Bears and Hiking (Spearfish, SD)

Howdy folks!   I imagine you're surprised to see another blog from us so quickly.  We feel the need to try to keep the blog up to date so we just wanted to briefly mention a few things we've done since posting a few days ago. My last post took us through the 9th of Aug and now I'm ready to continue with the 10th.  Tell me it's not your lucky day!

On the10th we went to Rapid City to do the Linex  thing on the new truck and shop the commissary. Additionally, we visited Bear Country USA. This is a drive through wildlife park that's well stocked with bears of course, and lots of other various wildlife. We visited Bear Country a couple weeks ago but didn't enjoy ourselves as much as we knew we could.  On the first visit Debbie forgot her camera.  Additionally, we were in the early days of our diet, had failed to eat adequately and we were ravenously hungry.  You know, we could have eaten a bear!  So we returned with great  success.  Debbie had a wonderful time with her camera.  Hopefully you'll agree!

Before we even arrived at the Bears, we had observed these guys:

Reindeer

Artic Wolf

Big Horn Sheep

Rocky Mountain Goat

And finally we spot the bears.  This one was coming right up the road to greet us.

 

Then there were bears just hanging around everywhere!

After completion of the drive-thru portion, you have the opportunity to park your vehicle and take a walk around "Babyland", where in addition to some very cute baby bear cubs,

we saw:

Coyote

Red Fox

Badger

Skunk

Porcupine

Then there was a separate enclosure for the grizzly bears.  They seemed to love performing for the crowd.

And "scaring" us!

 

 Oh yeah, of course there was this bear too.

Not sure of the price of Bear Country USA (we got in free with our VIP card) but I would say this was a most enjoyable attraction.  Not exactly like seeing these animals in the wild, but great for a close-up look without the bars.

After Bear Country we went on to the Crazy Horse sculpture. Respectfully, we're not all that impressed with Crazy Horse. I could imagine it will be spectacular when it's finished but that raises the great question.  Work began on the sculpture in 1948.  At the current pace, we don't believe the creation will be completed in the next 100 years. One of our fellow volunteers commented that  he'd been to the sculpture site 20 years ago and barely saw any difference on a recent visit. By choice, the project receives no public funding but there's LOTS of activity related to generating revenue via gift shops (plural), restaurants and crafters. Additionally, the entrance fee is $27 a car load. One of the crafters selling jewelry cornered Debbie and just wouldn't let her get away. This is tough to imagine because Debbie is great at telling salespeople "no", but the young lady was mighty persistent!  It was challenging but Debbie eventually got away.  Phew!  So given the above, it strikes us as a "wanna be" attraction.  We may be in the minority, but that's our humble review.  Of course some said Mt Rushmore couldn't be done so what do we know?  Here's a picture of what the carving looks like now and what the planned finished product will look like.

Yesterday Debbie and I had a date.  Debbie started her day with her 5.5 mile walk with the girls.  We then drove about 45 minutes into Wyoming to do a hike in another area of the Black Hills National Forest.   Actually we hiked two trails, Cook Lake and Cliff Swallow Trails.  Combined, they totaled 6 miles.  Debbie was excited because the sign describing the Cliff Swallow hike mentioned the possibility of seeing beavers.

As some of you may know, Debbie has never seen a beaver in the wild and is kind of fixated on making that happen. Well, it's still a goal.  No beavers.   The hike was comparatively easy with nice scenery and a mild elevation change.  The weather was superb with temps in the low 70's, BLUE skies and a gentle breeze. We had a wonderfully pleasant time.  We moved at a leisurely pace, took plenty of pictures, and just enjoyed each others company.

But who is the real CHAMP!? Do the math! Debbie totaled 11.5 miles yesterday. The first portion in the morning at an aerobic pace and the second in the afternoon hiking. She's MOTIVATED! I'm pleased and proud!

Loved the great Wyoming scenery to and from the hike also.

My goal was to get "us" up to date.  I believe I have.  We "work" the next few days.  Talk to you soon.

