We got to the trailhead at 6:10 am. It was chilly when we started through the Ponderosa pines. On the advice of the long time SD resident and shop owner, we had rain gear.
The trail ascended gently for a bit and then went through some rolling open LIVE forest. Live is in caps because this is unique feature.
We did our first 1200 or 1300 feet of ascent. The dead trees make all sorts of pops / groans / squeaks / growls. This is rather disconcerting as there are many, many more trees laying on the ground than growing. The Park Service has done a lot of chain sawing, but the trail is still littered with trees to climb over, under or around.
Even with all the dead trees, there are many wildflowers blooming (there will be a wildflower dump at the end of the blog) and little fur trees are springing up. Mommy even finds baby trees cute.
We had a short downhill bit past a lovely stream.
We met a group of about 8 retired folks going the opposite way on the trail. They asked about the trail ahead. Somehow, they didn’t know they were about to drop 1200 feet and then have 2200 feet to go back up. Catherine wasn’t sure the folks from the Northeast had any idea what 1000 feet of elevation change meant. In fact one said, “I thought the easy way up Harney Peak was 300 feet up and this wasn’t much harder.” Ahhh… We’ll update you on how they fared later. This was the only group of people we saw on the trail until it met up with the “easy” trail to Harney.
We headed through a relatively flat part of the trail through a small meadow and more trees. We realized that any of the rock towers or mountains that towered over us, would soon be lower than our feet. That seemed a bit daunting.
The flat part of the trail got a few bumps in it as we found a tree graveyard. Catherine was in more pain on this part of the trail that going straight up. It turns out that while she can wear the hip strap on the pack on the way up, it bothers her tummy on flats and downs. Once that was fixed, she felt much, much better. Except her poor back got to carry all the weight.
We continued through the graveyard, but started to get some good views. About 1.5 miles from the top, our little empty trail (we really had only seen one group of people), we joined Grand Central trail. Catherine is sure it has some official name, but really, this is Echo Mountain. It was fun to have a few people to talk with.
Mommy looked a bit rough as she completed the trail (our second 1000+ foot climb today). All that’s left now is stairs up and around the stone fire tower. The views of 4 states (SD, WY, NE, and a smear of MT) were spectacular and everyone was in a great mood, having climbed 1000 feet. Wait, 1000? That seems awfully easy. (According to the news we are watching now, you pronounce the capital of SD as Peer. Who knew?) Plus, there are least chipmunks running around – the only wildlife we saw other than a couple of UFB (unidentified flying birds) and some red squirrels. John’s right, the car’s the way to see wildlife. Anyway, here are views from the top and Catherine in her tight hiking shirt.
The way was theoretically 3 miles, but felt much, much longer. There were a few great views, but mostly we watched switch backs and dead trees. Lots of dead trees. (The news just reported that parts of I-29 which we were on are now flooded.)
After about an hour to an hour and a half of descending, we met up with our group of 8 from the morning. Sadly, they were only about half way up in terms of elevation, though 2/3 of the way in terms of mileage. I got to get rid of a liter of water, because they were low.
Denise significantly sped up at the end of the trail (the 1.5 mile to go point). That’s because we started to hear rumbles of thunder. Catherine could barely keep up – thankfully the trail flattened significantly, plus we skipped the last bit by bushwacking down the recently cut-over hill to the road for a slightly faster path back to the car. Denise really wanted to thumb a ride, but Catherine noted that it was only about 0.3 miles back to the car. Catherine thought about driving up to Spearfish, but when we got to Hill City, it started to hail. There were nasty looking clouds all around, but except for a few minutes, it’s been quiet. We took it easy tonight – a bit of laundry and heading to bed early. Hope that group that would have been at the top of the mountain when it started to hail was okay…
We also want to note that the wildflowers are in bloom. These little guys made a rather depressing trail – the bark beetles have just decimated the forests – a bit brighter and more hopeful.
Cute little yellow devils – fairly un common
We saw one little patch of yellow violets near the stream pictured above.
These might be May Apples in NC, but here we have no clue. July Apples and some ferns.
Little White Flowers
No idea.
A mixed bed of yellow pea-like flowers and dog tooth violets. The dog tooth violets are very common with huge patches and some very healthy single plants.
We saw a couple of patches of some kind of ground huckleberry.
As a side note, Squirt really, really seems to like hiking. He kicked before we started and went to sleep all day. Now he’s more active than ever. You can see Catherine’s stomach jump as he kicks her. Catherine has news for this kid. She is NEVER carrying him up 2200 feet again. Maybe 1000. Maybe a couple of miles. Not 9 miles going up 2200 feet. If he wants to go up 2200 feet under people power, he’s going to have to power himself. John thinks this means he’ll like rocking when he’s external. Catherine is terrified that he’s going to be one of those “If you don’t walk, I’m going to scream” terrorist babies.
Good night from 2 tired and somewhat sore hikers!
Wow, way to go guys! What a fun story to have recorded so you can tell Squirt about the grand hike his Mom carried him on. Lucky kiddo! (:
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