The first Sylvan Lake Invitational Family Triathlon, i.e. Nils invited me and I invited him

Monday, 8/6

This morning it was about 10 degs warmer than the previous few days, and we decided to embark on Part I of our triathlon first thing, namely kayaking on Sylvan Lake.  The water was like glass, there was a cool breeze, the sky was dark blue and the sun was shining, but not too hot. Heavenly! We ended just as the motorcycles began thundering their way toward Mt Rushmore...perfect timing.

Home to the RV for a change of gear and onto Part II of the triathlon, namely a vigorous hike along the Lover's Leap Trail (which I call the "Liebchen Leapchen"….those two words sound virtually identical, especially with a German accent).  The story goes that a Native American Romeo and Juliet-ish couple of young lovers ended their lives at the summit of the trail by jumping together to their deaths. 

 It was already hot---in the high 80s--but we were determined to continue with our Triathloneering ('tis the Olympic Season, after all).  As we were locating the trailhead we met a woman who had just finished the hike and told us that the final third of it, along a creek, was overgrown with poison ivy.  Also, she almost walked right into a buffalo who was crossing the path at the time!  Anyway, we decided en route to just ascend to the L2 highpoint and then retrace our steps back down so as not to risk poison ivy contact (Nils just got over a bad case of P.I. before we left on our trip).  Beautiful and pretty strenuous going up….the path was littered with sparkling rocks, from tiny (pea-sized) to bigger-than-a-breadbox.  The view at the top (from which one could definitely leap to one's death if one so chose) was gorgeous and worth all the work….we could see the peak to which we climbed yesterday, among others.  And of course, as high as we were, we could hear the motorcycles!

Were back down at the truck less than two hours after we started, and in urgent need of serious cooling off.  But first things first….a stop in Custer City for some groceries.  As soon as we'd put them away in the RV, we changed into bathing suits, grabbed the noodles and headed to Lake Sylvan for Part the Third of our Triathlon.  Had a COLD and very refreshing paddle around the big rock in the middle of the lake…...our Triathletic events--kayaking, hiking and swimming--valiantly completed (although not really competed)  (both of us received a Gold medal, in case you were wondering).  

Food was next.

And then a nap.

At the Lake (after the podium presentation of our medals) we had an interesting conversation with a biker who was also cooling off in the lake.  He was a physician from Wisconsin in his late 50s who comes to the Rally every year for a week of riding in the Black Hills.  He said that he doesn't spend too much time in Sturgis himself (it's just too crazy for his taste) but does enjoy observing the spectacle for a few hours at a time.  He said that a huge percentage of the participants are well-to-do professionals who enjoy putting on a "bad-ass biker persona" and riding around S. Dakota together.  He said that the camaraderie was one of the best things about it--if you were experiencing mechanical difficulties at the side of the road, 20 bikers would immediately stop to help you and they would probably all be complete strangers.  We wanted to get a photo of the biker throngs but didn't have a camera handy at the right time….you'll just have to take my word for it that there are THOUSANDS of bikers around here right now.  For the record, Nils says that I'm obsessed with the whole biker conflagration, but really it's more of an anthropological fascination.   We're on the edge of a Woodstock/Mardi Gras/hard-partying fraternity of almost a half-million motorcycling enthusiasts.  Not exactly something I could encounter in western Massachusetts now, is it?   I will answer that question myself with a resounding "No!".   

We took a post-dinner walk around Lake Sylvan just now (to locate the trailhead for our hike tomorrow) and saw a hawk circling in the air.  We watched it slow down, stall for a moment and nose-dive into the water to snatch an unsuspecting fish.  Then it flew off, with obvious effort, far into the distance (still grasping the fish), all without a sound.   Also not something that we encounter every day.

N.B. We've been back-filling earlier posts of the blog with photos and links to scintillating information about such things as the Wind Cave box work, so be sure to take a look!