Duane

Truck and More! (Spearfish, SD)

We did it!  Bought a new TRUCK!  Here's the specs:  2011 Chevy Silverado LTZ, 3500, Diesel, Crew Cab, Long Bed, Dually, 4x4, Metallic Mocha (that means kind of a mauve-ish brown).  It has lots of bells and whistles, not all of them but clearly more then we need.  More importantly it's engineered to be a beast and that's why we bought it.  Our old truck was a 2006, Ford, 250 Diesel, Crew Cab, Long Bed 4x4.  It served us very well but we had some concerns.  It was rated to pull 15,500 pounds.  Our camper is currently sitting at about 15,000.  GVW was 10,000 pounds and we were carrying 11,000. (We added air bags to compensate knowing this didn't correct the overload but did help some.)  Further, it did not have an exhaust brake.  Lastly, the 250 was equipped with the 6.0 ltr engine that receives catastrophically bad reviews. (Obviously, we didn't know that when we bought it.)  So we were operating at the upper limits of what the truck was designed to manage.  The new truck is designed to pull 21,100 pounds with a GVW of 13,000.  Plus it comes with a factory engineered exhaust brake, the respected 397 HP, Duramax Diesel engine and the 6 speed automatic Allison transmission.  I know I sound like a commercial but I am convinced it's a quality truck.  My rhetoric is not based on a particular love for any brand.  In fact, this is only the second GMC product I've ever owned.  We are pleased with the deal.  We know we didn't get the all time best deal, but we felt some sense of urgency to buy a stronger truck before we tackled little hurdles like the Rockies. So we're pleased.  Like many full timers, we're always trying to eliminate the weakest link.  We believe this truck addresses several weak links.  We picked up the truck 8/2/11.  Since then we've had running boards installed (they were part of the package from the dealer), and had Line-x sprayed in the bed.  The hitch will be installed next week and we're going to add window rain guards, a nose guard and mud flaps.  Here's the "new arrival" pics:

On the 3rd my friend Bill and I were going to do a 32 mile bike  ride on the great Mickelson trail.  Debbie and Rena dropped us off at the trail head.

Ready to take off on our 32 mile ride 

Love the do-rag Bill!!

Guess I could have used one too!

The girls then departed to drive to our destination in Hill City that we should reach in about 3 hours. We were to do lunch there. 10 minutes into our ride I had a flat tire.  Two days prior to our ride I had casually spoke of a need to replace tires and tubes.  I'm clairvoyant.  I was unprepared.  Neither one of us had supplies to fix a flat so we had to walk back a couple miles. (I now carry a tube, pump and tire repair tools.)  It took some time to get a call through to Debbie and Rena (no cell service) so they had already arrived at our final destination by the time we reached them.  They did come back and get us, but only after driving around most of three hours by the time they dropped us off,  proceeded to our destination and then back to get us.  Oh yeah, when they finally arrived back at the trail head to pick us up they drove right by us and pretended to drive away.  We could hear them laughing it up as they drove by.  Ha, Ha, very funny.

Where we spent most of our ride

We'll reschedule.

Aug 4 was our anniversary.  21 years.  We rarely celebrate any occasion because we recognize everyday is a celebration of life.  How's that for philosophy?!   But really, we know we are blessed far more then we deserve and we're grateful for our quality of life!  We did have a nice lunch with some local volunteers who invited us and others to their home but otherwise we did nothing else special.

We then "worked" a few days. I had some great rides and Debbie logged miles and miles of walking.  We wrapped up the first two weeks of our diet.  I lost 14-16 pounds, Debbie 10.  Debbie hopes to lose more weight but my goal will just be to stay under 200 pounds (I'm 6'5" and currently at about 197). 

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of taking part in a unique fish hatchery activity.  The main pond had to be drained to facilitate replacing some underwater observation windows and repairing some leaking pond walls.  So as the pond drained we had to move 600 - 800 mature trout. Some of these trout are 8-10 years old and weigh 12-15 pounds.  I spent about about 8 hours moving fish.  The US Fish and Wildlife guys pulled a seine net through the pond then a few of us volunteers had to move the fish from their net to a mobile tank then net them into a pond. It was very dirty, wet, sometimes funky and great fun.  I look forward to taking part in moving the fish back to the main pond.

  

Here's what the drained pond looks like at the moment.

 

Aug 9 we did a terrific hike with 6 other folks.  We hiked the Crow Peak Trail.  It's about 7 miles with an elevation gain of about 1500 feet.  Great day, great company, great views, nice wildflowers!

