Smokies Off-trail, Bunker Hill via Tabcat Creek, 11-18-07

This hike was mostly likely part of one of Clyde’s weekend trips to the Smokies. In those days the “Clydathon” was 3-4 days of solid hiking, most of it off trail, as Clyde added to his encyclopedic knowledge of the Smokies backcountry. Jean and I enjoyed our trips with him, both for the knowledge and skills we picked up, and for the companionship.

Along with Clyde, both Nan (another frequent fan of Clyde’s hikes) and Claudia joined us. My notes indicate that our original plan was to hike up Buckeye Branch, but that we had decided on Bunker Hill as a shorter option. I had visited the Bunker Hill tower site by bike and boot shortly after my move to TN in 1994, but had not been back since. (1994 Bunker Hill) 

Starting the hike.

We parked at first gate on US 129 south of the end of the lake. We then took service road for the adjacent powerlines over a small ridge to Tabcat Creek. There was a rough road along Tabcat Creek to approximately BM 1179’ (using the benchmarks on the 1931 park map which I used for my field sheet). There was a broad, flat area with abundant cane at junction of Tabcat and Maynard.

Blowdown Aerobics.

Above BM 1179 the creek got rough with steeper banks, more rhodo, and it was harder to find the old road. At BM 1405’ we turned right up Bunker Hill Branch, which appeared to be the main stem. This was very slow going, we were forced to walk straight up the creek. We decided to abandon the creek and went directly up the very steep north bank to a pine-covered ridgetop. The ridgetop was easier going, but still had a lot of deadfall and fairly thick greenbrier. It might have been possible to walk the skinny ridge between Bunker Hill Branch and Tabcat Creek northeast from BM 1179 to stay on a drier ridge and avoid some of the rhodo, but we did not try that.

Creek crossing.

We reached the tower site at 1 PM for lunch. The tower was built in 1941, and was still standing in a 1969 picture. But I have not been able to find the date when it was removed. All that was left was two batteries, the four concrete footers from the tower, and a few metal scraps. We could have used a charge ourselves, as the hike had been much harder than we’d expected. We decided we did not have time to explore Panther Creek. From my field sheet, it looks like we had planned to extend the loop to BM 1616’ on Panther Creek using two old manways shown on the 1931 park map. I also did not explore any of the old fire tower access road on Bunker Hill Lead to compare it to the conditions I’d seen on my 1994 bike/hike exploration. 

Trying to stay found.

To search for easier passage on our return, we started down a small ridge about due west of the Tower (Nan’s Ridge). This was also very steep. I fell and did two summersaults before I was able to stop. That was probably the most out of control I’ve ever been off trail. 

Deadfall on Nan's Ridge.

We thrashed through sporadic rhodo on our short loop until we closed our loop near BM 1405’ at the mouth of Bunker Hill Branch. From there we retraced our route back to the cars. The hike out was long and tedious, at least for our tired legs. We saw no wildlife or other people on the trip. There were numerous rock piles in the flat, open area at the Tabcat-Maynard junction. We weren’t sure if there was an old settlement here, or if the rocks were just the result of clearing farm fields. The entire 6.9 mile loop had taken us from 8:30AM to 5PM.

“I guess I would not be especially eager to explore this area again.” But we did make one more hike to the area in 2011 lured by an enticing social media post, and the reputation of the Grassy Flats-Revenue Road loop’s as a type example of Clyde’s Class 2 for off trail difficulty. 

The Tabcat and Shop creek areas.

For an “updated” 2015 trip report by Mike Knies, see his old post about a Shop Creek-Tabcat Creek loop at GoSmokies.com https://gosmokies.knoxnews.com/profiles/blogs/shopping-spree

Smokies Off Trail, Newt Prong and the Wrong Prong, 11-4-07

After my 1998 and 1999 trips up the Bent Arm manway the SMHC continued to lead hikes on the manway every few years. After we missed a couple of the club trips, we got the idea to try to follow the manway ourselves. Mark had been on the latest club trip and gave us good info on the current state of the manway. He also suggested we consider the variation that his group had done, a descent down Newt Prong to eliminate the tedium of the Miry Ridge and Jakes Gap trails. Mark was unsure which fork of the prong his group had descended, but it seemed most likely that it was the named prong on the west side.

Backcountry navigation can get complicated.

