9:00 AM, 56ºF – The Gold Run trailhead was completely empty when SPHP pulled in and parked the RAV4. Anticipating great things, the Carolina Dog leapt out.
Where’s Poppy, SPHP?
We’re early. She’ll be along in a bit, Loop. Let’s have a look at the lake.
Deerfield Lake was smooth as glass when Lupe leapt onto a weathered section of a big tree trunk near a mucky shore.
What a beautiful morning, SPHP! It’s going to be a great day!
Yeah, I think it’s a good thing we delayed this outing with Poppy, Loopster. Yesterday would have been cold and gloomy.
While waiting for Poppy, SPHP walked from the trailhead back out to Deerfield Road. Lupe helped herself to a drink from Gold Run creek. The little stream actually had pretty decent flow this time of year.
SPHP gathered Lupe treasures from the tall, dead grass on the way back to the trailhead. Before the American Dingo even managed to get there, sure enough, Poppy, HV & LV arrived. Minutes later, Lupe and Poppy were exchanging gifts of Golden Rewards treats. The day was certainly getting off to a good start!
The Gold Run trailhead was merely an easily recognized rendezvous point. Since the Deerfield Reservoir dam was the main objective for the outing with Poppy, SPHP recommended starting a bit closer, from along the road leading to the Dutchman campground. A few minutes spent repositioning the vehicles, and the adventure was ready to begin!
9:46 AM – Deerfield Lake Loop Trail No. 40L was only a short distance from where the cars were parked. Picking it up, the trail began with an easy, gradual descent along the old abandoned roadbed of USFS Road No. 607.1B. Seldom getting an opportunity to be off-leash like this, Poppy was overjoyed! She zoomed ahead, exploring everything in her path. Fortunately, Poppy remembered to return every now and then in order to check on the progress of all the slowpokes.
As the road wound down a long valley, LV spotted a huge nest situated at the very top of a dead tree way up on a steep hillside. A large bird with a white head was perched on it. When the bird flew off, it appeared to be an osprey, although it was too far away to be completely certain.
It had been a year since Lupe’s last adventure with Poppy, so SPHP had a lot to catch up on with LV and HV. Rollie mentioned with enthusiasm an e-bike he enjoyed riding on the Mickelson Trail. Dawnette was more into long walks with Poppy. She’d also renamed her Picnicking In The Black Hills Facebook page. It’s now Here & There in the Black Hills.
Time flew. Before long, Poppy had led everyone to the junction with Deerfield Trail No. 40, which heads E for 23 miles to another junction with the 111 mile long Centennial Trail No. 89.
It wasn’t much farther to easily rock-hopped Dutchman Creek. Beyond it, the valley widened out. Crossing a field full of ancient cow pies, a gate was ahead. Castle Creek and USFS Road No. 370 were on the other side.
Following No. 370 upstream, the road soon made a big curve SW, and ended at the base of the Deerfield Reservoir dam. Under tremendous pressure, Castle Creek roared out of a couple of large pipes.
Backtracking a bit, a side road made a single big switchback up to the W end of the dam. Poppy, LV, and HV had never been here before, so this view of Deerfield Lake was an unfamiliar one for them. The best view was from the E end of the dam, where more of the lake was in sight.
Since the dam was this hike’s primary objective, a short rest break was in order. Going partway down a grassy slope, a spot near the shade of a few of pines served the purpose. Dawnette offered peppered beef jerky, and strawberry and blueberry fig bars as snacks. While SPHP enjoyed the tasty fig bars, Lupe went crazy for the jerky.
Still a beautiful day, warm and sunny, with only a few scattered clouds around. While relaxing on the grassy slope, one cloud stood out. Off to the NNE, a lone cumulus cloud was starting to show some development. Not very big yet, the little wannabe thunderhead seemed out of place.
11:23 AM – After a pleasant break, it was time to move on. The question was, did LV and HV want to go any farther, or were they ready to head back? Poppy didn’t have to be polled, she was having a grand time, and would have gone clear around the lake with Lupe.
Rollie and Dawnette were both willing to keep going. A small bay NW of the dam seemed like a reasonable objective. After recrossing the dam, HV suggested a shortcut back to Deerfield Lake Loop Trail No. 40L along a faint road that headed WNW up into the pines. This was a terrific idea, avoiding the elevation loss that would have otherwise been necessary going back down to pick up the trail again from below the dam.
While among the pines, SPHP noticed a survey benchmark sitting right in the middle of the road. Curving N, the road faded away as it climbed at an easy pace to a meadow above the pines. Crocuses were springing up among the grass here. Other varieties of wildflowers were enjoying the spring sunshine, too.
