Tinton & Cement Ridge Mountain Bike Ride, 10-31-87

During my first summer of mountain biking in the Black Hills I was choosing routes based on the BHNF or USGS topo maps, or on what little local knowledge I’d gathered. That changed sometime in the fall with our discovery of “A Mountain Biker’s Guide to the Black Hills, South Dakota and Wyoming” by Horning and Marriot. This self-published guide was a marvel of efficiency. Each ride was described on a single page and was illustrated on the reverse with a hand drawn route on top of a USGS topo base. The authors had clearly done a huge amount of riding covering the entire Black Hills. The authors were also highly skilled, as we discovered trying to duplicate their steep technical climbs, or follow their sometimes obscure routes through the meadows and forests.

The book had a 1987 publication date so the information was fresh, and it gave us riding ideas it would have taken years to develop on our own. There was plenty of background information on biking and a section on some easier rides, but the guts of the book was the detailed description of 28 rides covering every corner of he range. Over my six years in the hills, I’d finish 12 of those trips and ride parts of another six. Most of the other rides were in distal parts of the southern hills, or coincided with established trails that I’d hike on foot. But especially in the early stages of my riding, the guide was the bests source of riding ideas.

The Tinton/Cement Ridge ride was likely the first time we used the guide to plan our ride. Tinton is an old mining town in the northwest part of the Black Hills, west of Spearfish Canyon. Our route would be 18 mile loop, extending west into Wyoming, and topping out at the Cement Ridge Fire tower. Bob and Dick joined me for the ride.

Tinton/Cement Ridge mountain bike route, 1987

It was an hour drive from Lead to the start at Beaver Crossing. We started riding west on well-maintained BNHF 222. At the junction with BHNF 101 we turned right and headed north for the Tinton townsite. We rode through the ghost town of Tinton, then to an old building on the Wyoming side used as a landmark by our guidebook. We reached the building in Mallory Gulch after about an hour of riding. We had a tough descent to the bottom of the gulch before we reached a better road near a small shack. Next, we started the harder riding, climbing south along the upper reaches of Sand Creek.

Tinton has been actively prospected for both gold and rare earth elements, and we rode through active drilling being done by Moycorp on the Caldak group of claims. We found the “town” of Welcome to be a single cabin owned by Molycorp.

Cement Ridge Tower, 1987.

After about 2:30, and one thousand feet of climbing, we reached the tower on Cement Ridge. To the northwest were views of Sundance Mountain and the Bearlodge Mountains. Inyan Kara sat to our west, and Crow Peak loomed to the northeast.  

My Diamond Back Ascent EX near Cement Ridge.

After enjoying the hard earned views, we descended down BHNF 867, which became BHNF 103 as we crossed back into South Dakota. We stopped at the next junction for lunch then rode east on a grassy road shown only on our mountain biking guide. The guide would go on to lead us astray on several grassy “roads”, but this was one time when the route was easy to follow, at least to the next junction. Here we went left instead of right and ended up on BHNF 222 near Sanger Ranch. But it was just a quick trip down to Beaver Creek, where we picked up the trail. Most of the return route to Beaver Crossing was part of Snowmobile Trail #3. We would often find the snowmobile trails better marked than the BHNF roads. The ride took five hours for 18 miles, and we saw no one else the entire time.

The original Cement Ridge Fire Lookout was built between 1911 and 1913 as part of a wave of tower construction following the 1910 Great Fire which burned three million acres of northern Idaho and Montana. Originally, it was a one-room log cabin with a shingle roof. In 1921, a crow’s nest with a glassed-in house was constructed. The crow’s nest was removed in the spring of 1940 and replaced by the current lookout built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1941. The lookout was refurbished in 1974, and was listed on the National Historic Lookout Register on December 30, 1993.It is one of only five active fire towers remaining in the Black Hills.

10-2-92, Cement Ridge Run, 5 miles

I would make only one more trip to Cement Ridge. In late 1992 I was working hard on the first edition of my Black Hills trail guide. A small part of the guide was an appendix on the important summits in the Black Hills and wanted another look at Cement Ridge. For this trip I drove up BHNF 222 and parked near the state line at the head of Potato Creek. I ran south, then followed BHNF 103, then 867 up to the tower. Surprisingly, the tower was staffed, and I learned that on exceptionally clear days the Bighorns Mountain were visible to the west. I could see Warren Peak, the Bearlodge Mountains, and Inyan Kara to the west, and Crow Peak, Spearfish Peak, Mt. Roosevelt, Old Baldy, and Terry Peak to the east. The entire area seemed grazed by cattle, though I still saw a half dozen deer. The South Dakota side was being marked for a timber sale. My notes show times of 27:50 for the climb and 22:30 for the descent on the 5 mile round trip run.

1192 Cement Ridge run route in yellow.

Veterans Lookout, Mountain Bike Ride, 10-17-87

Not long after I started mountain biking I began using the BHNF map to find new routes to explore. There seemed to be an unlimited supply of old roads, and all sorts of interesting places to see. I was finding rides to the tops of many of the higher summits, and realized that this exploring could be a fun, long-term project worth documenting. At the time I was just collecting my trip notes on the back of the copies of the USGS topo maps that I was using for my field maps. Taking a tip from my geology field work, I started recording my trips in a dedicated field notebook. This trip would be the first notebook entry in a series that now includes 34 volumes.