Jean, Ed, and I decided to give it a shot for the third of our three weekend trips we would take together that fall. The weather was perfect; cool and calm with blue skies. We left the Elkmont Trailhead at 8:45, and were on the manway by 9:30. I took GPS and Jean took pictures. The old railroad grade at the start was easy to follow with its wide, deep cuts. There was a short unmaintained section at the split with Cucumber Gap Trail (probably to hide the manway from the curious), then we saw a lot of clipping and sawed limbs all the way to the ridge crest which we reached in about 1:30.

With Ed at lunch.

On the ridge crest we found the rhodo tunnel wide open, and the CCC-era retaining walls in place. It took about 30 minutes to pass through the rhodo tunnel. The trail along the ridge crest was obscure, but remains on the crest or left side of the crest. We noted many gnarled and wind stressed beech trees here.

We walked the Miry Ridge Trail to Campsite 26 to descend Newt Prong. We quickly got trapped by rhodo in the flat area around the campsite. We tried a small ridge to the right (east) but that didn’t work well either. We eventually escaped the rhodo after 30-40 minutes of thrashing by going to the left side of the creek in a steep area. But we still found upper Newt Prong slow going with lots of boulders. We did see one waterfall as compensation. It took us about 90 minutes to reach the confluence with the east fork. This upper section appeared much rougher than had been described by Mark. 

In the rhododendron.

Below the confluence with the east fork, the route was much more open. But it still required about 50 minutes to reach the trailhead. We stayed on the left side of the creek through the lower valley and saw one old homesite. On the trail back to Elkmont we encountered a hiker that Ed and I had met on the club’s recent Wooley Tops hike. Total distance was about 8 miles. 

Fall colors.

Mark and the SMHC group had not encountered any of the rhodo that we had seen in the upper west prong of Newt. That led Ed and I to assume that perhaps the club trip had gone down the east fork instead. So, we put the east fork on our “to do” list and were able to make another attempt in January 2009.

1-11-09, Wrong Prong

9.0 miles w/ Jean, Ed, and Claudia

Confident that this hike would be easier than the west fork of Newt Prong, we were hoping that this trip would help start a new winter season off trailing for us. We planned the usual ascent of Bent Arm, with a descent down the new east fork back to Elkmont. The day was cold with fog and blowing snow, along with a small amount of fresh snow from the previous day. I took a GPS track, but conditions were too wet for pictures.

The Wrong Prong looms large as the only trip we ever took where we thought we would get stuck outside overnight. We did almost everything wrong, as if our theme was “a bad plan, poorly executed.” First, we never did follow up to find out which route the SMHC used on Mark’s trip. We just assumed the west side was too rough to be what Marked hiked. Then we assumed our alternate route would be easier, and dressed and fed ourselves accordingly. We also discounted the weather with cold, snow, wind, and especially the old snow coating all the vegetation.

Climbing Bent Arm went well. With the dusting of snow, we could see some old railroad grades coming up from Huskey Branch. The rhodo tunnel and the open ridgetop sections also went well. We had a short, cold lunch at the head of the east fork. This discomfort should have tipped us off that it would be too cold to struggle down the east fork in the salad, but we went on. Both Ed and I believed the east fork would be better than the 30 minute rhodo wrestle we had in the main fork.

The very top did start well, but soon we were consumed in the rhodo. The route was much tougher and much longer, especially with the cold and all the leaves and branches covered in loose snow. It seemed every branch we bashed was covered in powder snow just waiting to soak us as we struggled by. Nearly every step was a wrestling match with the ever present rhodo limbs grabbing our arms, legs, and packs. It took a full hour to get to our first short-lived semi-clearing. We tried to climb out of the creek bottom, but that didn’t help much, and we continued to be pulled ahead by short lived promises of less dense growth.

By late afternoon we were tired, cold, wet and it was apparent that we might not escape the rhodo by dark. Even as we reached a small junction at around 3700’, the battle with the rhodo did not abate. I had entered a few GPS waypoints, but these went by with mystifying slowness. I was just hoping to make the main fork around 3400’ by sunset. By that time, we were mostly going down the creek and were chilled to the core despite wearing all our clothing.

Finally, by around 4:30 we reached the main fork, and the valley soon opened up. There had been no talking for a while, but finally we felt relief that we wouldn’t be seeping in the snow. What had taken us 90 minutes via the west “main” prong had taken us three tortuous hours via the east “wrong” prong. Even then it was still a half hour to the Jakes Creek Trail, and another half hour to the cars, but at least we knew we would make it out.

