Start – 8:30 AM, 37°F at the Silver City trailhead of Deerfield Trail No. 40
Last really warm day for a while! Tomorrow temperatures were going to start plunging. Subzero lows and way below normal highs all next week, and beyond. Winter, after all. The Carolina Dog wasn’t about to waste this final chance to sneak in a Black Hills expedition!
Nice day, today. The Silver City trailhead of Deerfield Trail No. 40 was a sheet of ice, but it was above freezing and the skies were blue. Lupe knew this place. She’d been here lots of times. She took off across the bridge over Rapid Creek following Deerfield Trail No. 40 upstream. Bright sunshine was up on the rocky canyon walls, but down in the shade near the stream it was surprisingly chilly.
Deerfield Trail No. 40 led to more bridges over Rapid Creek. Half a mile from the trailhead, Silver Peak (5,810 ft.) came into view shortly before reaching the 4th bridge. Loopster had been to Silver Peak 3 times, once fairly recently, but had never climbed it from this direction. She wasn’t going back up there today, though.
Today’s destination was Peak 5696. Lists of John shows that it has 396 feet of rise (prominence), but that was all Lupe or SPHP knew about it. That was fine. Exploring is what American Dingoes do best!
The first good chance for access to Peak 5696 came right after crossing the 4th bridge. The topo map showed Goose Pasture Draw heading 0.75 mile NNW up to a saddle a bit SW of the summit.
Goose Pasture Draw looked promising on the map, but reality was not so enticing. Lupe found the entrance steep-sided, narrow, and clogged with a tangled mess of trees and bushes amid snow drifts 2 or 3 feet deep. Hmm. Maybe not the route it was cracked up to be. Eh, forget this!
Lupe continued W on Deerfield Trail No. 40. She came to a particularly scenic stretch where the trail was out in the open close to the N bank of the creek. It took Looper right past one of her use-in-case-of-emergency haunts, too. A small Dingo Cave, remnant of some brief unproductive old mining effort, was along the N side of the trail. Naturally, Lupe stopped in for a quick sniff around.
Lupe kept going. The next opportunity to turn N came 0.5 mile past the 4th bridge. The map showed a trail going up Post Draw that went up and over Peak 5560 before heading NE to Peak 5696.
Might have worked great, if such a trail existed! No sign of one.
Even so, Post Draw looked more promising than Goose Pasture Draw had. Besides, reasonable options for getting up out of the canyon to head for Peak 5696 were fast running out. Better give it a shot! Lupe left Deerfield Trail No. 40, and started N up Post Draw.
She didn’t get far. Not as snowy here, but lots of deadfall. Yet another mess. The trail shown on the map was a mere old cartographer’s tale. While Loop could scoot through without too much bother, this was going to take SPHP forever. So what now?
Kelly Gulch, another 0.5 mile W as the Deerfield Trail went, would work. Lupe had been up Kelly Gulch before. There really was a trail leading to USFS Road No. 142 where Spurgeon Gulch came in. No. 142 might well provide access to Peak 5696 from the W. Farther to go, though.
SPHP kept eyeing Post Draw’s E slope. Steep, but even SPHP ought to be able to make it. Dingo’s play for Lupe. Far less deadfall and no snow on the slope, and it didn’t look that far up to a flat ridge. Lupe was here now. May as well give it a go! If it didn’t work out, Kelly Gulch would have to do.
Good thing this slope wasn’t any steeper, or Kelly Gulch really would have been the answer. SPHP trudged higher, clinging to whatever was available, which usually wasn’t much. While SPHP gasped for breath, Lupe showed off, wandering effortlessly wherever she fancied.
Unsurprisingly, the flat ridge that hadn’t looked too far up from below was elusive. The steep E slope went much higher than it had appeared, and became quite rocky near the top. Lupe gained 250 feet of elevation before actually coming to a small flat area. A formidable rocky high point was just to the NE.
SPHP voted for taking a break at the flat spot before carrying on. Loop was willing to let the motion pass.
During the break, SPHP studied that next high point to the NE. Wasn’t really all that much higher, but it was fairly rugged. Could Lupe even get up there?
Yes, she could! A direct assault wouldn’t have worked, but sneaking a peek around the W side revealed a completely manageable slope. The slope was nicely strewn with deadfall timber, par for the course.
Once the deadfall was dealt with, the top of the high point was terrific! This was likely to be the most photogenic spot anywhere along Lupe’s route to Peak 5696. She had wonderful views to the S & E of the canyon Rapid Creek flows through.
Lupe lingered 20 minutes enjoying the views of Rapid Creek, Silver Peak, and surrounding region. She then went on to the actual summit of this high point E of Post Draw. It was a little farther N, back in the trees away from the best views.
This high point Lupe was on was at the end of a ridge extending 0.5 mile S from Peak 5560, her next objective on the way to Peak 5696. Without further delay, she followed the ridge N.
The American Dingo lost 120 feet of elevation before reaching a broad saddle full of spindly Ponderosa pines.
Beyond the saddle, a 550 foot ascent of Peak 5560 began. This became an interesting climb. The higher Lupe went, the narrower and rockier the ridge became. The spine of the ridge featured many rocks standing on end or at steep angles.
