Archives for September 2013

Set the alarm early, as we wanted to get out as fast as possible in order to do our utmost to avoid the heat. Since I haven’t had a cell phone signal and consequently, no internet connection, we hadn’t seen a recent forecast for the area. Last we heard there was about a 30% chance of rain (and we did have a good gullywasher yesterday evening!), and we did, indeed, have cloudy skies this morning. Got packed up and out of there in just over an hour, headed back out to Route 79, then south, looking for someplace for breakfast. We didn’t find one until we got all the way to Chadron, NE, where we were heading for the Walmart anyway! Went to the Country Kitchen for a very nice breakfast before doing our shopping (never a good idea to go shopping on an empty stomach!) then headed for Crawford where we stopped for gas and water, then on to Fort Robinson. Missed the turn for some reason, then while heading down a lovely tree-lined street, I moved a bit right to make way for an oncoming horse trailer, and didn’t realize the trees overhung the street so much, and a limb clipped the digital TV antenna. Hubby radioed to me to stop so he could pick it up, and we then continued on to Soldiers Creek Road, which, for the first few miles, was the roughest bit of washboard road we’ve experienced in a LONG time, maybe EVER! It actually improved slightly once we got past the road to a lake, but it was still six miles of pretty bad road. As we reached the edge of the wilderness, we had to make a fully concreted water crossing, then up a hill to the “campground,” which is little more than a couple of vault toilets and a turnaround, and a whole bunch of cattle pens which were obviously part of the previous owner’s business. Not really suitable for horses, though evidently one oblong corral has been getting some use, so I guess we’ll put the horses in there for the night. I walked them down to the creek for water after struggling with the hand pump for a few minutes, then put them out on their anchors. A rainstorm came in while we were setting up the satellite dish, so we took a break till after it stopped again. Meanwhile, I put out all the containers to catch all the rain coming out of the gutter, since water is going to be a challenge here. Finally got everyone and everything settled in for the night.

Other than handwashing some laundry and putting them on a line, and doing a bit of prep work for our departure tomorrow, today was a repeat of yesterday, with less traffic (almost no traffic today). I finished a book and recorded some movies of the DVR, watched a little football, and otherwise spent the day quietly in this nearly heavenly place!

Spent another day simply relaxing and enjoying the quiet here. A few cars drove around the loop, but no one stopped except George, the camp host who collected the required fees from us. Otherwise, the horses grazed (though they had a few wild turkeys visit them), the dogs explored and slept, and we read and watched TV, all of which improved Hubby’s back tremendously.

So, for the THIRD time this journey, we went back to someplace we had recently left, this time finding a route that was EASY compared to every other one we’ve taken (79 to 36 to 87), with brief stops at Tractor Supply and Flying J for breakfast and diesel, then a straight shot to the campground. This time, we had the place entirely to ourselves! After looking at all the possible parking options, we ended up in the same slot as before, as we could get a satellite signal from here, unlike most of the other sites. We put the horses on their anchors and let them have the run of the place, and let the dogs run around as well. We were set up in no time, which always seems to be the way it is when we go back to a place we’ve been before, no logistical problems to solve. When we were in Rapid City, the temps were in the high 80’s, by the time we got into the Black Hills at noon, it had dropped to about 80. Then, about an hour after we finished setting up, a terrific rainstorm came in, dropping the temps another 8-10 degrees! I managed to get some buckets and one of the rain barrels out in time to catch a lot of rain, so now we don’t need to worry about taking the horses down to the trough, we have enough between the rain and the horse trailer tank, which we filled before we left Fort Meade. Spent the afternoon easy and relaxing, one of the few travel days lately that went according to plan!

Woke up early again, the sounds from the freeway in the pre-dawn hours is the only drawback to this place, just can’t sleep through it once the traffic picks up. After breakfast, Hubby ran down to pick up gas while I continued to do some office work. I also called the BLM, and was told that, Yes, the Air Force had reserved the entire campground, as well as the regular campground next door, and yes, we would have to leave on Friday. At first we thought we would head straight to Nebraska, but the weather forecast had been getting hotter and hotter all week, with temps predicted in the high 90’s all weekend, with the worst being on our travel day. After a little research, I made another proposal, to return to Iron Creek for the weekend. The temps were a good 10 degrees cooler on Friday, with mid-80’s on Saturday, and a high of just 78 on Sunday. By Monday, the highs in Nebraska were predicted to be just 85, so that would make it a decent travel day, and the rest of the week would be the same. Hubby agreed that staying cool was a priority, so that was the plan we made. I double-checked with the Forest Service that Iron Creek was still going to be open (the concessionaire stays until Monday, then apparently the state takes over), and finished everything on the computer I could, since the signal down at Iron Creek wouldn’t be as good. Of course, with it being the weekend, it wouldn’t matter much. That decision made, we spent the day as usual, grateful to be in the shade as the temps soared.

