20 October 2016, Thursday

The night was pleasantly cold. We wake and decide to seek breakfast at nearby Bluebell Lodge so as not to freeze our fingers while cooking. We make the short drive over to the “chuck wagon,” disturbing a flock of wild turkeys in the parking lot, only to find the restaurant is closed.

Hmmmmm. Strike two for the morning. Strike one was finding a bright green notice stuck to our picnic table when we got up, informing us that we are due to check out this morning and must vacate our campsite by noon. I had thought I booked through Friday morning, but when I check my email, I find that the reservation was, indeed, for only two nights. O and I decide to drive to the bakery in Custer and consider, over breakfast, whether to try to book another night camping, or just strike camp, go for our hike and head for Rapid City, which would jump start our drive the next day.

We arrive in Custer and find the bakery… but it is closed for the season. Strike three. I search online for another breakfast option and find Our Place. It seems to be where all the locals go. We are seeing a pattern here. The restaurants that are closed are generally tourist places, while the ones that remain open year round are frequented by locals. In any case we each have the “Sixpack Special”: two eggs, two slices of french toast, and two sausages, along with coffee, all for $6.00 each. Over breakfast we decide to strike camp and head for Rapid City at day’s end. This is soon accomplished and we are at Cathedral Spires trailhead on Needles Highway by noon.

We trek off into the back country among the tall granite spires. The sky is amazingly blue. The air is crisp and refreshing. We soon arrive at the spires, take lots of photos and then cross the short connector trail to Trail 4 which ascends to Black Elk Peak, the highest mountain in South Dakota and the highest peak in the US east of the Rocky Mountains. Black Elk was a famous medicine man of the Sioux Nation. This mountain was known as Harney Peak until August 11 of this year when it was renamed by the US Board of Geographic Names. (Harney was an officer in the US army who had led attacks against the Sioux in the 1850’s, defeating them in 1855.)

The trail up the mountain is beautiful with views across the plains to the east. We can almost believe we are able to see home, 1700 miles away. After climbing to the lookout tower constructed by the CCC in the 1930’s we descend to a sunny shelf where, protected from the wind, we eat lunch. Our descent goes smoothly. Along the way I stop to try to capture photos of the “uncommon” black backed woodpecker. We arrive back at the car about 5 pm and then drive to Rapid City.

We stop at an inn for the night and find they are almost entirely booked up, as there is an important dog show in town, and this hotel allows dogs. Luckily, there is room for us as well. We are soon off to a late dinner at the Fire House Brewing Company. Their ESB and Honey Badger brews are quite tasty. These, along with soup, salad and bread make for an excellent dinner. Our extra effort to get to Rapid City today brings tomorrow’s drive to southwest Minnesota under 400 miles.