Paws and Friends

 Why are we here? Gee! A very deep question, no? If you are following us, you might have one answer to that question. As full timers, we seek locations that have a beautiful back yard and terrific views. The Rafter J Bar Ranch Campground certainly has all of these!  But there is one more positive attribute added to the mix. The proximity of the 109 mile George S Mickelson Trail. You can find several web sites with information about this trail. Here is one from the South Dakota Game, Fish and and Parks website. This website starts out with: Imagine a path where the ghosts of Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane still roam; where bicyclists, hikers and horseback riders can explore spruce and ponderosa pine forests; and the very young, the very old and people of all abilities can enjoy. Are you hooked? You might guess that with our new e (for electric) bikes, we are! On one of our recent rides, we were asked about our "power" bikes. The fellow asking said he had one, but had not...

We rode our e-bikes every day while staying at Mesa Verde RV Resort, creating our "special", private bike route! We rode up the highway (US 160) for about half a mile, then down the bank and around a barricade onto the frontage road. From there we rode up to the closed entrance to the National Park (all uphill!). But, it was like my friend Ruth said:  "she always wished she could ride bikes always down hill!"  With pedal assist, it almost was like that!    On the last day before the park opened, here are my stats: average speed:  11.8   maximum speed:  24.1   When we turned around at entrance station, we moved the gear to no assist, as we were going downhill!  Hence the 24 mph speed!  I went almost all the way  down without any pedal assist, only shifting it into pedal assist level 1 just before I had to turn around when the frontage road ended. At that point, the ride up-hill began! When level 1 pedal assist was not ...