The plan for this trip would be to start in the town of Galena, ride east on BHNF Road 170, and then ride a clockwise loop of BHNF 170, 135 (now FH 26, the Vanocker Canyon Road), and 541, including a side trip to the Veterans Lookout Tower. This ride would explore a nearby corner of the hills still new to me, and reach another lookout tower for the first time.

Route map for Veterans Lookout MB Ride.

I started the ride at the end of the county maintenance on the Galena Road. From the townsite, I headed east and uphill on BHNF 170. At the crest of the hill leaving town there was a spur road leading right, and the road surface improved a bit. The rest was easy riding downhill to the junction with BHNF 180, where the loop portion would start. A sign here indicated that it was two miles back to Galena and six miles ahead to Sturgis. 

BHNF 170 to the east was closed to vehicles, and I ended up riding through a road reconstruction area. I passed side roads leading north, then south, before exiting the work zone. At the intersection with BHNF 135, after 45 minutes of riding, a sign indicated it was four miles east to Sturgis and thirteen miles south to Nemo.

Based on maps from more recent visits, it appears BHNF 135 of this era was replaced by newer Forest Highway 26, aka the Vanocker Canyon Road. Old BHNF 135 followed the road shown on the USGS topo, while newer FH 26 as mapped by GPS in 2007 follows a route generally a bit to the west.

Here the climb to the lookout tower began. Towards the top the road was steep and rocky, probably the reason for its eventual relocation. At the top of the climb was the intersection with BHNF 613 leading east, with the tower spur road turning even more sharply left. The rocky summit looked to be Paha Sapa Formation limestone. There was a relay tower and a small building. I could see west to Terry Peak and Deer Mountain with their distinctive ski runs, and north across the prairie to Bear Butte. After taking pictures I rode back down to BHNF 135.

The next junction with BHNF 168 was signed three miles to Bethlehem Cave and six miles to Piedmont, I went straight on 135 to pass a house on the right. Then I needed to portage the bike cross country around some construction, and up to what I hoped was BHNF 536. A hairpin switchback to the right put me back on better maintained BHNF 541, though there were no signs for either of these roads.

The better road crested a gentle divide. On the divide I made the right choice by bearing left at a “Y” junction onto the fainter road, but luckily correct, road. I wasn’t so lucky at the next junction, and kept straight and west for an extra mile before reaching BHNF 180, where I realized I was off course. I rode back to the last junction, headed north this time, and enjoyed a gently downhill two mile ride on lesser used BHNF 541. This time I hit BHNF 180 near its junction with BHNF 170 to close my loop as planned.

My “portage” exiting BHNF 135, and my unintended side trip to BHNF 180 helped teach the lessons that not all routes that look good on the map are good on the ground, and that the better looking road is rarely the correct one. My navigation in the hills would improve with time and practice, but there would always be wrong turns out there to fool the hasty, fatigued, or inattentive biker.

From the 180/170 junction I retraced my route back to Galena. Back then I rarely carried my camera on bike trips to lessen its exposure to the jarring of a bumpy ride, but this time I had the camera and stopped just outside of town for a picture of the Double Rainbow headframe. The mine hoist house was also still standing. Total ride time for about 19 miles was 2:35.

Headframe of the Double Rainbow Mine near Galena, South Dakota

Pacific Crest Trail, Tahoe Sierra Backpack, 7-18-87

In the late eighties much of my vacation time went into backpacking sections of the Pacific Crest Trail. Buddy and I had backpacked through CA’s Marble Mountain Wilderness in 1982 and WA’s Alpine Lakes Wilderness in 1986. We were looking for the most scenic sections of the PCT, but also paid some attention to ease of access. I’d lived in Reno in 1983-4, but had only the time for a few day trips to the Lake Tahoe area. Tahoe struck me as National Park caliber scenery. The Lake is a huge, grand centerpiece, with the surrounding wilderness providing a rich backcountry experience. But National Park or not, Tahoe is a major recreation hub with world class skiing in the winter, and top tier hiking, biking, and running in the summer.

Nearby Reno is a tourist town, which meant convenient access by plane, and a good transportation network between the airport and the hiking trails around Tahoe. We planned a weeklong trip to follow the PCT starting near South Lake Tahoe and finishing up near I-80. Buddy’s friend John Cauthen from Nashville would join us. Given good public transportation, we planned do the trip without renting a car. Unfortunately, I did not bring a camera on the trip, so I have only a few prints from John or Buddy.

Buddy and I in the Desolation Wilderness.

For this trip I used my copy of the Desolation Wilderness and South Lake Tahoe Basin guidebook from Wilderness Press. I used the map from the Desolation Wilderness Guide, and am not sure what resources I had for the northern section.

7-17-87, Travel Day

I flew from Rapid City to Salt Lake City on Friday and met John and Buddy at the airport. We flew the last leg to Reno together. We took a cab from the airport to Harrah’s, where Buddy had reserved a room. We arrived with enough time to tour the casino and have a couple beers. I was surprised to discover I’d already forgotten my way around town, despite having been away only a few years.

7-18-87, Trailhead Travel and Lake Aloha, 3.3 miles

We were up at 7AM and took a sightseeing walk around downtown. Breakfast was at Harrah’s club. John and I then headed for the bus station to get tickets, and to see about storing some gear there. On other trips we’d stored gear in our cars, but without a rental car, which wasn’t an option. As it turned out we couldn’t leave anything for week at the bus terminal, and our bus to Tahoe would leave from the airport. Apparently the visit Reno/backpack at Tahoe combo wasn’t all that common for visitors.