Woke up around 5:00 to the sound of someone starting a diesel truck, looked out and saw a fifth wheel horse trailer pulling out of the campground, don’t know what time they pulled in, but they were definitely out for an early start. Couldn’t get to sleep much after that, though, as I had a mental list of so many “things to do” that I finally capitulated and got up quietly so as to not disturb Hubby, and got busy on my computer, which, by the way, was another reason we came to Ft. Meade rather than the private campground, as the owner had indicated there was not a good cell phone signal at her place, so that definitely influenced our decision. I got a good couple of hours of work in before he finally got up and the horses started nickering to me for breakfast. Had to take a quick run out to pick up hay at the local garden center and oats at the local granary, luckily I found some good hay/alfalfa bales for $10, more than we usually pay but they are very heavy bales, and it keeps me from running around all over the place, and back to work as quickly as possible. Got quite a bit done, but forgot to take the gas can with me to pick up generator gas, so that’s another trip later. Spent the rest of the day working while Hubby mostly read, and then settled down as usual for our quiet evening.

With plans to move to a local private horse camp, first thing in the morning Hubby and I got into a discussion about whether or not that was the best move, and after awhile, we decided to change our plans and head back to Fort Meade for a few days. The weather forecast was calling for much hotter temps in Nebraska this week, with a cool-down this weekend, so rather than rush down to where it’s so hot, or pay a really exorbitant amount of money (relatively speaking : -) just to take a trail we hadn’t seen yet, we decided to do something for only the second time this season… go backward. At only $4/night at Fort Meade, and with running water where we can do some cleaning and laundry, track down some hay of which we’re getting perilously low, figure out how to get parts to repair the damage to the awnings from our tunnel incident, and having access to the internet, this seemed like the most practical thing to do for a few days, maybe through Monday. We headed out of camp, made a few stops in Big Rapids for supplies, stopped at the rest area to dump, and arrived at the Alkali Creek camp again by mid-afternoon. The spot we left was still open, our neighbor Tom was still there, and the rest of the place was empty, it hardly seemed like we had left. We learned that Tom was planning on leaving tomorrow because his 14 day limit was up, he was heading up to Bear Butte State Park a few miles up the road. We also learned that the campground was “reserved” for the weekend by the Air Force, though we didn’t know if it was the entire campground or just a few spots. In any event, word it these flyboys like to party hearty, so it isn’t likely to be a very quiet weekend even if we could stay. So I guess it looks like we’ll be heading out Friday, even though the temps will still be a bit higher than we had hoped, though by Monday they’ll be down again. Filled the RV with water and did a couple loads of laundry, then settled in for a double feature once we got the satellite dish set up. A relaxing evening, which was nice. The dogs really like it here, they get to run around since Tom doesn’t mind and no one else is here. Glad we made that decision, it’s pretty warm here, but at least it’s cooling down at night!

Another cool night for sleeping, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before leaving for our planned day of visiting Mt. Rushmore today. Beforehand, I was taking the dogs for a walk and met another couple that was horse camping a few sites down (the only other ones here, they had come in late Saturday from Sundance, WY), and they told me the best trail in the area (in SD, actually) was the George S. Mickelson Trail. A rails-to-trails project that extends 100 miles, there’s a trail fee of $2 / day, which we’d normally avoid, but the surface is crushed rock and the grade doesn’t exceed 3%, so at this point, it seems quite appealing. Not sure what our options are for staying here, but that information certainly provided us with some incentive, something else I need to research after our visit to Mt. Rushmore. I wanted to see the rest of the exhibits I missed from the other day, and also so Hubby could see them too. Unfortunately, his back was hurting a bit after yesterday’s rough ride, so he didn’t enjoy walking around the exhibits as much as we would have liked, but we did sit for awhile during a video presentation which was interesting. After we had seen enough, we headed down to Keystone for some ice cream and coffee and to get enough of a cell phone signal to check the internet for possible solutions to our accommodations problem. After looking at the weather again, and seeing it’s going to be well into the mid-90’s at our next stop in Nebraska, we decided to try to find a local private horse camp, and quickly did locate one south of Custer City that was reasonably priced. Not cheap, but less per night than here, and at least they had water and corrals! Not sure how many days we’ll stay there, depends on weather and whether we like the trail or not. Love the flexibility of this lifestyle! Cruising with the weather! Got back to camp, and once again enjoyed a quick drop in temperature once the sun set.

