Day 6 of our 9 day boondocking challenge Our fresh water and tanks are doing great so our challenge is great so far. Today, we take a break from hiking to visit a brewery in Hill City. The Miner Brewery has some interesting beers. Shawna picked a dark beer and a mead. Mead is a form of beer that has been made since before the time of the Pharaohs. I had their Root Beer. It was VERY good. It was so good that a honey bee was very enthusiastic about getting a sip. After we finished, she drank up what she could from my cup before we headed back home.
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This is a video of part of our drive on Needles highway in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
The narrowest tunnel is 8 feet wide.
Today, we decided that training for future long hikes needed to start. We have new backpacks and other gear and need to know how we will carrying it on the trail. Our packs weighed in at 20 pounds which we thought was a good start weight for the day.
The trail we picked was the Little Devils Tower hike in Custer State Park. It is 3 miles round trip and includes a “scramble” up a mountain. Scramble meaning you may be leaning forward and looking for foot and hand holds to keep from slipping. Some of this was like that especially on the climb down. First, we had to get to the trail head (where the hike starts). The drive today was a bit more interesting than most. We have driven down some of the road before but today we added several miles. There are several 180 degree turns in switchbacks. Two tunnels one less than 9 feet wide and the next just barely 8 feet wide. Both are one way but the second one was so tight that we pulled in the rear view mirrors.
After the tighter of the two tunnels, the road itself became narrower. At less than two lanes wide with no markers everyone had to be very polite and give others room when passing. Everyone was driving very slow. Maybe 20 miles an hour but usually more like 5 or 10.. With all the blind curves, it was an interesting drive.
A lot of the hike was uphill but the packs did great and we actually are doing better than we do when the old day packs have been used. Not only do the new packs transfer a lot of the weight to our hips and off our shoulders but they feel much more stable when hiking. The trail passes through a lot of really fascinating geology. The rock rises up as spires in many places. On some, there are boulders precariously balanced. The granite is mixed in with other minerals like tourmaline, iron, garnet, feldspar, quartz, beryl, pyrite, and mica. Mica is the most noticeable because of the way it reflects light and flakes are so thin you can look through them. The reflections are like mirrors. When we walk along the trails, the ground sparkles like a thousand tiny mirrors are on the ground.
As we started to walk up the last of the trail, we were able to look out far to the west and sometimes north. Really beautiful.
The top is our destination.
After we had completed the portion of the trail that was relatively flat and sandy, it turned into bare rock climb. Much of the way was negotiating the placement of boots and where to hold on to the rock for support. Our hiking poles were useless at this point and got in the way.
At the top, we were rewarded with a 360 degree view of the mountains, valleys, rock spires, and plains in the distance. To the east was Black Elk Peak, the tallest point in the state of South Dakota. It is also the highest peak east of the Rockies at 7,242.
We were only a few feet below that at just over 7,200 feet. As a comparison, our campground is at just under 5,000 feet and the trail head was just over 6,400 feet. Our climb was over 700 feet in elevation change.
Even near the top there were flowers.
Cathedral Spires was to the south. Wow! It is impressive. HUGE! Rock spires standing like slabs turned on end.
One formation is called Needle. It looks like a sewing needle jammed in the ground.
It was a fun hike.
On the way back down, we passed through several meadows and some flowers.
Time to take off the boots and put on a fresh pair of socks and shoes for the drive back to the campground.
