Contemplating a longer hike in July, Brooke and I decided to start with a ‘trial hike' first. We carved out a few days and selected a section of the Centennial Trail that would take us right through the heart of the Black Hills. Brooke has done her share of day hikes, but this was her first multi-day, sleeping outside kind of hike. Her main stipulation going into the hike was that it be somewhat warm (she’s not a big fan of the cold).

Our plan was to cover 48 miles in four days – pretty doable when all you intend to do is walk all day. As it turned out Brooke is a solid hiker and we covered more miles per day than we had planned. We actually finished in three days instead of four. Our first two days were absolutely lovely. The final day we had a lot of motivation to put away the miles; we hiked that entire day with sub-freezing temps and snow falling around us! While this was beautiful it was not what Brooke had signed up for! Our forecast upon leaving showed each day in the 40's, but as it turned out Sunday never got above freezing (based on our water turning to ice as we walked). So Brooke was very thankful that we weren't staying out in the snow and cold Sunday night and into Monday.

As we popped out of the woods at Legion Lake, the southern terminus of our hike, we still had one obstacle between us and hot food, hot showers, and warm beds. We still needed to hitchhike back to our car. Fortunately, the first car that went by Legion Lake drove us the 10 miles or so to the town of Custer and dropped us off at the town center. Unfortunately it took us about a half hour (walking/standing in the freezing snowiness) to get our next ride. Although the beauty of it was that the fellow took us all the way to our car which was 35 miles away and could have been another 2-4 different hitches. We gorged ourselves on McDonalds once in Rapid City and used all of the hot water with our lavish showers.

From my standpoint the hike couldn't have been much better. It was awesome sharing one of my joys in life – hiking – with the woman I love. The conversations were wonderful as well. And of course the entire experience was peaceful and scenic. Her perspective is a bit different. She's not exactly "sold" on backpacking. While enjoying some parts like being outdoors and active as well as the relational aspect, there are other things she could do without (discomfort, boredom, and cold!).

It sounds like we will be going ahead with a July hike, so Brooke can give summer hiking a whirl.

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There were moments like these:




And there were moments like this:


Brooke pumped her fist and hollered with glee when we saw the one mile to go sign: