I don't remember (and am too lazy to look it up) if I told you guys about the Theodore Roosevelt National Grasslands. Well, right over the border in North Dakota is a beautiful state park separated into two parts, a North part and a South part. On our way back from Williston, ND and the Amtrak train, we stopped by at the office of the North Unit.
A nice ranger told us about the buffalo (pictured above) and various trails available for hiking. Stephan looked at the map... this is sounding really familiar. Maybe I did type this before.
(10 minute intermission)
Nope. So there's this one trail that leads off of the big map to the South. Stephan, ever-observant, asks, What's THIS trail?? It's the Maah Daah Hey Trail, a 96 mile hike that connects the North and South ends of the park."The trail name, 'Maah Daah Hey', comes from the Mandan Indians. In the Mandan language, one word or phrase can describe a picture, feeling, or situation. In this case, the phrase means 'an area that has been or will be around for a long time.' The trail uses a turtle as the trail marker. The turtle was honored because of its firm determination, steadfastness, patience, long life, and fortitude."
100 miles, as my dad says, "is not a day hike." More like 5 days, at 20 miles of walking per day. It's a good goal to work toward this summer, adding miles and weight every week. The long walks (we've started at 6 miles/2 hours at a time) give us time to talk about our week, our ideas for the future, philosophy, and whatever. The dogs LOVE the walks/runs, and we've started seeing just how amazing the landscape is around here.
Check out the Google Map of Plevna, and follow Rt 631 North and West to see where we've started our training. It appears that each 90 degree turn is a one-mile-marker. The topographical map can show you a little bit that the walk is anything but flat.
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