FPC: George S. Mikelson Trail

As fun as Custer State Park was, the George S. Mikelson Trail might have been an even more exciting discovery. It's 109 miles of trail from the northern to southern tips of the Black Hills. It was a "rails to trails" project where the old Burlington Northern rail line was taken up and replaced with gravel. And since it was a railroad line, it's relatively level and it includes tunnels and trestle bridges. Not knowing much about it, I just picked a trailhead that said it had a stamp at the self-registration station and that was relatively close to Hill City. This is another treasure that we can't wait to go back and explore some more!

 "We could throw stuff off the bridge. What do you feel like doing?"

In usual Fletcher fashion, the boy didn't want his picture taken. And, in usual Annie fashion, I said, "Too bad. We're not going to have this kid grow up without any pictures of him, even if he is being crabby in every one of them!"

 Bill's first time ever wearing the Moby wrap. I don't know if this wrap is technically "legal," but the girl was happy and seemed safe enough to me. She liked facing the other kids and me.

This is where we called it in. You can see Grier was wearing great walking shoes and Fletcher was refusing to walk any further- he was so tired- so the kids and I stayed at this bridge while Bill finished the walk back to the car. This was close to where the road and the trail cross one another, so he just picked us up here.

Now that we know more about the trail and how the system works, we'll be able to plan better for future trips. This will definitely not be our last time on the Mikelson Trail!