As we checked out of Harrah’s, John talked the bell captain into storing our stuff until our return. We then caught a taxi to the airport to start the bus ride. But as we pulled into the airport we saw a cab from a Tahoe company, and talked the driver into taking us back with him. Our driver was very low key. We stopped once for beers, and a second time at the USFS office to get our hiking permit for the Desolation Wilderness. Then he took us to Echo Lake, where the hike would start.

We’d arrived in the midst of a cold snap, and the hikers around Echo Lake looked cold and unhappy. We met a former AT thru hiker named Mac who was through hiking the PCT. It sounded like our schedules would match, so we might be meeting again on the trail. Echo Lake had a water taxi, which we rode across the lake to the start of the hike. It was sleeting a bit when we arrived, so we killed a little time by getting lunch at the small store at the dock.

Tahoe Sierra south map.

Despite ominous looking skies, we had a great three mile walk to Aloha Lake through open pine forests on heavily glaciated granite. We passed a lot of day hikers returning to Echo Lake. We were happy to see the trail junctions well marked with engraved posts. We used a short side loop off the PCT to find a campsite on the southeast side of the lake, at the highwater mark. From our first camp we now had about seven days to hike only 54 miles. That gave us the flexibility to climb some of the nearby mountains such as Tallac and Jacks Peak that would be along our route. 

Lake Aloha.

Camping was chillier than we expected, but we had no issues with the tent or stove while cooking and setting up. We’d heard that it had snowed heavily here the day before, but we only saw a few isolated snow patches. My only complaint was a lingering buzz from the beer I had during the drive up. Lake Aloha was created by a dam, and the dead trees poking out of the lake gave the area its desolate appearance. In the evening we walked out to the spillway.

Lake Aloha sunset.

7-19-87, Mt Tallac and Dicks Pass, 10.9 mi.

Buddy and I both slept like rocks, but John had a little more trouble, probably due to a combination of altitude and cold. He woke up early and borrowed some warm cloths. We then slept in through the start of the frosty morning, while we let the tent dry. Morning was crystal clear, so our weather worries from the previous day disappeared.

We started with a beautiful hike around Lake Aloha back to the PCT, then past Heather and Susie lakes. Even the areas where our map showed forest were open enough for great vistas. We were watching Pyramid Peak all morning to keep our bearings. The area was so pretty we didn’t want to miss any views.

We stopped for lunch at Gilmore Lake where the warmth had brought out the first mosquitos of the trip. John was suffering a bit from the altitude, but we still decided to make the side trip to climb Mt Tallac. Tallac was one of the few places I’d managed to visit during my brief time in Reno, and I remembered how wonderful the views were from the top.

Buddy & John on Mt Tallac.

We went a little too far along the shore of Lake Gilmore and had to cut back to the Tallac Trail, but otherwise the one hour climb went well. The view was as amazing as I remembered. Tallac looks down into the southwest portion of Tahoe, but you can still see almost the entire basin.

Lake Tahoe from Mt Tallac.

Back on the PCT, we still had a 2.3 mile climb to Dicks Pass. We camped at the highpoint of the trail, just a bit east of the pass. There was a surprisingly level meadow with a few conifers for shelter. There was a spring about a half mile back on the trail. I hiked down after dinner to refill, and found another party camped at the pass. We’d seen a lot of other hikers, but the area was not as crowded as I expected for a weekend.

When I finished my water trip, Buddy and John had a fire going. We sat around the fire, sipped a little Jack Daniels, and enjoyed one of the prettiest sunsets I’d ever seen.

Sunset from Dicks Pass.

7-20-87, Dicks Peak and Crag Lake, 13.5 mi.

Buddy had been sick overnight, but had recovered by morning. We ate a quick breakfast, and then Buddy and I walked back to Dicks Pass, then climbed up Dicks Peak. It was still cold enough for us to wear long pants and jackets. We crossed over two saddles on the way, one was a geologic contact and the other a fault. Some of the basalts on the west side of Dicks Pass had been loaded with what looked like xenoliths of peridotite. Much of the granite around Lake Aloha had been similarly rich in diorite xenoliths.

The summit had a register book, and a circular stone wind break. The view was outstanding. We could see back to Pyramid Peak, Mt Tallac, and Lake Tahoe. I noted that a good future hike would be to hike the ridgeline from Jacks Peak to Dicks Peak and then stay on the ridge all the way to Mt Tallac. This day I was better applying sunscreen, I’d gotten fried the previous day without it.

While we climbed, John had headed down to Middle Velma Lake to fish. Buddy and I caught up after the long descent, but his fishing had been unsuccessful. Even worse it was compounded by a wrong turn on the trail, adding an extra mile to his travel. But he was feeling much better, his only lingering problem being blisters on both feet.

We ate lunch at Middle Velma where we made the decision to leave the PCT temporarily to follow the Tahoe-Yosemite Trail through the Tallant Lakes basin. That longer route gave us a long climb up Phipps Pass. The pass lacked the grand views we were becoming accustomed to, and the spring just south of it was dry. But beyond the pass, the trail followed a string of lakes along Meeks Creek. The corresponding section of the PCT had looked bland, the detour allowed us to follow the lakes.

I couldn’t have been happier with the hike up to that point, we’d seen so many beautiful lakes that we were getting spoiled. Our first walk in thick trees was around Middle Velma Lake. We decided to camp near Crag Lake, near the lower end of the valley. We tried to swim in it, but the water was too cold for anything but a quick wash up.

