Start – Old Hill City Road near the 1880 Train crossing NNE of Ford Mountain (10:13 AM, 40°F).
The week after Joe & cousin Dusty headed back home to Colorado was overcast and cold. On the 25th, Lupe stared bored out the window all day as light snow fell. Winter’s last blast didn’t amount to much, but snowflakes were still sailing on the breeze the next morning. Although only an inch or two had fallen, once again Lupe’s world was all white.
By afternoon, the snow ended. By evening, it had warmed up enough to melt almost everything that had fallen. The world reverted to green, but gray clouds remained. The next few days weren’t much warmer. Now and then a cold rain or mist fell.
When Lupe finally got to venture up into the Black Hills again, it wasn’t surprising Expedition No. 202 got off to a snowy start. The snow hadn’t melted yet up here. Lupe, of course, was delighted! She frolicked and cooled off on the clean new snow with enormous enthusiasm. It was a great start to her journey up Ford Mountain (5,641 ft.).
The snow was only a couple of inches deep, but it was everywhere on the N slope. Fortunately, the slope wasn’t too steep. SPHP was able to follow Lupe up despite the slick snow. Before long, Lupe had gained enough elevation to see another mountain she hoped to climb today. Storm Hill was off to the NE.
At first, going up Ford Mountain was easy. Less than 1/3 of the way up, though, Lupe reached a zone covered with a lot of deadfall timber. Progress up the mountain slowed considerably.
The deadfall didn’t diminish until Lupe neared the top of Ford Mountain’s NE shoulder. The NE shoulder featured scattered rock outcroppings. Lupe got up on the highest one, but the forest was so thick she didn’t have any distant views. She could barely make out Ford Mountain’s summit off to the SW.
Lupe lost only a little elevation traversing the snowy saddle leading to the final climb. Deadfall was a problem here, too, though not quite as bad as earlier on. This climb was noticeably steeper, making footing more difficult for SPHP with the snow around.
The final 50 feet up was much rockier than the rest of the mountain had been. Lupe still had an easy time of it, while SPHP scrambled slowly to the top.
When Lupe reached the top of Ford Mountain (5,641 ft.), she found a roughly circular summit area 100 feet in diameter. The area was nearly flat, but slightly higher toward the center. All along the edge, from the NE around to the E and S, an uneven rock ledge perched above cliffs offered sweeping unobstructed views.
After checking out the splendid views, Lupe visited Ford Mountain’s true summit. The center of the summit area was so flat, she really didn’t find any one point that looked noticeably higher than the rest. No cairn or survey benchmark was to be seen either, but Lupe did find something way cooler than that – a stone fortress!
On her many adventures in the Black Hills, Lupe sometimes comes across small structures which could serve as Dingo Outposts, but seldom anything as elaborate as the Dingo Fortress on Ford Mountain. Someone had spent a lot of time moving a lot of heavy rocks building it.
An opening to the WNW served as a doorway. Lupe went inside to inspect her latest Black Hills Dingo Bastion.
The stone fort met with Lupe’s approval. Best, most elaborate summit cairn ever! After sniffing around the interior a bit, Lupe came out to see what else there was to see up here.
Part of Hill City was in view off to the NW.
The view of Bishop Mountain (5,706 ft.) to the SW was partially blocked by the forest, and wasn’t that impressive. So that was about it. Lupe made a final tour of the sights from the cliff edge.
Lupe retraced her original route up on the way down Ford Mountain. She was surprised when she arrived at G6 and SPHP walked right on by without even stopping. She was even more surprised when SPHP started following train tracks on the other side of Old Hill City Road. It was the first time she’d ever followed train tracks.
SPHP knew they would lead her to the base of Storm Hill.
Lupe wouldn’t see a train today, but the tracks aren’t abandoned. They only see use during the summer, when the 1880 Train runs from Hill City past Oblivion to Keystone and back. The round trip is a popular sightseeing excursion for tourists. A few more weeks, and the 1880 Train would be running again.
Fortunately, there was something else Lupe didn’t see as she was busy sniffing along the tracks in the first gap the railroad passed through. The bunny saw Lupe, though. It remained absolutely still on a bank only a few feet above the tracks.
Lupe followed the 1880 Train tracks for 0.5 mile to the base of Storm Hill.
The first part of Lupe’s ascent went through a gently sloping pine forest. The day had warmed up enough so the snow on the ground was melting. Lupe ate snow and had a fun romp in the open forest as she headed NE toward a saddle.
Upon reaching the saddle, Loop turned E. The mountain was getting progressively steeper and rockier. Lupe reached the part of the forest that had burned years ago. With less shade, the snow was vanishing fast here.
So many dead trees were still standing that the amount of deadfall timber laying on the ground wasn’t too bad yet. Lupe could still easily run around exploring.
Of course, it got rockier and steeper the higher up Lupe went. However, her route was never too difficult, even for SPHP. As Lupe neared the top of Storm Hill, she could see a tower and a solar panel up there.
It turned out that by coming up from the W, Lupe arrived at the true summit right away without having to traverse any of the summit ridge. Most of the summit ridge was off to the E and notably lower. The area around the true summit was very rocky and much, much smaller than on Ford Mountain.
Ropes and guy wires supported the small tower. Electrical wires were around, too. At first, it wasn’t clear if they were live or not.
