Nearly all of September, 2015, the Black Hills of South Dakota were hot and exceptionally dry. Relief came the first weekend of October. The hills were socked in with clouds, fog, and at least some much needed rain. Lupe was bored, bored, bored spending long hours looking out the front window. An occasional squirrel was about all the excitement there was.
By Monday, October 5th, the forecast was better. When SPHP started getting the backpack ready, Lupe brightened up and looked very hopeful. SPHP did not disappoint her. When she realized an expedition was really in store for her, Lupe raced around leaping and barking with excitement encouraging SPHP to hurry up!
Although the great day for Expedition No. 140 had arrived, SPHP hadn’t really given much thought as to where Lupe might go. The decision wasn’t made until almost the last minute. The plan was to explore Bittersweet Creek down to Castle Creek, head upstream to the Castle Creek Campground, and then climb Castle Peak (6,358 ft.). The maps didn’t show any reasonably short alternative routes back, so Lupe would have to return the same way.
About 0.5 mile N of Signal Knob (6,200 ft.), SPHP parked the G6 at 10:13 AM (49°F) near the top of the highest hill on USFS Road No. 187 (Golden West Road). SPHP had expected sunshine, but the sky was still mostly overcast. The clouds were starting to break up, though. Here and there, patches of sunshine came and went.
Lupe and SPHP headed N on No. 187. Off to the NW, the high ridges at the E edge of the Limestone Plateau country, still mostly in the clouds, attracted SPHP’s attention. Lupe eagerly sniffed around in the fields near the road.
SPHP wasn’t paying enough attention. Almost right away, SPHP missed the turn E on Deerfield Trail No. 40. A mile N of the G6, SPHP realized Lupe was already well beyond the trail. It didn’t matter. Lupe and SPHP just turned E and wandered through the forest. Lupe went up over a very small ridge and down into a valley on the other side.
There was a road down at the bottom of the valley. Lupe followed it SE to a junction with USFS Road No. 429. A marker there showed that Lupe had been on side road No. 429.1B. No. 429 was the road Lupe and SPHP had been looking for. The maps showed it following Bittersweet Creek about 3 miles NE from here to USFS Road No. 181 down by Castle Creek.
Bittersweet Creek is a minor tributary of Castle Creek. It was just a tiny stream at the intersection of No. 429 and No. 429.1B. As Lupe followed No. 429 downstream, Bittersweet Creek soon became more than a trickle. The road looked seldom used, but was in good shape. Following No. 429 down Bittersweet Creek was easy. Lupe ran up and down the road making forays off of it to investigate whatever interested her along the way. Gradually the creek got bigger.
After Lupe had gone a mile or more on No. 429, she came to an intersection with USFS Road No. 429.1D, which headed up a side valley. Near this intersection, there was a series of very small waterfalls along Bittersweet Creek. Just below the first waterfall, the creek bed was orange. Naturally, SPHP dubbed this first waterfall Orange Falls.
While Orange Falls was kind of pretty, Lupe recommends that you NOT cancel your trip to Niagara in favor of Orange Falls. Orange Falls is perhaps one foot high and about the same width. Below Orange Falls, the area was rather swampy. There were some very nice displays of vibrantly green moss growing close to the creek. Below Orange Falls, the creek bed remained orange the entire rest of the way Lupe followed it.
The color of the creek bed was not the only thing that changed at the intersection with No. 429.1D. As Lupe continued down Bittersweet Creek on No. 429, the road started to deteriorate rapidly. The ground was all churned up like the road had been purposely destroyed. No. 429 was no longer an easy hike. The ground wasn’t the real problem, though. Soon there started to be more and more deadfall timber that had fallen across the road.
Lupe, of course, had little problem working her way through the deadfall. SPHP, however, faced increasing difficulty. If Lupe wanted to climb Castle Peak, though, it was important to follow Bittersweet Creek all the way to Castle Creek. Once at Castle Creek, SPHP knew that USFS Road No. 181 was a good road. So SPHP persisted, but the going got steadily worse.
Although SPHP kept hoping the road would improve as Lupe drew closer to Castle Creek, it didn’t. Finally, the road completely disappeared in a tangle of deadfall timber. Lupe was probably only a mile from Castle Creek by now, but it looked like getting there would take SPHP hours.