Campsite at Crag Lake.

It was my turn to cook, so I made a dinner of Lipton fettuccine alfredo, with extra noodles. Then we boiled up extra drinking water for the next day when we would leave the Desolation Wilderness and enter the checkerboard lands of the Tahoe NF. This was another cool campsite, but even so we had to swat a few mosquitos.

Tahoe Sierra North Map.

7-21-87, Sloping Meadow, 11.3 mi.

We had a quick breakfast under an overcast sky, and then it was off to Lake Genevieve. There was a group camped there, and one of their leaders warned us that we might have trouble finding the trail back to the PCT. It was obvious the connector wasn’t as well used as the other trail that we had been on. We found some of the old PCT, then headed southwest up a short steep ridge. Then we hiked south on the ridge until we realized we crossed the PCT. Turning around we found it about ten minutes back. A tree had fallen at the junction and lay directly in the trail. We had seen a blue flag there but assumed it marked a shortcut rather than the main trail.

We returned to a much different PCT than we’d had in the Desolation Wilderness. The trail was much less used, and mostly forested with fewer vistas. We had a long downhill cruise to Richardson Lake where we stopped for lunch. We saw a party who had driven in at our first road crossing of the trip.

At Richardson Lake.

North of Richardson Lake we hiked past a few logged areas and crossed a number of minor roads. We decided to camp about ¾ mile past the crossing of the Bear Creek Road, There is a small ridge above the meadow where we found a good flat spot in the trees. Setting up camp we spotted Mac, the PCT hiker we’d met at Echo Lake. Mac decided to camp with us, and based on how talkative he was, he likely needed the company. This middle section of the trip was less scenic than the incredible Desolation Wilderness, but we expected better ridgeline hiking to come as we would pass above Squaw Valley and the edge of the Granite Chief Wilderness. We were still on track to finish the hike on schedule on Friday.

7-22-87, Twin Peaks, Ward Peak, and Last Col, 12.5 mi.

Another cool clear morning. John cooked up pancakes for breakfast and had one left over for Buddy and I to split. It was a real treat compared to our usual breakfast bars. Once on the way, we heard a chainsaw running at a nearby logging operation, and had to listen to that noise all the way to Barker Pass.

At the pass there was a helpful sign and a map of the newly (1984) created Granite Chief Wilderness. From the pass it was a nice woods walk until we reached the campsites along Blackwood Creek. Despite the name “Granite Chief”, we walked through volcanic terrain most of the rest of the day. Most of the rest of the day’s walk would follow a beautiful ridge crest. We were planning again to sleep out on the crest, so I filled the water bag, and carried it from the campsites. We’d met another group whose leader told us there was no water until Five Lakes, near Squaw Valley.

The ridgeline walking was awesome, there were views east to Lake Tahoe, and west into the Granite Chief Wilderness. Most of the hike was just a little west of the crest to avoid private land. The trail was again heavily used, and we saw a mountain biker and two women runners. Just after passing Twin Peaks, we made a belated decision to climb them, and ended up going up both. There was a register on top that was signed by a lot of mountain bikers, and the prior year by Jeffrey Schaeffer, the author of our guidebook. Besides Lake Tahoe, we could see our route along the PCT north to Tinker Knob.

From Twin Peaks it was 3 ½ miles of fairly level crest walking to the base of Wards Knob. We saw some very interesting volcanic formations including some platy andesite, basaltic dikes, lahars, and some altered volcanics. Despite poor exposure away from the ridgelines, this would be an awesome place to do geologic field work.

Ward Peak was the upper part of the Alpine Meadows Ski Area. The summit was covered with equipment, but we headed up anyway for the views. We then headed about a mile past Ward to the last col before the trail drops down to Five Lakes. We found  a good spot to bivouac with a warm calm evening coming up. The sunset was fine, but it was too clear to provide a lot of color, but that just made the stars more incredible.

Buddy and I talked some about next year’s trip and narrowed it down to either the Wind Rivers or the Southwest (it would be the Highline Trail in the Wind Rivers 1988 Wind Rivers). We also agreed that we needed to come back to the Sierras and hike some of the southern part (which we would do in 1990 1990 Sierras). Just before sunset a lone hiker climbed up from Five Lakes and camped nearby.

7-23-87,  Granite Chief, Tinker Knob, and Tinker Saddle, 12.2 mi.

We enjoyed our ridgetop view of Tahoe so much that we slept in, just enjoying the scenery. The first part of the hike switchbacked down to Five Lakes, we could see where mountains bikes had ridden up the trail. There was a small trail relocation at the outlet of the lakes. We then had a woods walk to the junction with the Tevis Cup Trail, after which we climbed up a saddle on the shoulder of Granite Chief. I was a trail runner at this time, but it would be a few more years before I’d graduate to ultramarathons. Even so, I had heard of the Western States Endurance Run, which presumably comes up the Tevis Cup Trail from its start at the Squaw Valley Ski Area.

At the saddle on Granite Chief was a guy drilling holes in boulders, I assumed this was part of a trail work effort. I put on my daypack and headed up the summit. The peaks on the Tahoe Rim aren’t especially high, ranging in the high 8,000’s to 9,000’s, but they have great views, and are really fun walk ups. With our loose schedule it was a real pleasure to be able to take the time out for some extra climbing. On the way I ran into a lady who was carrying a newer Tahoe Sierra guidebook and stopped to copy the relocation information out of her guide. Buddy and John soon joined me at the top and we spent some time enjoying the views and reading the register. Besides Squaw Valley we could see north to Mt Lassen and south to Pyramid Peak, near where we had camped at Lake Aloha.