Day 4 of our 9 day challenge So far on our challenge, we have only used 1/3rd of our fresh water and even less in the tanks as that 1/3rd is spread across three holding tanks. Today was a light hike day. We are still trying to recover from the big hike. We drove to Sylvan lake. The drive was interesting with lots beautiful views, curves and a very tight tunnel. It is a small lake surrounded by rock spires and mountains. The dam is only about 40 feet across because the lake has a natural dam of rock at the lower end. Along the back of the natural dam, we looked to the mountains and saw these trees holding onto the side of the rock trying to survive. Amazing! Both were at least 5 feet tall. Huge blocks of rock fill that end. There are only a couple of places that are open to allow any water through. The largest one creates a pretty little waterfall. The dam is about 60 feet tall so the rocks are holding back a lot of water too. Our way over the dam was a break in the wall. Several huge boulders were caught in the gap. All around the lake there are spires of rock. If you have watched “National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets,” you have seen this lake. It is the scene that was supposed to be behind Rushmore was filmed. The characters are trying to find a buried treasure city. The spot where Nicolas Cage puts his hand in a crack to pull a lever and open the “door” is a natural rock. The spot where the city entrance is supposed to be is actually a gap in the rocks they filled in with material to fall away. The lake is very popular with the locals. It is convent to all three towns in the area. They swim and fish here. We watched some people catch trout. There were several paddle boarders and kayakers. There were also some pretty flowers, birds, and butterfly's. We also passed two families of Canada Geese, one on each side of the lake. In both families, the goose and gander were carefully watching over their 5 goslings. They let us walk on the trail just a few feet away. As long as we made no sudden moves or stopped, they were not alarmed. After the 1 mile hike, we drove to the Crazy Horse Memorial. It is very impressive and will be enormous when complete. The problem is that at the current progress rate it will be something our grandchildren’s grandchildren may see finished. It is sad since the entirety of the time it took to complete Mount Rushmore was 14 years. The Crazy Horse Memorial has already been under sculpting for more than 70 years. The reason for the delay is that Korczak and the Native Indian tribes refused any Federal Funding and only accept donations. Korzak was approached by Chief Henry to carve a monument to the Native Tribes. He told Korzak, who had worked on the Rushmore Memorial, that he wanted the “white man to know that his people had heroes too”. Crazy Horse was chosen by the tribal chiefs to be the representative because he never was party to the signing of any treaty and always fought for his people. The reason for the statue pointing is to answer a question. He was asked where is your land and Crazy Horse replied “My lands are where my dead lie buried.” The museum and movie on the project were very good. I took only a few pictures of the museum because so many of the objects were in glass cases and would not have photographed well. The sculptor made a 1/34th scale model to show what his project would look like when complete. Even that is 16 feet tall and weights 16 tons. The poem that will be carved next to the statue will be enormous and each letter 3 feet tall. When completed it will be 641 feet long and 563 feet tall. Taller than all the other monuments that existed at the time construction started. His face is over 87 feet tall and his nose is 27 feet long. The face was completed on the 50th anniversary of the project in 1998. The out stretched arm will be 263 feet long. The horses head will be 219 feet tall and its ears will be 45 feet long. The horses eyes will be 16 feet wide and 13 feet high. The finished project should look like this: The buildings will be the expansion of the University for the Native Tribes which is already graduating students. At the end of the tour ,there is a way to take home a piece of the work - for a donation. On our way to the parking lot, we saw this van. Now this guy has seriously gotten the solar bug. Behind the post office was a huge log building. It was the local ‘Y’. The Mt Rushmore brewing company has a sense of humor. Shawn got a “flight” of beers to sample. The names she selected were Rail Splitter, Black Hills Gold, Blended Cherry Ale, Bamberger Rauchbier, and Holy Terror on Nitro. One on the list she did not select that I thought would be “interesting” was “Buffalo Snot”. I know!?! What made that name come to mind and if it did, why wouldn’t you throw out the batch that made you think that!?!
I got a coke and ½ dozen buffalo wings. We shared the wings. We ended the day by having real rain at the campground. It was more of a light rain or heavy drizzle but it was rain. There was thunder rolling through the mountains. It is a bit of a different sound. Somehow it seems deeper and lasted longer. We have not had rain since Chimney Rock. Over two weeks ago. We got sprinkled on a couple of times but not enough to even need to dry off or use the wipers on the truck. Day 3 of our 9 day boondocking challenge.
We rested today. The solar did its job as soon as the sun stopped hiding behind the trees and a cloud. Coffee was ready before Shawna woke up. In the afternoon, we drove to Hill City to visit a winery. Of course, some bottles were purchased. On the way back to the campground, we stopped to update the blog. (or you would not be reading this today yet...) The Black Hills have changed dramatically since the times of Custer expedition to the area. The purpose of the 1,200 member expedition was to search for Gold in the mountains. He found gold. The gold rush was on as soon as the information was out. This area did have grizzly bears at one time. Custer killed his first grizzly here. The bear population diminished so that none were thought to be in the area. Recently some bear sightings have been made. The population is still so small that they do not have a count.