Lupe and SPHP approached the tower cautiously paying special attention to electrical cords and wires. Lupe made it up onto the highest rocks with no problem. Although someone had gone to considerable effort to set all this stuff up, nothing appeared to be in working condition. It was all dead.
The solar panel appeared to have been meant to charge a bank of 7 batteries. What purpose the tower used to serve wasn’t clear. All the wires and equipment around made moving about the summit a bit tricky.
After taking a look around from the true summit, Lupe and SPHP retreated a little down off the high point just to get away from the wires and equipment. It was time for a break. At least SPHP thought so, but Lupe wasn’t hungry. She was happy enough to curl up for a rest, though, while SPHP consumed the usual apple.
Since Lupe wasn’t really into it, break time didn’t last any longer than the apple did. When it was over, Lupe briefly returned to the true summit. SPHP took a few more photos before Lupe started back down the mountain.
Once again, Lupe returned to the G6 (1:52 PM) by the same route she had taken to the mountain. This time SPHP let her in. She still had plenty of time to climb another peak, but a ride was in order to get closer to her next objective. Lupe enjoyed barking at several cows and horses along the way.
SPHP parked the G6 again 3 or 4 miles farther E where Centennial Trail No. 89 crosses Old Hill City Road (2:07 PM, 46°F). Ingersoll Peak (5,356 ft.) was Lupe’s next destination. It was somewhere not too far off to the NE, but SPHP wasn’t completely certain exactly how far away it was. A mile or two, maybe? The plan was to follow Centennial Trail No. 89 going N a little way before leaving it to turn E to search for the peak.
Lupe set out crossing the 1880 Train tracks and Battle Creek immediately N of Old Hill City Road. She continued N on Centennial Trail No. 89. The trail led gradually up a side valley where a mix of pines and aspens lined both sides of the trail.
Lupe hadn’t gone too far when a logging road left Centennial Trail No. 89 heading up the ridge to the E. Why not follow it to see if Ingersoll Peak could be seen from up there? Lupe took the logging road.
The logging road faded away before even reaching the top of the ridge. Lupe kept going, though, and managed to get there. The forest had been thinned, but not enough to see much off to the E. However, it appeared the ridge gained more elevation to the NE, which seemed to be the right direction to go.
Lupe struck off following the ridgeline. It had minor ups and downs, but on the whole she was gaining elevation. After reaching a couple of high spots where there still wasn’t much to see, she finally came to a rock outcropping on the E side of the ridge where there was a view. Ingersoll Peak was in sight, but farther away than SPHP expected.
It took a while to get there. Lupe tried to go around the N end of an intervening valley to avoid losing elevation, but it didn’t work. The valley was too long. She wound up turning E and going down into two sizable valleys separated by a lower ridge before the terrain allowed her to climb out again and regain all her lost elevation.
Once she was out of the second valley, Loop came across a dirt road leading NE toward even higher ground. Before long it curved around to the SE and brought her to the base of Ingersoll Peak’s W slope. Here Lupe followed an abandoned side road that made a big switchback to the NE and then S, gaining more elevation along the way.
The side road leveled out near a huge rock, turned SE and looked like it was about to start losing elevation. Lupe left the side road near the huge rock to climb Ingersoll Peak’s W slope. The slope was heavily forested, so it wasn’t possible to see very far ahead. After gaining 200 feet of elevation, suddenly the slope leveled out rapidly.
A rock formation 50 feet away looked higher than anything else around. Subsequent exploration proved this rock formation was the true summit of Ingersoll Peak (5,356 ft.). Lupe needed a boost from SPHP to get up on the highest rocks.
Ingersoll Peak was so heavily forested, Lupe didn’t have much of a view. She saw no reason to dawdle on the highest rocks, preferring to explore the summit area as soon as SPHP told her it was OK to jump down.
Most of the large summit area was off to the E. It was so heavily forested, a couple inches of snow remained up here. Lupe didn’t find any views, but sunlight filtered by the trees created a pleasing pattern of shadows and highlights on the snow. The top of Ingersoll Peak felt secluded and still a bit wintery.
When exploration confirmed Lupe had already been to the true summit, Lupe returned to it. This time she didn’t want to get up on the highest rocks where there wasn’t any room to move around. However, she did agree to hang out among the slightly lower rocks for a few more photos.
Lupe left the summit of Ingersoll Peak going back down the W slope. She had already lost substantial elevation when she came to a rock outcropping where she could see Storm Hill off to the NW.
Lupe came to the abandoned road near the huge rock again. She followed the switchback down to the lower road, which she took back to the area where she first found it. W of the road was a barren hill strewn with scattered deadfall. Lupe went over there for a look at the view, which was far better than any she’d had from Ingersoll Peak.
Lupe returned to the road. She wasn’t going to cross the two valleys to the W this time. Instead she followed the road down into a long valley.
At the end of the valley, Lupe arrived at Old Hill City Road again. For more than a mile, she followed the 1880 Train tracks as they wound around toward the W. Along the way, she saw a single Canadian goose floating on a tiny pond. The lonely goose honked a hopeful greeting.
Canadian geese and Carolina Dogs aren’t likely to become best of friends. SPHP encouraged Lupe to keep trotting right on by. (End 5:52 PM, 44°F)
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