The relocations took us north of Mountain Meadows Lake, which we visited on a side trip for a swim. The lake was muddy, but warm enough that we could do a good job with our washing up. Though we weren’t sweating much on the hike, it felt great to get the trail dust and old sunscreen off. The trail was following the west side of the divide so we couldn’t see Tahoe but could look into the Granite Chief Wilderness.

We filled up with water at the next stream and headed north toward Tinker Knob. Buddy volunteered to carry the extra water this time, so of course the small spring mentioned in the guidebook turned out to be flowing, and the climb up to the next saddle was tougher than we had planned on. In addition, John had though that he’d pulled a muscle in his leg.

We’d spent a little time on Tinkers Knob, and took the final nip of our Jack Daniels. Tinkers would be our last summit of the trip. I felt that Tallac had the best views of Tahoe, but Twins, Granite Chief, and Tinkers had better views of the surrounding peaks.

We found a nice campsite below the ridge in the trees. Previous campers had sheltered it from the wind, and we were grateful for their effort. We built another fire to celebrate our final trail night. The trip had gone superbly, and the scenery was as good as it gets. We’d been lucky with the weather. We’d had plenty of food and would be down to just our emergency stash at the end. On long hikes I was used to changing in and out of socks as each pair got wet and slowly dried, but on this trip I was still in my first pair, with a precious, clean pair in reserve.

7-24-87, Hike out to Donner Pass, 7.6 mi.

This was probably our warmest morning yet. I’m usually a cold breakfast person, since it gets you out on the trail in the cool of the morning. But this day I was outvoted and ate oatmeal. We started with a beautiful ridgeline walk past Anderson Peak to Mt Lincoln. Along the way I met another former AT thru hiker who was finishing up the PCT. He told us that Mac had left Donner Pass that morning.

Mt Lincoln is at the top of another ski area, and after that point we were in relative civilization. It was only Friday, but there was already a crowd of day hikers. Both Mt Judah and Lincoln had side trails to their summits The trail was in great shape down to Donner Summit.

Our plan was to split up and hitchhike to Truckee, but John quickly flagged down a ride that would take all three of us. We checked our packs at the bus station, then played tourist in Truckee. I got a copy of the USFS Tahoe NF map at the bus station, and also bought a “map pocket” like the one John had been carrying all trip. The weather was back to its sunny self, but we stayed covered up, each having gotten sunburned somewhere along the way.

It was a quick one hour bus ride down to Reno. We couldn’t get a room at Harrah’s, and finally ended up at the Holiday Inn. We had a quick dinner, then went back to Harrah’s, where we met Dennis, Bob, and Larry, old roommates and work buddies from my time in Reno.

7-25-87, Reno

On Saturday we rented a car and drove to Virginia City. We visited a few shops and then took a tour of an adit at the Best and Belcher Mine to give John and Buddy a taste of life underground. Next we drove out to Pyramid Lake, a new destination for me. The drive reminded me of how desolate the Nevada desert can be. Its bizarre that there are no trees around the lake, and the water has a peculiar blue-green color. Though the lake looks barren, I’d heard the world record cutthroat trout was caught there. We found an isolated stretch of beach and took our final swim of the trip. The water tasted a little salty, but was much warmer than the small lakes in the Sierra. Back in Reno we ate at the Hacienda del Sol, and then went to the Peppermill for a few drinks.

7-26-87

Buddy and John left early for their flight back to Nashville. I slept in and barely got the rental car back on time. I then called Larry and he gave me a lift to the house he was sharing with Bob and his wife. The four of us drove to Virginia City to visit the Flowery Mine, which Alahambra was starting up, with Bob as mine engineer. I met their mine geologist, and we got tours of the processing facility and the mine. We then visited Russ in Carson City where he was building a house. Then Larry took me to the airport for the flight back to Rapid City.

Bighorns, The Early Trips, Darton Peak, Lost Twins, and Penrose Peak, 7-2-1987

My hiking trips in Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains started before I began to regularly take trip notes in a dedicated field notebook. Up to that time, I generally kept organized notes for longer trips, such as my five day loop around the Bighorns (1986 Bighorns Trip) in 1986. But for day trips or weekend trips I often just made a few notes scrawled on a loose notebook sheet, or scribbled on the back of a map. My three trips to the Bighorns in 87 and 88 have sparse notes, so I’m combining those notes into one blog.

7-2/4-87 Sherd Lake Loop and Darton Peak

On my first trip to the Bighorns after the 1986 trip, I started at Circle Park Trailhead on the east side of the range and hiked the 11 mile Sherd Lake Loop, with a middle day climb of Darton Peak. For the trail sections I followed the instructions in the Michael Melius trail guide, which Craig and I had found so useful in our five day loop. I have some slides, and had sketched my route on a copy of the USGS Lake Angeline Quad.

The hike started with a two mile feeder trail to Sherd Lake. I then turned south to hike the loop clockwise. I’d cross the South Fork, a bridge, and then Duck Creek before reaching Trigger Lake on the south end of the loop. From there it was an easy walk to the side trail to Old Crow Lake, which had nice campsites. I walked the 0.5 mile side trail, then headed north to camp by Rainy Lake. My later notes indicate that I might also have hiked the side trail to Willow Lake, but I think that note was just a suggestion left over from my “to do” list notes. I think that Rainy Lake, at about 8 miles in, was my campsite.