The only upside of days like these is that the experience ensures more caution on future trips. I’d gotten overconfident from our successes on other off trail trips, and the price for that mistake could have been much worse. We’d go on to make many more great off trail hikes, all bolstered by the lessons we’d learned in the Wrong Prong.

Newt prong and the Wrong Prong.

Smokies Off Trail, West Prong, 10-28-07

This was the middle trip of an amazing three week run of off trail hikes that Jean and I were able to do with Ed. The previous weekend we had all done the trip I led for the SMHC up Toms Creek to Mt Cammerer, and the next week up we would climb up the Bent Arm Manway and descend down Newt Prong. But of the three, West Prong might have been our favorite. We hit perfect fall weather at peak colors and spent the day in a dome of gold and orange listening to Ed’s stories and descriptions of the wild forest around us.

The West Prong.

Our plan was simple. We would hike up the Bote Mountain Trail, then go east on the “Cross Trail” to the head of the West Prong of the Little River. We would descend the West Prong all the way to Campsite 18 on the official West Prong Trail. Then we would take the trail back to Bote Mountain to form a long, skinny loop. I would briefly cross the route of our Edens Garden hike from the previous year, but otherwise the off trail descent would all be new to us. Though this drainage was likely one of the last logged before the creation of the park, the 1931 map only showed two short connectors from Bote Mountain down to the valley, and the 1949 map showed no active routes in the valley. Based on some follow up trips that I’ll describe briefly, this 2007 trip found remarkably open forest compared to normal conditions, or maybe it was just Ed’s skill in reading the forest that got us through so easily. We were also luckily to have low water, making the many crossings of the West Prong easier.

Along the West Prong.

We left the Schoolhouse Gap Trailhead at 8:30 and arrived at the Cross Trail at 10:30. I recorded a GPS track and Jean took pictures. Despite its nickname, the Cross Trail is an unmaintained manway that connects the Bote Mountain Trail to the Defeat Ridge manway by contouring at around 3800’. By 11AM we reached the dry, upper reaches of the West Prong.

Ed and I at lunch time.

We started down a small ridge just to the east and joined the main stem of the West Prong where its first tributary enters from the east. We continued down the right, or east side which was beautiful open country with lots of huge trees. Ed knows all the Smokies trees and pointed out holly, cherry, and sassafras among others. We hit a small amount of rhodo just above Bee Cove, but we were always able to work our way around any rhodo on this trip. This would be all stand up walking with no badly tangled areas. Our footing was good all day. But we were far enough off on the right side and missed the mouths of several of the creeks. 

Fall colors from the Bote Mountain Trail.

We saw the first sign of an old railroad grade between Bee Cove and Long Branch. There was one old bucket above the railroad grade, and a few sections of decent path remained. We did not use the grade much until we reached a narrow section of the valley near Edens Garden, where the grade was mostly on the left bank. Above BM 2084’ we found a plastic tarp and remains of an old campsite. Near BM 2084’ there was a 50’ vertical rock on the right side of the creek. We wondered if the BM was on top of it.

Below Edens Garden the canyon narrowed and there were approximately 20 crossings, but all were easy due to the low water. As the valley opened up again we saw two open areas that might have been used for old logging camps. We reached CS 18 at 3:30 PM after 4.2 miles, 4:30 of off trail hiking, and a total of 12 miles of hiking.

We saw a horse group of 9 as we hiked the trail out. The weather had been perfect; clear, cool, and no wind. I had hiked mostly in a T-shirt.

We decided this trip would make a great SMHC hike, but only at low water .

My next trip into the West Prong would be on the 5-14-11 SMHC trip up Bee Cove to the top of Thunderhead Mountain that crosses this route at the base of Bee Cove. Bee Cove rates as a separate trip, but there would be three later attempts to recreate the magic of this trip All three trips served to teach the lesson of how access to the Smokies off trail changes with time. I took GPS tracks of each route, but only have a few pictures.

10-16-11

This trip included Jean, Ed, and Claudia. To save time we hiked up Bote Mountain Trail to the Lead Cove Trail junction at Sandy Gap, then followed the West Prong Downstream to Campsite 18 for a 9.6 mile hike. The hike took 6:30. I took a GPS track and Jean took pictures. The upper valley was wide open, and in the full glory of fall colors. We found a “cave” formed under a large boulder.

Getting ready to descend to the West Fork.

But water levels were higher vs 2007, and once we were in the narrow section below Edens Garden, we needed to make many crossings. But the valley opened back up above Lower Chestnut Branch. We found two propane canisters and some pink flags, and retrieved a nearly new tarp from CS 18.