Lupe was getting close to the summit of Peak 5560 when she discovered a Dingo Shelter. Compared to the Dingo Cave down by Rapid Creek, the Dingo Shelter was tiny. However, it could easily accommodate one medium-sized Dingo, and had both a roof and an escape hatch.
No doubt the Dingo Shelter would serve well in case of hail storms or other emergencies that might arise way out here in this remote part of the Black Hills.
Speaking of the weather, it had been clouding up while Lupe climbed Peak 5560. Hail storms didn’t seem to be in the forecast yet, but for what was supposed to be an unusually warm winter day, it didn’t feel much warmer up here than when Lupe had started out this morning. A cool W wind had come up.
Since hail actually wasn’t on the way, the Carolina Dog continued on to the summit of Peak 5560. Lupe arrived to find the summit had two high points. A couple of small rock formations of nearly equal elevation were separated by only 20 or 30 feet. The short ridge between them was all there was to the summit area.
Too many trees to see much from Peak 5560. Besides, the W wind was strengthening. Lupe stayed 5 minutes, then it was on to Peak 5696!
Loop started down Peak 5560’s N ridge. This ridge featured two lower, but still significant high points. At the last one, Lupe came to quite an impressive rock formation. Huge slabs of rock were standing practically on end.
After visiting the N ridge high points, Lupe turned NE and went down to the saddle leading to Peak 5696. Having lost nearly 160 feet of elevation, she was getting close to the bottom when she discovered an old mining dig or blast site.
Upon reaching the saddle, the Carolina Dog now had to gain 300 feet to get up to the summit of Peak 5696. The SW face of the mountain was forested, fairly steep, and a little rockier toward the top. The climb wasn’t particularly difficult, easy, or interesting.
When Lupe got to the top, the pines were swaying amid a 25 -30 mph W wind. Though the full force of the breeze was partially blocked by the trees, the resulting forlorn, windswept sound only emphasized what a remote, deserted place this was. The temperature must have been in the upper 40’s °F, but it sure didn’t feel that warm.
A skinny, vertical rock formation only a few feet high was the evident high point of a long, broad summit region which stretched off to the N. Lupe hopped up on the highest rocks, balancing as if frozen in place, since her perch was rather precarious.
The forest on Peak 5696 was reasonably open, comprised mostly of fairly young trees. They were more effective against the views than against the sullen breeze. A rock ledge 30 or 40 feet W of the high point offered somewhat of a look to the WSW, but that was about it.
Lupe wanted to curl up out of the wind, so a short break was taken E of the high point. SPHP took this opportunity to check the topo map. The summit region extended N beyond what could be seen through the forest. Although this S end had appeared to be the summit of Peak 5696, the map marked the high point elevation at the N end.
Well, that had to be checked out! Puppy, ho!
The broad ridge leading N was open forest, with a good 6″ of snow on the ground, and deadfall timber laying perpendicular to Lupe’s path. At first, this area was all clearly a bit lower than the high point at the S end, but as Loop got farther N, the terrain started sloping gently upward.
The N summit was at least several hundred feet from the S one. Seemed like maybe it was a bit higher. The N summit was even more buried in the trees, offering no distant views. Another vertical rock outcropping, similar to the one at the S end, was the high point. This probably was the true summit of Peak 5696, but it felt anti-climactic.
Lupe visited a rock formation a bit down the slope W of the true summit, then sniffed around the general area for several minutes. Not much else to see or do here, but the map showed a ridge that went another 0.25 mile N without losing a whole lot of elevation. Why not? Lupe explored a good bit of it, too.
Approaching a minor high point along the N ridge, Loopster came to a largely snow-free, park-like part of the forest.
Beyond this minor high point, the N ridge started getting narrow and rocky. Lupe’s Peak 5696 peakbagging objective had been completed. Perhaps it was time to start back?
Rather than go back the same way with all its steep slopes, Lupe left the ridgeline heading NE down into Gorman Gulch. A foot of snow was on the ground here. Lupe gradually turned E, then SE enjoying a long trek down through the snowy forest.
Loopster liked mountain-shaded Gordon Gulch. Several deer got her all excited. SPHP wondered what the bottom of Gordon Gulch was going to be like? Hopefully not another tangled mess.
No worries, this time! After a fun romp down through the snowy woods, the bottom of Gordon Gulch wasn’t bad at all. Lupe soon came to a road, USFS Road No. 141.2B, which showed little sign of use.
So that was that! The rest of the way back was an easy road trek. It was longer than expected, but the silent, snowy journey was fun. No wind down here, and all downhill.
No. 141.2B brought Lupe all the way back to Silver City, exiting Gorman Gulch only a bit E of the trailhead. Shortly before she got there, Lupe happened upon the Gorman Cabin historic preservation site. A plaque said this cabin was the last one remaining of several the Gorman family had built in the late 1870’s during the Black Hills gold rush. Silver City had originally been known as Gorman Camp.
Peak 5696 had been a fun outing. Something a little different, with its views of Rapid Creek down in the canyon on the way there. Lupe was certainly glad she went, and it was a good thing she did, too! February was destined to be the longest, coldest month of this winter. It would be a while before the adventurous American Dingo would be out exploring the beautiful Black Hills again. (2:49 PM, 50°F)
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