Bighorn Peak from South Fork Pond.

Day two was an off trail climb of Darton Peak (12,324’) via its east ridge. I followed the trail to Willow Lake until it left the ridge crest, I could see two sets of prints heading toward Willow Lake. Then I followed the ridge all the way to the summit keeping on the crest to stay out of the boulders that littered the slopes. Of the major peaks in the Bighorns only Cloud Peak had an established route, all the others I would visit in the range would be long off trail routes through the alpine zone. The weather on top of Darton looked bad, and I got a little bit of corn snow. So, there was no chance of adding a longer trip to Bighorn Peak after climbing Darton. The climb took about 2 ½ hours up, and 2 ¾ down, and so was about ten miles round trip. For my first solo, off trail ascent in the Bighorns things had gone very well.

Lost Twin Lakes from Darton Peak.

I retraced my route back to Rainy Lake with only a slight diversion to the south on the upper mountain, presumably to avoid boulder fields.

Bighorn and Darton from Rainy Lake.

My notes indicate hard rain at Rainy Lake, but not when that occurred.

View of Cloud Peak from Darton.

I have no notes for the final day, but I presume that I packed up to finish the Sherd Lake Loop, and hiked back to the Circle Park TH via the connector trail, probably covering about four miles total.

Sherd Lake Loop and route to Darton.

6-4-88 Lost Twin Lakes

This weekend was my first time over to the Bighorns to run the Buffalo Triathlon at the local YMCA. I went over with my friends Craig and Stacey to race on Saturday, and then to enjoy some hiking on Sunday. The race went well for me. I finished the 4.2 mile road run, 20K road bike, and half mile pool swim in 1:33:03, good for 11^th place out of 41 solo racers. Craig and I also entered as a team and finished in 1:29:47 amidst a host of other teams.

After the race we drove into the mountains to stay at the Bighorn National Forest West Tensleep Campground. The campground is the starting point for hikes toward Lake Helen and Cloud Peak, and was always a busy place. From the campground I took a roughly 1.5 mile roundtrip hike south on Trail 65 to West Tensleep Falls, then extended the hike to just short of the Deer Park Campground before turning around.

The next day we hiked the 13 miles out and back to Lost Twin Lakes on Trail 65 heading north and east. Craig and I had bypassed the lakes on our 1986 backpacking trip, so this was the first visit for all three of us. From the West Tensleep Trailhead we followed the Tensleep Trail (BNF 65) past Mirror Lake. The trail was trashed by horses to Mirror Lake, but seemed little used beyond there. Next we had to ford the outlet stream for the Lost Twin Lakes, but waited to do so until we were close to the lake to avoid high water in the stream and some boggy areas around it. We stayed on the trail past the intersection with our 1986 route coming in cross country from the pass above Lake Angeline. We went a little past the trail, then ascended a prominent gully to the west side. The final stretch was bushwhacking through snow patches to the lower lake.

Lost Twin was frozen over. The settling was magnificent, with high near vertical walls all around us. There was little I could aspire to climb in the cirque itself, but it looked like easy routes existed out of each side of the opening. The cirque has many fine campsites, and I would stay here twice on later trips, as the Lost Twins held their place as one of my favorite areas in the Bighorns.

We had lunch at the lake before turning back and heading for home. The trail was easy to follow, but the flat areas were still boggy with winter snowmelt, and the creeks were high and difficult to cross. We spotted the unnumbered trail leading east to Elk Lake, starting just a bit north of the West Tensleep Trailhead. The out and back hike covered 13 miles. 

Bighorn Peak and Lost Twins from Bald Ridge.

7-2-88 Penrose Peak from the Elk Lake Loop

After our June trip, Craig and I assumed that all the snow would be out of the Bighorns, so we planned a three day trip to range, hoping to climb Penrose Peak (12,460’) on the middle day. Karl was able to join us. My notes for this trip are very sparse, but I did sketch the route on my topo maps.

We must have driven over on Friday and camped at the Hunters Corral Trailhead as we were underway at 7:30 AM on Saturday. Surprisingly my notes show us approaching the lake from the Solitude Trail (38) rather than via the shorter route from Soldier Park and Triangle Park. I’m not sure if we used Buffalo Park or Soldier Park to reach the Solitude Loop north of Seven Brothers lakes. The first half mile of the trail was drivable, but rough beyond that. There was no snow, and abundant campsites all the way to the wilderness boundary. We reached Elk Lake about 2PM after 9 miles, and found a campsite on the north shore. We had passed four other hiking groups.

The flowers were in full bloom, and my hay fever was bad. This may also be the trip where the mosquitos were nearly intolerable. If so, Craig had chosen not to cram in the tent with Karl and I, and got badly bitten up in his unprotected bivvy. In the afternoon I went back to the north shore and took a quick swim to clean up. In true Bighorns fashion, we got a little rain just after dinner. We were camped by what I described as a new trail between Elk Lake and Bighorn (?) Reservoir, marked as two miles long. The reservoir was a lot further away than two miles, so I suspect the two miles was just for some type of connector on the way to it.

