A Kayaking (Sheridan Lake) and Biking (Mickelson Trail) Kind of Day

We ended the last blog with a picture looking west at the sunset over Sheridan Lake. We woke up the next morning and could see from our front window that the water was like glass. So we were out on the water in our kayak early, looking west over Sheridan Lake once again.

We had planned to go hiking this morning, but with water this smooth . . . and the temperature just right . . . and the lake right outside our door . . . we just had to go kayaking.

With views of the Black Hills all around us, it feels like we have wandered into another of God's wonders this morning.

Rock walls enclose the end of Sheridan Lake, and a hiking trail runs beside much of it. 

A bridge from the hiking trail overlooks the lake, and we plan to do that hike that goes over the water before we leave.

This rocky edge is where the mallard ducks like to hang out, and this guy's head was shining iridescent green in the morning sunlight.

Meanwhile, mother duck was herding her ducklings along the rock wall.

Denisa loves to take pictures of those fuzzy little ducklings. But the pictures always turn out a little fuzzy.

One more picture of the male, just because his colors were reflected in the calm water as we rowed past.

While Denisa is taking pictures of ducks, Mark was taking pictures of her. It was such a beautiful morning to be on the lake . . . until the motor boats showed up and started making waves. We'll finish the circle of the lake another day because it's right in our front yard and we can leave the kayak inflated. We love our camp site right on Sheridan Lake!

We took one more picture of this blue heron before we rowed to the dock and took the kayak out of the water.

Then we made the 20-mile drive to a trail head of the George S. Mickelson bike trail. Once a railroad track, this is another fine example of a rail-to-trail project that provides almost-flat riding for bikers like us that hate the hills. We paid our $4 day-use fee, and got started going north at the Mystic trail head.

The other neat thing about rail-to-trail projects is that the infrastructure built for the railroad is still in place. That gives interesting things for bikers to enjoy, like train trestle bridges. It's hard to see Denisa, but she is looking over the rail of the trestle. On the other hand, Mark rode his bike down the steep hill below the bridge to take the picture. He is better at riding back up that hill than Denisa.

Likewise, the rock walls have already been blasted through so the trains didn't have to go over the hills. Denisa appreciated not having to go over that hill as well.

The Mickelson Trail also has railroad tunnels, and that is another interesting feature that bikers don't usually get.

We had a next-door neighbor at our last campground (thanks Mark and Lisa!) that gave us the advice to start at Mystic and head north for the most scenic part of this 108-mile trail. We love getting advice from locals that have lived in South Dakota their entire lives!

About three miles down the trail we came to a very long and high trestle bridge. Denisa is standing on the bridge, and Mark did some bushwhacking to get a picture.

You can barely see him among the trees in the very center of the picture below.

Then he hopped on his bike, whizzed across that bridge, and nearly ran over Denisa. This section of the trail is going uphill as we head north. The advice was to go eight miles to the town of Rochford, and then the return eight miles would be mostly downhill.

But after that tall bridge, we made a change of plans. We saw on the map that there were a couple more tunnels just south of Mystic. So we decided to turn around after just four miles, and try that section instead of going all the way to Rochford. Just in case you would think that Denisa only takes pictures of flowers on hikes, she also pedals slow enough to take pictures on bike rides too.

We found out that this section south of Mystic is steeper, and we were huffing and puffing to get up this grade. When hiking very steep mountains, we often employ the 100-step strategy. We make ourselves hike 100 steps, then we stop and breathe. Once we catch our breath, we count 100 more steps, and repeat. On this section of the Mickelson Trail we tried the 100-pedal strategy to get to our first bridge.

We finally made it the 2.5 miles to our second tunnel of the day. Yay!

These old railroad tunnels were fun, and we were glad we changed our strategy to see two more.

A little further up the hill, we came to the third tunnel. It's a little different because it curves around the hill, so you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel when you enter.

It was a little unnerving to ride into a dark tunnel.

That made for an interesting picture.

We turned back towards the Mystic trail head, and it was all down hill from there. That usually sounds like a bad thing, but on a bike that is a very good thing! Our goal was not to pedal for the 2.5-miles back to the pickup, and we almost made it. We did have to stop to check out this yellow sign. We wondered why all the vehicles were parked and what the people were doing. We found out they were working their gold mining claim.

It was a fun ride, and we would definitely recommend biking the Michelson Trail--especially the sections around the Mystic trail head. We feel blessed to have nice weather and beautiful scenery on this kayaking (Sheridan Lake) and biking (Mickelson Trail) kind of day.