From the meadow, a barbed wire fence was visible with a gate in it off to the NE, where Trail No. 40L went through it. Beyond the gate, the trail divided into a couple of routes on the way down to Deerfield Reservoir’s N bay. South Castle Rock (6,848 ft.), Castle Rock (6,783 ft.), and Nipple Butte (6,820 ft.) were all in view off to the NW during the first part of this descent.
Once down to the bay, Deerfield Lake Loop Trail No. 40L ran N along the E shore. Several Canadian geese were swimming in the bay. They didn’t seem terribly concerned about the intrusion.
It wasn’t far to the N end of the bay where a small stream trickled into it. Of course, the 11 mile long loop trail continued all the way around the lake from here, but LV and HV were satisfied. This was far enough.
Sticking with Deerfield Lake Loop Trail No. 40L during the entire return, there was one more scenic highlight along the part of the trail that had been skipped earlier. The edge of a steep slope reached just before the descent to USFS Road No. 370 provided an excellent view of the dam and Castle Creek gushing out of it.
1:12 PM, 71ºF – Well, the adventure with Poppy, LV, and HV was over, but they still wanted to visit a bit. LV and HV invited SPHP and Lupe to join them at the Gold Run cafe. SPHP instantly accepted the invitation, but it turned out that the cafe wasn’t open yet this early in the season.
No matter! How about a visit at Poppy’s house? That would work for sure. So Lupe and SPHP wound up hanging out at Poppy’s beautiful home for a while. Relaxing on Poppy’s big no maintenance deck would have been awesome, but it was so sunny and warm out, that the cool shade inside the house was everyone’s preferred option.
Rollie provided SPHP with a glass of lemonade. Dawnette offered more blueberry fig bars. Still hung up on peppered beef jerky, the American Dingo initially turned down homemade peanut butter dog treats, before eventually deciding that they were good, too.
The fun visit concluded with agreement on another joint adventure in the fall. Poppy eventually bid Lupe farewell from her deck.
2:58 PM – The afternoon was still sunny and warm.
I had a blast seeing Poppy, HV, and LV again, SPHP! What now? Are we going home? If so, you turned the wrong way.
Nope. Stays light pretty late this time of year, Loop. There are a couple of peaks along the E edge of the limestone plateau country Dean Giuliano visited and added to Peakbagger.com quite a while ago. They shouldn’t be too hard to get to, so I’m thinking we still ought to have enough time to tag both of them today, if you like.
Oh, are they Lidar Peaks, SPHP?
Yes and no, Loopster. Practically everything has had an official elevation adjustment due to the new Lidar dataset recently, but although both of these peaks are actually higher than the old topo maps show, they still don’t have the minimum 300 feet of prominence of the other “Lidar Peaks” we’ve been shooting for.
So, we’re just going to tag them because Dean did, SPHP?
They’ll give you a couple more dots on your Master Peak Map, Looper, so yeah, why not?
3:53 PM, 64ºF – Well, the Carolina Dog was all for it, but by the time SPHP parked the RAV4 off Sixmile Road, the weather had changed. Suddenly the sky was full of cumulus clouds.
Maybe that odd little cumulus cloud we saw back at Deerfield Lake was trying to tell us something, SPHP.
You mean like an omen, Loopster?
Yes, like an evil omen, SPHP, a warning.
Shoot! We aren’t going to let a few clouds stop us, are we, Loop? Follow the road past that gate. The Copper Mountain gravel pit is just N of here, and on our way.
Took only a few minutes to reach the gravel pit. Rather than going right on through it, Lupe climbed the bank on the E side of the pit.
We just head N from here Looper. Peak 7100 is our first objective. It’s only 0.5 mile away, and we’re already over 7,000 feet, so we won’t need to gain much elevation.
Is 7,100 the old elevation? How high is it according to Lidar, SPHP?
Lidar says it’s Peak 7123, Loopster. So, a bit higher. 23 feet.
Oh, so not enough to make much difference to us, SPHP. Looks like there’s already a view off to the E. Let’s go take a look.
Wandering through deadfall, bushes, and a few crocuses, Lupe reached the E edge of the plateau after losing 15 feet of elevation. A nice, distant view of Black Elk Peak (7,231 ft.) was off to the SE.
Returning to the highest ground, the terrain was nearly flat, sloping only gradually higher as Lupe worked her way N. Would have been super easy, if not for a multitude of big juniper bushes, and a maze of deadfall remaining from a shattered forest.
The deadfall wasn’t all that awful, but forced Lupe to take a winding route in order to avoid it as much as possible. Enjoying a fair amount of success, most of the time the American Dingo was well back from the edge of the limestone plateau. However, she did get close to it again a couple of times, yielding some great views of Gillette Prairie, Medicine Mountain (6,884 ft.), and the E edge of Odakota Mountain (7,199 ft.).