Sanna, a summer intern at the Hatchery, learns the art of tree identification

That afternoon we, along with Bill and  Rena, went to Sturgis, SD to take a peek at the madness of the massive motorcycle rally. Typically, a few hundred thousand folks appear for the week of  the rally.  We arrived, parked at the outskirts of town and walked on in.  What we find was all things motorcycle.  Thousands of motorcycles, T-shirts for sale and quite a collection of biker folks.  It's a colorful group.  Mostly all we did was walk around town gawking at the sites, picking out our favorite motorcycles,  and I'm sure looking entirely out of place. We did stand around for a while watching some crazies defy death.  Lots of wheelies, riding with no hands, spinning around and, the crowd pleaser, smoking tires! It was fun.

  Love the new truck, and you!

Duane

Diet and Fitness (and a new truck?) (Spearfish, SD)

No we did not drop off the face of the earth.  Since my last post Debbie and I have primarily  been significantly preoccupied with a diet.  We started the South Beach Diet on July 20.  Briefly, the diet is all about minimal carbs and sugars.  Now please know that you are hearing from a carb junkie.  I have an enormous sweet tooth and man can live by bread alone (nearly!) So the first two weeks are fairly harsh.  To me it sounds very much like Atkins but they claim not.  But anyway, since the beginning we have been living on chicken, fish and tuna ( oh yeah, tuna is fish), vegetables and cheese. Clearly no bread, potatoes, rice, processed foods, fruits or pastries.  Did you know that white bread is as harmful as heroin?  We're now convinced that's true!  Even as I write about this it sounds mighty unpleasant but in fact it hasn't been too bad.  The first few days were a little weird but then things seem to smooth out.  As of this moment we are on day twelve and we've come to enjoy much of what we're doing.  We still want some of the stuff we're missing but as we progress with the diet we can return to more normal eating habits only hopefully employing a little restraint that hasn't existed in the past. But the proof is in the pudding (sugar free).  I've lost 11-12 pounds and Debbie has lost 8-9.  Next time you see us you may say "the weight loss looks good" or you may say "I thought you were on a diet?"  Of course the challenge will be to incorporate the diet into our life.  Time will tell. 

Now for the fitness. I believe I mentioned in an earlier blog about the 62 year old mountain biker (Tim) who is a fellow volunteer.

Tim

Some time ago he took 3 of us on our first mountain biking ride and we nearly puked out our guts...but it was great.  He also wet our appetite for biking as a great workout. I started slowly but I've been picking up momentum. I ride 3 or 4 days a week and routinely do 15 to 25 mile rides with 29 miles as my longest ride.  This is a great area to ride.  Within a couple of miles you can be out of town, on well compacted gravel roads with almost no traffic and headed for the mountains.  Routinely my rides include 1000 to 1500 feet elevation change.  So every ride includes lots of challenging hills but you also get to come down the hills. Plus the scenery is stunning.  Here's a few shots from one of my rides near sunset.  No Debbie didn't go along.  I took these with our small pocketsize camera.

It's become a great activity.  Again, I hope to stick with it as part of our lifestyle.  Debbie has done equally as well with her own exercise program.  Most mornings she's out at 8 am to walk with some of the ladies.  They routinely cover 5+ miles.  I walked one morning with Debbie and she keeps an impressively brisk pace.  She also sometimes adds her walking tapes to her daily activities.  So we're doing our diet and adding a heavy dose of exercise.  We're excited so we'll keep you posted but I promise not to ramble on about it endlessly.

Oh yeah, we do still have life beyond dieting.  Our volunteer routine cruises along very nicely, we're enjoying our new friends and we will forever love Spearfish.  The other day I did an 8+ mile hike with Bill, Rena (fellow volunteers, now good friends and the folks that turned us onto the South Beach Diet by sharing their success) plus two of their lady friends from Canada.  The weather threw us a curve.  We were to meet outside our camper at 7am and at 6:45 it was pouring rain.  We decided not to hike but we had to go meet the Canadian ladies at the trail head because we couldn't reach them by phone.  Debbie didn't go because we didn't imagine for a moment we were going to hike so she stayed home.  When we got to the trail head 30 minutes later it was nothing but blue skies.  So we hiked.  Debbie missed a great outing, we missed Debbie, but you miss out on most of the beautiful  scenery because Duane was the photographer.  Here's a few shots anyway.

One more tidbit.  We're shopping for a new truck.  That's somewhere between exciting and aggravating.  Maybe next post will include pictures of a new truck?

I imagine little of what I've written about this go around is particularly interesting but it's what we're doing at the moment.  Thank you for listening.  It's nice to know you're out there! 

Dreamer of Donuts,

Duane