Penrose turned out to be a very long day. We started at 7AM and were not back until 6PM. It was a long tiring loop, mostly over boulders or moraine, with an estimated distance of ten miles. We had just a short section of trail to Cloud Peak Reservoir, then all the rest was off trail with much boulder hopping. My hay fever did not bother me that day, but I did get badly sunburned from being out for so long. From the Reservoir we climbed the southeast ridge of Penrose via point 11,414’. The peak sits east of some of the ruggedest terrain in the Bighorns around Black Tooth and Woolsey. From the 12,460’ summit we followed the ridgeline south to a higher unnamed peak 12,644’. To return to camp we headed south toward Lake 10,850, and then followed that chain of lakes back to Elk Lake. In those days backcountry campsites were relatively clean and free of rodents or birds, and bears weren’t an issue, so leaving a campsite untended was no problem.

I took no notes at all after our third day, which I assume was just a hike back on our inbound route. 

Our Penrose Peak Route.

Here’s a link to a 1999 article I wrote about the Bighorns for Backpacker Magazine, that amazingly is still on their web site: (1999 Bighorns Backpacker Article).

First Mountain Bike Ride, Crooks Tower, 6-21-1987

After moving to the Black Hills in February, it didn’t take me too long to get interested in mountain biking. Luckily, I was part of a group of a small group that had recently moved to the hills, and had similar interests in the outdoors. At that time there weren’t many established trails for hiking, but stuffed into the million plus acres of the  Black Hills National Forest were an amazing number of old roads. There was also much less ATV traffic back then, and most of these old roads were little used.

Some of the others were more familiar with mountain biking and realized what tremendous opportunities for riding we had. I decided to give it a try and went to the Two Wheeler Dealer in Spearfish and bought a Diamond Back Ascent EX. Mountain bikes are much evolved since then, so that bike has more in common with today’s road bikes then with modern mountain bikes. My new bike had a rigid chrome moly frame with a road bike geometry. The chain rings were oval (to allow more power generation on the down stroke), an innovation that didn’t last long. But basically, the knobby tires were the only thing that made it look like a mountain bike.

My Diamond Back mountain bike at Cement Ridge in 1987.

I assume I’d already taken a few test rides from my apartment in Lead, I remember one bumpy journey down an old railbed with the tracks still in place. But, I hadn’t taken a real ride until I got a chance to go out with Bob, who at the that time was the most experienced rider in our group. We had not yet discovered our revered “Mountain Bikers Guide to the Black Hills” by Horning and Marriott so where to go was the big question. We settled on a trip to Crooks Tower, not too far off the road to O’Neil Pass, probably attracted by its status as a 7,000’ peak.

We knew the main gravel roads in the BHNF were usually in great shape and decided to drive in from the pass and park at the junction of BHNF roads 231 and 117. We’d ride a short loop to the tower, and then could add some gravel road if we wanted to extend the ride.

Our 1987 mountain bike route to Crooks Tower.

Much of our riding in those early days was on remote two track roads. I preferred the smoother surfaces with the rigid frame bike, and there were few trails to ride anyway. Much of the fun was in simply exploring the Black Hills and going new places, and we covered much more terrain than was possible by hiking or even running. The freedom of speeding through country always kept us coming back for another ride.

We started our ride from the junction of BHNF roads 231 and 117, and started with a modest loop, with Crooks Tower on the far end. We rode about a half mile south on BHNF 117, then turned left onto 117-4B, and made another left at the next junction. This section of road was overgrown, but took us to tiny, and dry, Crooks Lake in 3.7 miles in about an hour according to my bike odometer. From the lake we took the spur road to the top of the peak. At the top we could see Cement Ridge to the north, and Bear Mountain and Harney (now Black Elk) Peak to the south.

We returned to the lake and then rode north downhill on BHNF 189 to the junction with BHNF 231. Despite the overgrowth on Road 4B approaching the lake, all was going well, and I was still feeling strong on the bike. It was really fun just to be rolling along and seeing so much terrain, so we decided to add a side trip. On 231, we turned right to go east nearly four miles to the junction with BHNF 206. This was another gentle ride on a maintained gravel road. From the turnaround at the BHNF 206 junction we returned to our parking spot by riding west on BHNF 231 for a total of 15.5 miles. After we had first left 231 we saw no other people, but did spy two groups of whitetail deer.

I would go onto many more mountain bike rides in the Hills in the six years that I lived there, without coming close to exhausting all the places to ride. Our saying was that in the Black Hills there was a road on every ridge, one in every valley, and most likely another on the slope between them. And things were about to get even better. The BHNF would soon go on to era of trail building, including the 110 mile+ Centennial Trail, and most of these new builds would be open to bikes. Later SD Game, Fish, and Parks would complete the Mickelson rail trail, providing a gentler long distance route for riders.

One of my other pursuits was to hike to all the summits over 7,000 feet in the Black Hills. That goal involves some parsing of “summit”, but Crooks Tower certainly qualified, and after Harney (now Black Elk) Peak, was the top of the list. Many of the other 7,000’ summits that qualified were also on the Limestone Plateau, and to make those peaks more of a challenge I tried to ski to several of them.

3-2-91, Crooks Tower, Cross-country Ski

Solo, ~15 miles, 6 hours

This was my only other trip to Crooks Tower. My notes call it not “one of my better plans”. I’d hope to drive up BHNF 231 to the junction with Snowmobile Trail 2 and then follow the route of my 1987 mountain bike ride to the start to Crooks Tower. But I couldn’t drive BHNF 231 as it was part of the Snowmobile Trail network. I should have avoided the area entirely as O’Neill Pass was probably the most popular area in the region for snowmobiling.