4:33 PM, 64ºF – The true summit of Peak 7100 also turned out to be very close to the E edge of the limestone plateau. Unfortunately, it was buried in such a dense collection of live trees, deadfall, and bushes, that they not only almost completely hid the views, but made it nearly impossible to move around. A large area close to what seemed to be the high point was at very nearly the exact same elevation.
Congratulations, Loop! One Dean Giuliano Peak down, one more to go!
Lovely, isn’t it, SPHP?
Yes, indeed! So lovely, that let’s keep going. Maybe we can find a better spot to celebrate your success.
200 feet farther N, and only somewhat lower, the Carolina Dog did come to a better spot to take a short break. A limestone platform with a big dead tree on it right along the edge of the plateau offered a great view of several stock ponds near the S end of Gillette Prairie. Much farther N, Reynolds Prairie, Terry Peak (7,069 ft.), and Custer Peak (6,809 ft.) were all in sight, too.
Thirsty, Loopster? Your tongue is about to fall out of your head.
Water, SPHP, water …
After a big drink, Lupe crunched some Taste of the Wild. SPHP peeled an orange.
How much farther to the next peak, SPHP?
Peak 7159? Even winding around some, only another 0.5 mile, Looper.
7159. Not much higher than where we are already then, either, SPHP. Sounds good! Are you ready?
Yeah, in a minute. Let me finish my orange first, Loop.
Roaming generally NW, the deadfall improved during a gradual descent to a broad, shallow valley. Crossing it, even though no road was shown on the map here, Lupe came across what must have been an extension of USFS Road No. 656.1A. Following this road N, it faded away almost immediately as the terrain began to rise again.
Hey, there’s something here, SPHP!
What? Oh, a spoon. How strange! In decent shape, too, Loopster.
Keep it, SPHP. You can dish me out more food at home with it.
Think I will, Looper. Kind of a nice souvenir from this trek. Not often we find anything we can actually use. I like the snazzy purple handle.
Continuing NW, Lupe gained 100 feet of elevation in a denser forest with quite a bit of large deadfall in it. Winding around to avoid the deadfall as much as possible again, the Carolina Dog turned NNE after catching a glimpse of even higher ground in that direction. The forest opened up as she approached the high point.
5:28 PM, 63ºF – No doubt at all about the location of the true summit of Peak 7159. Beyond Gillette Prairie, the sky was stormy where a rain shower hid the mountains when Lupe reached a roomy platform of limestone right along the brink of N-facing cliffs. Much closer, Green Mountain (7,176 ft.) was in view to the NNW on the opposite side of a deep valley. Beyond it, a little sliver of Deerfield Lake was in sight.
Just think! We were way over there with Poppy, LV, and HV only a few hours ago, SPHP.
Yup. Fun times, Looper! By the way, congratulations on reaching Peak 7159. Your Dean Giuliano peak tour today is complete.
SPHP shook the Carolina Dog’s paw. Off to the S, a ridge was visible through a gap in the trees. Only moderately higher, gently sloping, and forested, that had to be Odakota Mountain (7,199 ft.). Second highest peak in South Dakota, but it didn’t look all that impressive from here.
Lupe was thirsty again. After sharing water, SPHP munched an apple while admiring the sweeping view to the N. When the apple was gone, SPHP stood up.
It’ll get dark on us on the way back, but want to visit Green Mountain again, Loopster?
Sure! We haven’t been there since Dennis Stewart went with us, SPHP.
Onward, then! Puppy, ho!
Although Green Mountain was less than 0.75 mile NW, Lupe would have to make a big arc circling around S end of the intervening valley to get there. Leaving Peak 7159, the American Dingo followed its SW ridge, staying on the high ground as much as possible, which wasn’t easy due to the amount of deadfall and thickets of large bushes. She hadn’t gotten very far before a small raised platform appeared at least 20 feet above the slope she was on.
Oh, I better climb up there, SPHP! That might be Peak 7159’s true summit!
Maybe, but I doubt it, Loop. Go for it, though. Won’t take but a minute.
Beyond this SW high point, the ridge soon broadened out. Less deadfall was encountered during a gradual descent. By the time Lupe reached the saddle at the S end of the valley she was circling, the terrain was flat and grassy. Reaching USFS Road No. 656, Lupe followed it N a little way, then re-entered the forest as she started up Green Mountain’s S ridge.
A long, winding march N ensued. Plenty of deadfall and bushes were on the broad ridge, happily most of it avoidable without too much trouble. Gradually gaining elevation, distant thunder rumbled off to both the N and SW. The air felt cooler. SPHP felt a raindrop. Began to seem like the terrain ought to be leveling out any moment, when Lupe finally reached an unexpected road where a top was in sight.
This road’s going the right way, Loop. Just follow it!
After crossing the high spot, the road dipped and curved E. No road was shown on the map here, but SPHP suddenly knew where Lupe was.
This is the same road we used to take to Green Mountain the first few times we ever visited it long ago, Loopster.
