Day 7 - Sunday 8/4/13 Rapid City, SD - Rapid City, SD (0 Miles)

Our Willow Creek B&B Cabin

We checked into THE most wonderful cottage yesterday evening.  Joyce & Russell of Willow Creek B&B live on 100 acres just inside Custer State Park, in SD's Black Hills (named so because of the blackness the pine trees seem to give the mountainsides.)  They've carved out beautiful spot for their home in a hollar in one of the valleys and rent 2 cottages.  Ours was the uphill of the two and had great views out beyond the valley to more park land.

Homemade bed of salvaged barn siding in our cabin

Russell is a woodworker who built the cabin from scratch using old barn siding and beams he salvaged himself.  All of the wood furniture (bed, tables, storage bins, towels bars, etc.) was built from his salvaged wood.  Joyce then filled out the furnishings with family antiques, including an icebox now used to store tableware.  The claw foot tub was nestled into the bath (the little bump-out room on the left).  This was the perfect place to have what they call in Appellation Trail Thru-Hiking Speak, a 0 Miles day.

We set off for a short hike this afternoon through the valley and along an abandoned RR line that served the local lumber industry from 1900-1940's until it was abandoned.  Whole timber RR ties can still be seen in some places, as can the stone trestle supports, tho' the trestle was swept away in the Great Flood of Rapid City in 1972.

Abandoned RR Trestle with whole timber RR ties

Old stone trestle support

A little ploughman's platter of pickled goodies, meat and cheese paired with a bottle of wine we had been lugging from home was dinner.  (Note to self - wine gets a bit gamey if carried in the boot of a black car in the summer.)

In the middle of the night, we were awakened by a "super storm" of the likes I've never seen.  The magnitude, severity and frequency of the lightening actually scared me.  It was as though there was a strobe light in our cabin.   Turns out it dumped a plowable amount of sizable hail just south of us where we're staying tomorrow night.