Instead, I parked near the highway junction, skied a bit along the road to avoid the snowmobile trail, and then turned due south to reach BHNF 231. The road was covered with tracks, but I didn’t see many machines until I reached the 231/117 junction after about 1:15. I went south on BHNF117 (also SMB 6), and then turned off it early and “explored” a small gully before realizing my error. Back on track I realized the overgrown road I remembered from my mountain bike ride was now SMB 6, and I wouldn’t lose the SMB traffic until the tower. I skied up the road as fast as I could, dodging both the snowmobiles and the impressively huge trail groomer.

I’d hoped to make it to the tower for lunch, but got hungry early and stopped just before the start of the spur road. The SMB tracks led nearly to the summit, which I reached at about three hours. The views were still good. I could see Flag Mountain to the south and Cement Ridge to the north. The tower had more presence than I remembered from 1987, especially compared to other “summits” on the Limestone Plateau. Temperatures were above freezing so I could linger and enjoy a full lunch. The softer midday snow would be too sticky to really enjoy the downhill skiing to come.

I essentially retraced my route back home, but with a detour west of Crooks Lake on the ridge to the north to try to lose the noise of the snowmobile traffic. I tried to follow a ridgeline to the west, but ended up dropping back down to SMB 6 sooner than I’d hoped. I put up with the noise for a mile beyond the 231/117 junction, then was able to finish my trip in peace. I was back at the car after 6 hours of skiing, I saw three women skiing near the pass, one of whom I recognized from the Spearfish Challenge. I also saw a pair from North Dakota trying out snowshoes.

My 1991 cross-country ski trip (in yellow) to Crooks Tower.

Deer Mtn XC Ski Area, 3-28-87

When I lived in the Black Hills I was lucky to have plenty of skiing opportunities to help get me through the winter. There were two downhill areas just outside of Lead, a small one at Deer Mountain and a larger area with four lifts at Terry Peak. I probably never would have tried downhill skiing if it wasn’t for having these two areas so close by. But my main winter outdoor pursuit was cross country skiing, which I’d enjoyed since college. The hills offered with two groomed cross country areas, several marked trail systems, and almost unlimited opportunities for exploring off trail.

The Deer Mountain ski area also including a modest cross-country ski trail network. Because it was so close, it was the area I visited most often. I could ski after work even  after dark, if I brought my headlamp. The ski area groomed the trails. Later Jim or Brian Brown from the ski club would also do some grooming. There was a citizen’s race sponsored by the local ski club most weekends. These races alternated between Deer Mountain and the BHNF Big Hill Trails outside of Spearfish. The club even had a snowshoe race and a ski/snowshoe biathlon at Deer Mountain.

I started skiing as soon as I moved to the Black Hills in February 1987. My first cross-country trip was 3-28-87 at Deer Mountain. The next winter, skiing started up in December. I got some early trips into Big Hill and Eagle Cliff, but much of my skiing was still at Deer Mountain. At the 1988 Spearfish Challenge I won a pair of skating skis in the raffle, and started entering the local races regularly. My last trip before leaving the Black Hills was to ski at the Deer Mountain Trails, then being maintained by the Brown’s.

I included a description of the Deer Mountain trails in the first edition of my guide because they were so important to the cross-country community. But by the time of the second edition, I was living away from the hills, and less able to keep in touch with changes in trail systems. So, I decided to eliminate the Deer Mountain trails from the second edition of the guide to avoid becoming out of date with my information.

The Deer Mountain ski area closed in 2017, after 50 years of operation. I don’t know how long the cross-country ski trails stayed open. The area is now planned for a second home development, but time will tell if that effort is successful.

A slightly updated description of the loop from the first edition of my guide is below. 

DEER MOUNTAIN CROSS COUNTRY SKI TRAILS (Area now closed)

Description: An easy cross country ski tour on groomed trails. Deer Mountain was a private ski area, and charged a fee for trail users.

General Location: Three miles south of Lead, SD.

Access: Drive three miles southwest of Lead on US Highways 85 and 14A. There is now no public access to this area.

Distance: A three mile loop.

Maps: Deer Mountain Cross Country and Touring Trail Map, USGS Lead, SD 7.5 minute quadrangle.

            Many Black Hills skiers got their introduction to cross country on the trail system at Deer Mountain. Groomed trails, deep set tracks, and the gentle terrain along the railroad grade were ideal for novices and for those looking to polish their diagonal stride.

The cross country trails started to the right of the ski lodge at the upper parking lot. The loop was best skied counterclockwise to break up the long climb back to the trailhead.

            The Deer Mountain Trail starts with two sharp drops before making a fast run down into Campground Meadow. After 0.9 mile at the bottom of the meadow, turn left back up the meadow staying on the Deer Mountain Trail. After 1.5 miles reach the Railroad Grade Trail and turn left onto the grade. At 1.7 miles turn left off the grade onto the Golden Reward Trail. From this intersection ambitious skiers can add an additional 1.6 miles to the loop by continuing on the Railroad Grade Trail and then returning via the ungroomed Buck Ridge Trail.

            To return to the parking area from the beginning of the Golden Reward Trail, turn left at the junction of the Golden Reward and Buck Ridge Trails.  At 2.1 miles, turn right onto the Deer Mountain trail and climb steadily back to the start.

The former Deer Mountain Cross Country Ski Trails in yellow.