You mean back when we used to come at it from the W, SPHP?
Exactly! This will lead us right to the summit region and the Dingo display column. We’ll be there in no time!
Sure enough, a fence SPHP remembered soon appeared ahead. Beyond it was the big clearing near the edge of the mountain.
7:15 PM, 53ºF, Green Mountain (7,176 ft.) – The summit region was huge and pancake flat. As Lupe entered the clearing where the road ended beyond the fence, a sense of urgency was in the air. Lightning flashed among the clouds. The rumble of thunder was getting steadily louder, especially from the SW. A sporadic 10 mph wind blew from out of the W between periods of dead calm.
Let’s visit the cairn first, Looper!
The cairn was back in the forest, a little N of the clearing. Circling around a terrible mess of deadfall, the Carolina Dog quickly found it.
Sweet, another peakbagging success, Loopster! Good job!
With nothing but trees to see at the cairn, which was situated at a spot that seemed almost completely arbitrary since the terrain was so flat, SPHP urged Lupe onward.
Let’s visit the Dingo display column now, Loop. That’s the highlight of any trip to Green Mountain!
Returning to the clearing where the road ended, the column was just a little way down the slope at the edge of the plateau.
C’mon, Loopster! I’ll boost you up there.
Wait, SPHP. Are you sure? Whoa! Put me down!
Why the big fuss, Loop? It’s a tradition! I always lift you up here. Just stand on top, and hurry it up! I can’t hold you over my head much longer.
After clawing her way onto the column, Lupe looked concerned. She danced around surveying the situation from her cramped little perch, and seeing no safe way down, began to panic.
Why the fuss? I’ll tell you why, SPHP! Two thunderstorms are bearing down on us. This is no place to be with so much lightning around! If you think this is such a terrific idea, fine. Come on up! It’s your turn, but get me down!
Fearing Lupe might actually make an ill-advised tragic leap off the Dingo display column, SPHP helped her down after a couple of quick photos.
Well done, Looper. Felt a little insecure up there this time, aye? Dramatic shot, though. Let’s get another one from the side.
No way! I’m not getting up there again, SPHP! Not now.
No, I mean from the little ridge where we usually take a break, Loop.
Oh, that’s fine. Don’t mind doing that, SPHP.
Once again, SPHP shook the Carolina Dog’s paw.
Thanks, Loop. That completes our Green Mountain traditions. Wish we could stay, but under the circumstances, we better get out of here.
Aren’t you forgetting a tradition, SPHP? I’ve climbed 3 mountains, and still no chocolate coconut bar? Surely earned one here, didn’t I?
Yes, but I forgot to bring any, Loopster. How about some water, then we really have to get going.
Fine, but you owe me, SPHP.
7:44 PM – The situation was deteriorating as Lupe went back up the slope to the clearing. Back to the E, the sky was still blue toward the horizon, but toward the W dark clouds hovered overhead. Thunder boomed, and lightning flashed among the clouds. It started to rain as Lupe began tracing her route along the road.
Gads! We’re going to get absolutely soaked, Loopster.
At least you’ve got a rain jacket, SPHP. Put it on!
No, I don’t. This wasn’t in the forecast, Loop. Nothing but sunshine, so I didn’t even bring it this morning.
Well then, welcome to experiencing the joys of nature as a Dingo, SPHP.
The rain quickly turned to hail. This was better actually, because the hail was tiny. Not even pea size. Half that, or maybe even less. The ground began to turn white.
15 or 20 minutes, and it was all over. No downpour ever materialized. In just a cool breeze, Lupe hurried along the road. Hidden by the clouds, the sun must have set. It was already getting dark. As the light rapidly continued to fade, thunder boomed. Non-stop lightning highlighted black silhouettes of the forest.
Wow! We’ve lucked out, Looper. They’re really getting it somewhere. It’s all moving off to the E.
Told you that cloud was an omen, SPHP! We would have been beaten to a pulp, if the hail had been bigger.
Upon reached USFS Road No. 301.1R, the American Dingo followed it S down through the broad, gently sloping grassy fields of Windmill Draw. It had been ages since Lupe had last been here. Would have been nice to see it again in daylight, but there was something incredibly awesome about being here on such a wild and dramatic evening.
A short rest break at the junction with Sixmile Road, and the rest of the journey became a less interesting trudge. Lightning continued to flash across the black sky, as the thunder grew fainter and fainter.
Wonder what Poppy would have thought of this adventure, SPHP?
Hah! That we’re a couple of lunatics? Guess you can tell Poppy all about it in the fall, and ask her! (End 9:08 PM, 50ºF)
Links:
Next Black Hills Expedition Prior Black Hills Expedition
Poppy’s Scrollable Deerfield Lake GPS Track & Statistics
Lupe’s Scrollable Peak 7100, Peak 7159 & Green Mountain GPS Track
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