Day 2 of our 9 day challenge to conserve water and power in a beautiful national forest while boondocking.
This morning I got up and started making coffee. Tea kettle boiling water and then pouring through a filter holder with coffee. Drip - drip - drip for the next half hour. It is really good coffee even better than our regular coffee maker. After waking Shawna with her morning coffee, she made me breakfast. I have been bringing her a cup of coffee in bed for most of our life together. It seemed only fair since I was the one making it. Since we started full time RVing, she has not had animals to check/feed/milk early so she can sleep in a little later. We packed for our hike which included sandwiches for lunch. The hike takes us on 3 trails that get us to Mount Rushmore. The first trail starts right here at the lake.
From the bridge, we could see a turtle sunning itself.
The trails start in the Black Elk Wilderness which is part of the Black Hills National Forest. Near the end of the trail, we will be in the Mount Rushmore Monument property.
The first trail is Horsethief Trail. It joins the Centennial trail. That trail is over 100 miles long but we will only hike a small portion of that.
The total hike for us today was 10 miles, 688 feet of elevation change or 67 floors or 23,028 steps.
On the hike, we passed rock wall and spires that were very impressive. Some of the rocks gave the impression of just barely hanging on to the rest. In other areas, it looked like a giant's child had stacked the rocks up.
Many of the huge Ponderosa Pines have died of a boring beetle that has attacked the forest. Once the trees have died the forest begins to break them down. These mushrooms were foot across and stood 6 inches out from the trees.
The trail passed through several types of Terrain.
We passed several small but pretty waterfalls.
There were some very pretty yellow flowers along the trail.
We got to Mount Rushmore and the final trail, the Blackberry Trail.
At the end of the trail just before we crossed the road to Rushmore, we passed some hitching posts. On our return from visiting the memorial, they were in use by 6 horses waiting for their riders to return.
Our first view of the Presidents on the trail was of Washington and then Lincoln.
Mount Rushmore
History lesson begins now:
Carving Mount Rushmore began in 1927 and was completed in 1941. There were 4000 workers. The cost was just under $1 million. Charles Rushmore was the namesake but Gutzon Borglum was the actual sculptor. Borglum sculpted the Confederate memorial on Stone Mountain before beginning Rushmore and the quality of that work was instrumental in him being selected. The main tool was dynamite and jack hammers. The presidents were chosen for four categories influencing the country, Washington for its birth, Jefferson for its expansion, Roosevelt for development (and the national parks), and Lincoln for preservation of the Union. Some facts about the size of the carvings: Each face is 60 feet tall. Each eye is 11 feet wide. Washington nose is 21 feet long all the others are 20 feet long. Washington's mouth is 18 feet wide. Approximately 450,000 tons of rock was removed to make the carving. Just building a new visitor center and viewing amphitheater cost over $56 million in the 1990s. End History Lesson We ended the day by returning home and finding our solar panel had almost completely charged up both our batteries during the day. Even without me moving them every 15 minutes. Yes I have become a bit obsessive about moving the panel to gather as much power as possible. It has become a bit of an obsession. I try to not let it bother Shawna. Actually she finds it humorous that I keep jumping up and moving it every time I notice that the panel is not in the “perfect” position. Tonight after using some power and to get some more charge on them I moved the panel several times to get the best position. The sun started playing peek-a-boo behind clouds. Sometimes as soon as I had it in just the right location the sun would disappear behind a cloud or move so a tree was shading the panel. We were pretty close to the end of the day so I put up the panel for the night. Of course right then, the sun came out bright teasing me. “Fine, I said to Shawna (and the Sun), if it is going to be that way I will be using fossil fuels. I cranked up the generator. She thought that was hilarious. Day 1 of our 9 day challenge to conserve water and power in a beautiful national forest while boondocking. We arrived and setup the 5th wheel with no problems. Our site was even level. We are on a loop drive that returns at the lake. Our neighbors said they had caught lots of trout. We may try that ourselves. Here is our site. The solar panel worked very well considering the sun set behind a mountain a bit early. We should get good solar charging in the morning. I am hoping for clear sky.
We did run the generator for 30 minutes to top off the batteries for the evening though we are trying not to use much 12 volt power when the sun is down. |
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