10-7-12

This SMHC trip was designed to walk the full descent of the West Prong from the Cross Trail to CS 18, but fell prey to rainy weather that moved in after lunch. The group abandoned soggy West Prong and climbed out to the Bote Mountain Trail at Hickory Tree Gap. Hikers included Clyde, Mike, Jenny, and Andy Zimmerman. I was happy to be bailing out. I wore sneakers instead of boots, didn’t have good mitts, and needed more warm clothes.

10-15-16

Jean and I gave West Prong another shot and brought Claudia along for this 9 mile hike. We started at the Cross Trail, and made it down to Sandy Gap at the Lead Cove/Bote Mountain trails junction. The upper valley was still gloriously open and home to numerous huge trees, but we soon found ourselves trudging through far more rhodo and dog hobble than we had bargained for. We ate lunch at the Bee Cove junction and there we made the decision to head up to the trail. One positive was the state of the Cross Trail. We’d heard from friends Cheryl and Curtis that it was getting some elf maintenance. The short section we saw was in good shape, with rhodo up to 2” having been cut. This would lead to our April 2017 rehike of the Cross Trail between Bote Mtn. and Thunderhead Prong.

Fall colors from the Bote Mountain Trail.

Black Hills Trip June 2007

Most of the hiking and mountain biking we did on this trip was in support of a planned third edition of my Black Hills hiking guide. But, because of financial troubles at my publisher, Big Earth, the third edition never went to press, and this would be the last trip I made in support of the book. Since then, this material remained unpublished. Most of my notes, mapping, and pictures from the trip are better suited to guidebook format, rather than to trip reports in a blog format. But the trip has some pictures that were fun to review, and brought back great memories of exploring in the Hills.

To start the trip, Jean drove solo out to Ames the week after Memorial Day. I flew into Des Moines that Thursday and we spent our June 1 Anniversary in Ames. The next day we drove out to the Black Hills and stayed with the Harts near Terry Peak for the first two nights.

6-2-07, Centennial Trail, Alkali Creek, 1.9 miles

Bear Butte from Alkali Creek.

We left Ames at 7:50AM and rolled into the Alkali Creek Trailhead about 6PM. We had just enough time for a short walk and decided to go north on the Centennial Trail through the Bureau of Land Management’s Fort Meade Recreation Area. The Centennial Trail is a 120-mile long hiking and mountain biking trail across the Black Hills from Wind Cave National Park to the south with Bear Butte State Park on the north. We headed north from the trailhead area just off Exit 34, first across the prairie, and then up to the top of the sandstone ridge that lies just outside the Black Hills proper. It was a long day of driving, and it felt great to stretch our legs. 

Ready to map some trail!

6-3-07, Centennial Trail, Point 5045’ to Alkali Creek, 9.1 miles

Along with Kathy and Leroy we set up a shuttle to do a long one way hike on the Centennial Trail, which would also finish up at the Alkali Creek Trailhead at Fort Meade. The hike would visit some relocated trail, and was a section Kathy needed in her effort to hike all of the CT. Just getting to the starting TH was an adventure, we missed a turn off the Vanocker Canyon Road, and had to backtrack to BHNF Road 139. My notes aren’t clear, but it looks like we started at Point 5,045’, near the head of Bulldog Gulch. 

Snowshoes?

Just past the first crossing of Bulldog was the find of the day, a handmade pair of snowshoes fashioned from bent limbs and string. We couldn’t tell if someone had made these in the winter and somehow left them behind, or if they were more recent. I tried them on enough to know they were sturdy enough to work. Next it was up and over a small divide and past the remains of a cabin. Despite being relatively close to Sturgis these small canyons in the northeast corner of the Hills seemed poorly explored. Even once the CT was routed through there seemed to be very little traffic.

Anyone good at mushroom ID?

The CT had been rerouted in two places, once at the lower part of Bulldog Gulch and another in the upper reaches of Alkali Creek. Next we’d have one more crossing of BHNF Road 139. The trail character changed here to series of broad gentle switchbacks perfect for mountain biking. Ironically, Kathy and Leroy were two of my earliest MB partners, but this day being unsure what this section of CT would offer, we were on foot. For the final stage of the hike, we crossed the boundary fence into Fort Meade, entered a culvert under I-90, and reached the Alkali Creek TH. Bring the bikes next time! 

Culvert approaching Alkali Creek.