After a pretty good night’s sleep, as the temps dropped nicely into the 50’s and it was pretty quiet here (we’re the only ones here!), we got a late start out on the trail, after 1:00, but we weren’t planning on going that far, and ended up going even less far than we had planned due to trail obstacles. We started out on the south part of the Willow Creek loop, then along the trail leading to Harney’s Peak (the high point in the Black Hills), which quickly got rocky and steep, which we weren’t exactly in the mood for, and not what the trail brochure described. After a long climb, the turnoff to Willow Creek-Rushmore came upon us, and that promptly started downhill again, also very rocky. After just a short way, maybe a quarter mile, we came across some serious deadfall, with several tall pines across the trail. We managed to get around them by cutting through the woods (following a makeshift trail that other horses had evidently cut through), but it was quite a long way off the main trail before we made it back to the trail, and through some very bad ground, with many smaller obstacles along the way. We got back to the main trail, and we were probably no more than another 150 feet or so before we ran into ANOTHER section of bad deadfall. Hubby and I just sighed, turned around and headed back. If we were desperadoes running from the law, I might have risked it, but we were just out pleasure riding, for goodness sake, we don’t want to risk injuring our animals on such a dubious trail! We climbed up again, then down again, until we finally got back on the nice, north side of the Willow loop back to camp. It was a reasonable two hour ride, but not as enjoyable as we would have like, because the footing was so bad for much of the trip. When I compared where we went on my GPS with the map, it turned out the trail had actually changed, and the part where I guess it was supposed to have a gentler slope was no longer marked on the trail. Bummer! This could really be a great place to ride if they made some smaller loops and went around a few mountains instead of over the top of them (if that’s possible). One good thing here, though, is it’s about 10 degrees cooler here than down on the plains, so now we’re considering whether we want to leave for Nebraska so soon, or maybe stick around for a little longer until the weather breaks a bit. I’ll have to do some research, though, because I sure don’t want to stay here at this over-priced, under-facilitated campground. We spend some time transferring water from the spigot on the horse trough to the RV so that I could do some laundry, and needed the drill pump and numerous hoses to accomplish it, but at least it didn’t take too long, and I did get a load of laundry done before settling down for the evening.

After a nice quiet morning, Hubby and I headed down to Keystone just to see some of the sights, and after finding a parking spot, we walked up to the train depot to see when the next train was leaving. Turned out to be immediately! I quickly bought two tickets (not even sure where we were going, but it just seemed like such a cool idea!), grabbed a couple of ice cream cones and bottles of water at a store across the street, and got into the back of the line at the train station. We were boarding within minutes, but being at the end of the line meant we had to keep moving forward until we FINALLY found two seats together in the front car. Fortunately, the seats were padded in the Keystone car, as opposed to many that had wooden seats, but being in the front meant it was pretty noisy, both from the engine and especially from the whistle, which blew often! What a blast it was! The trip climbed out of Keystone, up some quite steep slopes, and very close to the rocks on each side in many places. Hubby was reminded of his youth when steam engines were the norm in pre-WWII England, and the smells took him way back. The trip was about an hour to Hill City, where the engine unhooked and moved to the front, quickly heading back the way we came. We changed sides so we could see the other side of the tracks on the way back to Keystone, and we left the station soon thereafter. It really was a worthwhile trip, though if I were to do it again I would probably leave earlier in the day, stop in Hill City for a while, then catch a later train back. In any event, it was delightful, and we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. After disembarking, we walked back down “restaurant row” toward our vehicle, then decided to get a meal in the Mexican restaurant nearby, as we haven’t had Mexican food in quite a while. Headed back to camp, where the horses and dogs were patiently waiting for us, got everyone else fed and tucked in, then settled down for the evening.