Clearly, staying on the valley floor down by Bittersweet Creek was no longer an option. Lupe and SPHP started climbing up the side of the valley. SPHP hoped maybe there was a way forward up there, or at least a view of what lay ahead. Lupe gained about 100 feet of elevation. Trees blocked any view of Bittersweet Creek and what, if anything, remained of USFS Road No. 429 below. Steep slopes rose another 150 to 200 feet higher. It wasn’t practical to try to move forward on the slopes, either.
SPHP gave up on the notion of Lupe reaching Castle Peak. SPHP decided to just continue climbing up the steep slope however far it took to reach more level ground. Once there, Lupe could just return to the G6. There should still be time to do something else. Sometimes adventures just don’t turn out the way one expects. It’s part of what makes them adventures.
At least the steep slope didn’t have much deadfall timber on it. Most of the dead trees seemed to have fallen clear down to the valley floor to choke No. 429. Instead, the slope was infested with thistles. After climbing 200 more scratchy feet up the slope, Lupe arrived unexpectedly at another USFS road.
This high road was nice and level. It was in good shape. There was almost no deadfall timber on it. Suddenly SPHP could make progress again. Lupe followed the high road a short distance NW and reached an intersection. None of the roads had any marker. SPHP checked the maps. The most detailed map showed a maze of side roads coming off USFS Road No. 187 up in here.
While they got very close to Castle Creek, the map didn’t show any of the side roads ever connecting to USFS Road No. 181. SPHP knew that meant that they all probably ended high up on the ridges and steep slopes on the S side of the Castle Creek valley. Still, maybe one of them would lead to a reasonably easy way down. If Lupe could get to Castle Creek, she could still climb Castle Peak.
Like the explorers of old, but on a tiny scale, Lupe and SPHP started looking for the fabled Northwest Passage. This Northwest Passage only needed to take Lupe to a point where she could finish her journey to Castle Peak. Initial results were somewhat encouraging. Castle Peak was soon in view. Lupe was clearly already on the slopes just above the Castle Creek valley. All that was necessary was to find an easy way down.
Lupe and SPHP spent a couple of hours exploring various branches of USFS Road No. 187 looking for her Northwest Passage. Sometimes Lupe could see the Castle Creek valley floor and USFS Road No. 181 below. Some of the high roads lost considerable elevation. In the end, though, none of them got close to the valley floor. All of them ended at cliffs or steep slopes still at least 200 to 300 feet above Castle Creek.
The old explorers never found their Northwest Passage. It was there, but frozen solid and impassable. Lupe never found her Northwest Passage either. It may have been there, but on some side road there wasn’t time to explore. By now so much time had passed that even if Lupe found a way through, she wouldn’t be able to climb Castle Peak and return before dark. And SPHP wasn’t about to scramble up some steep hillside in the dark.
Of course, Lupe was having fun the entire time. She wasn’t worried about getting to Castle Peak. She was looking for squirrels and other interesting things in the forest. While SPHP tried to figure out which of the many branches of USFS Road No. 187 to take to get back to the G6, Lupe had her own little adventures in the forest. SPHP managed to find the junction of USFS Roads No. 187.2E and No. 187.2F. From there the way back was clearly indicated on the maps.
The sun wasn’t down yet when Lupe got back to the G6 at 4:31 PM (59°F). There was more than an hour yet before sunset. What now? Lupe and SPHP drove NW to Reynolds Prairie. From the S end of Reynolds Prairie, SPHP took USFS Road No. 189 heading N. Just N of Nipple Butte (6,800 ft.), near the junction with USFS Road No. 599, was a beautiful stand of aspens that hadn’t even reached the height of their fall colors yet. Lupe agreed to pose for a few pictures.
From there, Lupe and SPHP drove up to the end of USFS Road No. 599. At it’s N end, No. 599 is just S of White Tail Peak, which Lupe had climbed on Expedition No. 138. SPHP had hoped to get a view of White Tail Peak (6,962 ft.) from the S, but by the time Lupe got there, fog was rolling in. Lupe and SPHP turned around, and returned to USFS Road No. 189 where there were more pretty aspens.
Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 140 ended with a climb up the spur road to Flag Mountain (6,937 ft.) from USFS Road No. 189. Normally Flag Mountain has great 180° views to the E. Lupe has seen them before. This time, Flag Mountain was enveloped in fog.
Lupe loved the fog. She raced through the now mysterious forests, sniffing madly. For an hour, as the gloomy fog thickened and the light faded, Flag Mountain was haunted by the wild Dingo of the Mists.
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