 6-4-07, Black Hills National Forest, Red Lake and Big Hill Mountain Biking, 14.7 miles

Next up we would ride the unofficial Red Lake trails and one of the established BHNF trails at Big Hill. In the late 80’s the BHNF did an excellent job of establishing trails on the west side of Spearfish Canyon, up on the Limestone Plateau and above Roughlock Falls. These trails were mixed in with a large system of dirt roads and abandoned trails that allowed for easy connections between the official trails. My guide described unofficial routes at Red Lake and Iron Creek that connected the official Big Hill Trails with those at Little Spearfish, Rimrock, and Old Baldy. This was a chance to check out one of these connectors. 

Roughlock Falls.

I rode most of the Red Lake Route as described in my 1999 guide, but to my surprise much had changed. Several of the connecting roads had now faded into the forest, and others were mere cow paths, transformations I’d found on several “off trail” trips for the book revision. But the roads that were still open were scenic, and fun to ride. 

Two track riding at Red Lake.

After Red Lake we went over to Big Hill, which is one of the Black Hill’s most popular cross country ski areas in winter. I rode Loop A, the familiar warm up loop for skiers and bikers, but didn’t have enough time for any of the longer loops. Next, we drove to the BHNF Dalton Lake Campground to camp for the night.

Big Hill Loop A in summer.

 6-5-07, Centennial Trail, Dalton and Pactola, 16.3 miles

This day would be a series of three trips designed to cover some more new relocations of the Centennial Trail. Since its completion in 1989, the CT had been relocated in several places as the BHNF engineers found better, more sustainable routes for the trail, or needed to move the trail away from some hard to maintain areas.

BHNF Dalton Lake Campground.

The first trip was a ride on new CT south of the Dalton Lake Campground on BHNF 224. The trip started with some steep and rocky single track. Amazingly this slope was the site of a 1930’s CCC-built ski area with some of the slopes still recognizable. The grade was steep enough that I pushed my bike up much of the slope. Once on the canyon rim the CT intersected an ATV route coming up from the campground and showed heavy ATV traffic for the next mile and a half to the end of the relocation that was still on the canyon rim. I rode back to the CG via the ATV trail just to measure and map it. Apparently the campground was then seeing heavy ATV traffic on weekends.

Old metal Sheridan Lake sign.

For part two, I went north on the CT from Dalton Lake where a relocation had removed the trail from Little Elk Canyon, and its tributary to the north, onto drier terrain on the west canyon rim. Again, it was a steady climb out of the canyon up to the rim. But this time after intersecting some old two track roads the trail headed north as a nice single track trail. Five miles out I reached the end of the relocation, and turned back to the campground.

Pactola Lake.

The third trip of the day was another CT relocation, this time just north of Pactola Lake and west of US 85. I wheeled this one on foot. The relocation started near an ancient metal sign for Boarding House Gulch, which looked a relic from some far older BHNF trail system. The new relocation was well dug in and looked likely to fine biking for a mile into an open hilltop meadow where the original CT continued north. 

Old metal Boardinghouse sign.

After the hike Jean and I drove down to Custer State Park and got a campsite at Grace Coolidge for the next three nights.

The Centennial Trail through a meadow.

6-6-07, Mickelson Trail, Custer to Oreville, 30.8 miles Mountain Bike

The Mickelson Trail is a 109-mile rail to trail conversion crossing the Black Hills from Edgemont on the south end to Deadwood on the north. The scenery, easy grade, and smooth surface made the Mickelson one of our favorite mountain bike rides. The State of SD manages the trail, and had just completed a connector between the Mickelson Trail in the town of Custer and Custer State Park. Our plan was to ride the connector, and then continue north on the Mickelson to the Oreville Campground before retracing our route back to Custer Park.

Reading displays at Gordon Stockade.

We started in CSP at the Gordon Stockade, the site of the first white settlement in the Black Hills established back in 1874 when the Fort Laramie Treaty still reserved the Black Hills to the Sioux tribes. The stockade has been rebuilt as a series of log houses within a log stockade. 

Gordon Stockade.

The Stockade Lake Spur Trail then was not much more than a greenway leading west  3.2 miles into town just north of the Harbach Trailhead in Custer. Riding north, the Mickelson Trail follows US 16/85A next to the Crazy Horse Monument being carved into Thunderhead Mountain. 

Approaching the Crazy Horse Monument.

Beyond was more scenic riding with the summits of Sylvan and St Elmo peaks to the east. 

Oreville rest stop.

