There's Gold and Mountain Lions in those Hills

We left Yellowstone the morning of June 30 and tried a new road. We spent the night in Hardin, Mt which is located 12 miles from Little Big Horn Battlefield. We had planned on visiting it but Jan was car sick again so it became an item on the someday-we-will-return list. The drive from Hardin to Deadwood was a very pleasant surprise. Most of the time it is treed and rolling hills. We inspected a National Forest campground that was still FREE! It was lovely and not a soul in the campground.

July 1 we arrived in Deadwood and set up in our favorite Campsite, 33/34. We went to Boondocks for a hamburger and a milkshake. We made arrangements for transportation up to Dumont for tomorrow. Everything was full and busy. An annual reunion occurs at Lead and there is a run/walk on the third that is an annual event.

July 2 we went on our favorite bike trail. When we biked in the park, it became obvious that we were in better shape than we thought and the bike ride proved it. 16 miles of what we think is the best biking trail.

Jan didn't want to drive anywhere the next day so we decided to bike up a branch of the trail starting from the Kirk trailhead.

It was along a beautiful rushing creek and was a steady upgrade (1st gear for Lew) to these old mines. About 2.5 miles to the mines.

Shortly after the mines, the trail became very steep. Lew was walking his bike, but Jan was still riding so she was a bit ahead of Lew. It was a steep upgrade so instead of watching the ground, Jan was looking up at the trees. Suddenly there was movement in a tree branch about 75 feet ahead. Thud! A Mountain Lion leaped onto the bike trail, turned and looked at her before trotting across to the other side of the trail. Jan yelled to Lew, "Mountain Lion, Mountain Lion!" but it was already gone into the brush. It was large, a zoo size Mountain Lion. We continued to yell while quickly deciding that walking slowly uphill was not the right idea. So we quickly yelled our way downhill. Fast. No pictures. We thought of it for about one second..then continued on downhill.

That lion really could have not moved and then dropped out of the tree right onto Jan. Wow!

July 4 found us traveling toward my sister's place in Bloomington, Il. We spent the night at Jackson, Mn. Jan drove for a bit in the hopes of helping with the motion thing. It seemed to help some but the ear needs to get better.