Mickelson Trail Day 4: Finale
Thunder storms threatened all evening, the worst with silver dollar size hail, stalled a few miles west of Lead. We were thankful we were not in a tent. We could have taken the motel shuttle to Deadwood for supper. The gold may have been played out, but the town still hustles and bustles with folks still trying to take your money. Maybe not as involuntarily as in the days of Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, and the original Pam’s Purple door, but buyer be weary and don’t sit with your back to the door.
Old mining towns are very similar. It was hard to tell if we were in Lead/Deadwood, SD or in Wallace/Kellogg, ID. Both areas even claim to be the center. Wallace of the universe and these parts of SD claim the center of the country.
We opted to eat in Lead at the Sled Haus, featuring German style fare. The vittles were tasty. Rhonda had a turkey sandwich which contained a rather snappy coleslaw. I had a Jager-schnitzel on a bed of red cabbage. This was not your bland schnitzel from Vienna, it had a twang and it was tasty. Only served on Fridays and Saturdays. So get there early.
Sleeping through the storms in the security of the Blackstone Lodge, we got up and hit the trail before 8. We retraced our path up and down through Lead and found the trail as we left it and started the climb up.
The country here is also familiar to home. Ponderosa pine forest mixed in with some Spruce. However, the deer have a white tail compared to our muleys. As we traveled south we road through the old mining communities of Rochford, Mystic, and Dumont eerily similar to the drive to Idaho City. It was all beautiful.
The miles clicked off fast today. Maybe we are just getting our touring legs. Soon we were on the downhill into Hill City and the Splinter. We are showered and doing some clean up and lounging until we can gather enough energy to find a pizza. We need to make it quick. Forecasted t-storms loom and it could be a noisy night in the Splinter Van.
No comments:
Post a Comment