After one high trestle bridge, and just after the side trail to the campground, we reached the Oreville rest area. We turned around there after eating lunch and rode back to the Stockade Lake TH for a 29.5 mile ride. Then we walked CSP’s Stockade Lake Trail which we found remarkably steep and rocky, and wondered how popular it would be for hikers who would be seeking just to walk a mile and a half loop. 

This sign needs an update.

After dinner we drove the CSP Wildlife Loop Road and were rewarded with some fantastic overlooks and great wildlife sightings.

Overlook above area burned in 1988.

Not so friendly looking bison.

Main bison herd.

Bison

Mooching donkeys.

6-7-07, Black Hills National Forest, Bear Mountain, 14.5 miles

Jean elected to stay in camp, so I did this ride solo, and with our film camera. Though it is the third highest point in the Black Hills, Bear Mountain was little visited and its isolated ski trails little used, except by snowmobilers in the winter. Maybe the trails also served the adjacent Boy Scout Camp, but I never had a chance to visit when the camp was in session. 

Bear Mountain Trail marker.

I rode my guidebook route clockwise. The loop starts with some gentle two track, but not quite enough to prepare me for the main climb. Once things got steep, I found myself mostly pushing the bike up the singletrack. 

Bear Mountain Lookout Tower.

But once I reached the rim of the Limestone Plateau, the tower and its handy picnic table were just a short side trip away. Maybe it was just bad luck or because I was riding old snowmobile trail, but it began to snow lightly, then hard enough to make the maze of old roads and the few trail markers even more obscure. A small irony for a place I’d found to rarely have enough snow for skiing in winter. 

Z-fold in PreCambrian rocks.

North of the tower things got sketchy. Though I was still following both the BHNF and snowmobile trails, I had trouble following things through recent logging slash. I managed to get out to the overlook on the end of Snowmobile Trail 2P, but it was too foggy to have any views. But there are some really pretty sections along spring creek and that will eventually bring you to the Scout Camp. It had been a rough trip with the snow, wind, and route finding. Back at the car the temperature was only 42F, brisk for June! By 2022, when I was putting this blog post together, the Bear Mountain Trails had been removed from the BHNF trail map.

Mountain goats at Custer State Park.

Since I’d taken the car, Jean had stayed close to camp for the day. But she still encountered a large herd of bighorn sheep and documented the damage the afternoon squall inflicted on a poorly set up scout camp. 

More goats.

After I got back from the Bear Mountain ride we did a short walk around Bismarck Lake. 

Bismarck Lake.

6-8-07, Centennial Trail, Wind Cave National Park, 8.6 miles

Our last hike was a check up on the southern end of the CT in Wind Cave National Park. The surface trails at Wind Cave are little used, but are a great asset to the few hikers who set out to explore them. We hiked a different loop than the one described in my guide, and went clockwise from the CT Trailhead east on gravel NPS Road 5 to the Highland Creek Trail, then took the Highland Creek, Sanctuary, and Centennial trails back to the car. 

Custer State Park Bison.

Driving to the trailhead through Custer State Park we passed a large herd of bison that we were able to photograph in the early morning light. Not long after the start of the hike, things almost went bad. I reached the crest of a small hill on NPS Road 5 and waited for Jean, and waited a bit more… Finally, she arrived with a few new pictures to show me. As soon as we had left the car, a group of four bison emerged, and headed straight to the trailhead like a group of sullen teenagers with vandalism on their minds. Bison will scratch or rub on almost anything to relieve their summer itches and our car was lucky to escape a mauling from this group. 

Bison heading for newly installed scratching post.

Most of the Highland Creek Trail crossed prairie with plenty of wildflowers from the wet spring. The trail wasn’t heavily used, and the bison had knocked over many of the posts. 

Prairie wildflowers.

Having to circle widely around a few lone bison also complicated the route finding, and we lost the trail briefly. 

Wheeling past bison.

After the intersection with the Sanctuary Trail, we crossed a small prairie dog town that extended up to the junction with the Centennial Trail. 

Trail marker at prairie dog town.

We continued up the CT, partly through a burned area, where any hope of shade was dashed. The burn obscured the trail a bit and we got off trail again for a short time.

Centennial Trail through recent burn.

But soon we were back at our unbuffed out Subaru, this time ready to start the long drive home. After passing one more herd of bison we were on our way.

One last bison herd.

We then drove back to Ames via Beresford, SD, arriving on the 9^th. I flew home to Knoxville on the 10^th, and Jean later drove home from Ames.