Black Hills Trip Report

Do not go gentle into the dark night that is the Grizzly Trail, No. 7.

I repeat, do not go gentle into the dark night that is Grizzly Trail, No. 7.

Having said that, the Black Hills are pretty wild. By far and away, the least scenic trip I've done in a while, but not every single hike can be all about deep canyons and sweeping scenery.

The Hills are tight, lots of trees, lots of rocks. It's easy to get hedged in, which is actually kind of comforting when it's -20 degrees FAHRENHEIT outside and you need lots of wind protection and also lots of firewood. The terrain, the trails and the general flora and fauna forcibly reminded me of the Appalachians, which means there are lots of trees and though the mountains lack sheer altitude of western counterparts, the trails that climb them make up the discrepancy in steepness, difficulty, soul-crushing false summits and general bitchiness.

Typical blaze

Although I will say that the Appalachians are much wetter, much warmer and better groomed because holy shit, Grizzly Trail No. 7 was a one way ticket to blowdown city, population my dumb ass. About 60% of my hike looked like this, minus the people and terrifying packbeasts. Probably would have had to gut out a crosscountry trip if the trails hadn't been suspiciously well blazed.... by far the most comprehensive marking system I've seen west of the Appalachian trail. Granted, like most western hiking trails, people shy away from using paint and instead gouge out super durable rectangles into tree bark, but the overall effect was the same; I only got turned around a few times, no mean feat in itself.

Campsite

Anyway, pretty basic first day, I ended up overpacking by quite a bit because of the forecasted lows of -20.  Made a few miles, camped out on a hill and ran around setting up my camp as well as I could. Situated my fire against a rock wall so the heat would radiate out in one direction, cut a bunch of firewood, ate and went to bed after confronting a log that I thought was a cougar.

The next morning I got up to more below 0 temps, but the weather lacked the bite it had the day previous. Had to thaw out, then dry my sleeping bag at my morning fire (I actually brought a down bag for once.....see if I make that mistake ever again), then skipped into the lovely woods to enjoy a snowy, slightly less cold day of hiking. All went well until a long, steep uphill section of trail that was cut right next to a steep mountain stream. The trail and creek had formed a tight gully that ended up being a tree magnet for every dead pine that has ever fallen down in the history of the world and so I spend most of my day bushwacking and climbing up super steep hills, wondering whether or not my GPS was sadistic or just broken, because I thought that there was no way that I was standing 15 feet west of a real-live hiking trail. 

GPS turned out to be right the next morning, but the trail was so effectively buried under millions of beetled pines that it did no good to anyone. I spent an uneasy, but warm night camped out below a ridge and vowed to backtrack to known trail the next morning.

Tower view

Of course, I hate retracing my steps, and instead pushed on into the vast unknown until I ended up finding trail a ways into the morning, and kept on trucking through snow and more blowdowns until I came to a lookout tower, hung out and then started the long hike down to road level.

I decided to push for my truck from that lookout tower, as I was tired and sunburnt and wanted to go home, but the snow and, surprise, downed trees made for slow going. Ended up back at my Tacoma a little after dark, drove to Rapid City and had an expensive steak dinner.

Overall good trip, but one of the most difficult trips I've done in recent memory, between the constant bushwhacking, deep snow post-holing, extreme cold and heavy pack.  I try not to make my trips into a death march, but it's nice to push through limit testing trips like this one.


Video will be posted later, but I didn't have a whole lot of footage to work with. I find that when I have to work alot harder to make miles happpen, I don't take so many pictures or videos. Which is probably a good thing unless my viewers like 10 minute long monologues about how much I hate whatever is stopping me from being an effective hiker.