked up to the summit at 7,242 feet from Sylvan Lake. Quite a climb - breathless and a little vertiginous the views from the summit over the Black Hills and on to the Bad Lands was spectacular. The hike was 7 miles in total and took 6.5 hours. A little caveat - we actually only hiked up 1,000 feet and, of course, down again on an often steep trail - we had lunch at the summit and then down to a lovely relaxing evening at their wonderful cabin in the woods over looking a stream and with Harney Peak as the backdrop.

Yesterday we went to the Bad Lands to see the great layered rocks in gold, blue, green and red. We watched a burrowing owl in a stand off with some prairie dogs and then went on a short hike into the interior of the Bad Lands to see how it is on the ground as opposed to viewing from various viewing points. Talking of the interior there are some unusual town names here, Scenic, Wall and Interior to name but three. We went to Wall to visit the largest drug store in the USA and today we write from the Library at Custer which is about as close as we will get to Custard on this trip

Here at Custer we are on the Mickelson Trail which is a splendid 114 mile long "Rail to Trail" multi use cycle route.

Grizzly No 7 was the name of one of the trials on the way up to Harney Peak.

Off to see JS in Nashville tomorrow and will write again from Tennessee.

Love to You all

J&C