The Flume Trail: Part 1

Now that Husband and I have found ourselves with ample free time on the weekends we are finally getting to dust off our hiking boots and take in some of the famous scenery surrounding our new home. After a short stop by Sheridan Lake on our way back from Hill City, we couldn’t wait to get back to the area…and Husband couldn’t wait to break out his fly rod again 🙂 So we set out for the Flume Trail weekend before last to hike away our Saturday.

The Flume Trail (now called the National Recreation Trail) is an old mining trail dating back to the 1880’s that butts up to Sheridan Lake and is located in the Black Hills National Forest. Once Husband mentioned tunnels you could hike through I couldn’t lace up my boots fast enough. How cool right?

 One thing we love about the Black Hills, in addition to the enormous pine tree, are the awesome rock formations that jut out unexpectedly and cascade sharply down, often times to meet a lake or stream.

Walking across these bridges I couldn’t get the Following The Leader song from Peter Pan out of my head 🙂

Jim spotted a few fish…

and swam.

Can you spot the deer track?

While Jeannie soaked up the sunshine.

After a little while the trail spiked up a bit before opening up to Sheridan Lake. It was a spectacular view.

We were so wishing we had a boat, and our camping gear so we didn’t have to leave.

At this point I think we had been hiking for around an hour (or more?) and it was well past lunch time, so we stopped by the lake for a picnic of a soft truffle cheese, leftover marinated grilled veggies from the cookout the night before, fresh prosciutto, crusty bread, strawberries, and a slight break in tradition, a couple of forties of beer. The shoppette on base only had warm champagne when we stopped by on our way out so Husband opted for cold brews instead. 

And since I take a million pictures, look forward to Part 2 coming tomorrow with “the rest of the story”.