Start – 9:56 AM, 27°F at the junction of Vanocker Canyon Road & USFS Road No. 135.2C
Snowier than SPHP expected. Chillier, too! Not even above freezing yet, though the day was supposed to warm up nicely for January. Lupe was more than a mile S of the turn to Veteran Peak (5,333 ft.) at the start of a snowy side road off Vanocker Canyon Road. An old marker declared this as USFS Road No. 135.2C.
Loop had been bored, bored, bored for days on end. Chilly and snowy didn’t matter. She wasn’t going to miss out on an expedition! Conditions really weren’t bad at all. Besides, one never knows how long it might be before the next chance for an expedition would come this time of year.
Lupe led the way past a couple of gates, proceeding N up a valley.
The snow was a good 6″ deep, loose and fluffy where there weren’t any tracks, crunchy and hard where there were. The valley soon widened out. The sun was brilliant. SPHP stopped to shed a layer.
Looper’s peakbagging objective for the day was Peak 5438. According to Lists of John, the mountain has 548 feet of rise (prominence), quite good for a Black Hills peak. Peak 5438 was less than a mile W of the snowy valley where Lupe was now, but a high ridge and another valley were between here and there.
No. 135.2C might eventually take Loop to the top of the ridge and around the N end of the valley to the W, but perhaps a more direct route could be found? As Lupe headed up the valley, SPHP watched for an easy way up the ridge to the W.
After more than 0.5 mile on No. 135.2C, the last remaining tracks in the snow veered W off the road. They started up the ridge toward a big pine tree with a curved trunk. Why not? Maybe this was the shortcut the American Dingo was looking for? Lupe followed the tracks.
The tracks ended before Lupe even got to the deformed tree. The snow was deeper off the road, more like a foot. The slope wasn’t all that steep, however, and Looper only needed to gain 200 feet of elevation. So she kept going, and before long reached a big rock on a rounded edge where the terrain was leveling out.
As shown on the topo map, a higher part of this ridge was visible off to the SW. Loopster traveled W or WNW from the rock, still gaining some elevation. The goal was to get to the other side of this ridge, where she ought to be able to see both Peak 5438 and the intervening valley.
Crossing the wide ridge, the Carolina Dog came to long open areas full of snow. Logging or other minor roads may have been hidden beneath it. Beyond these openings, Lupe got her first glimpse of Peak 5438.
The E slope of Peak 5438 looked steep, and the intervening valley was deeper than expected. Not wanting to lose so much elevation crossing this next valley, Lupe turned N following the W side of the ridge she was already on. Beyond a high spot, she came to the biggest opening yet in the forest. Again it looked like a road must have been buried beneath the snow.
Lupe did not attempt to follow the hidden road. She continued N along the W side of the ridge. Dog-hair pine thickets slowed SPHP down. After less than 0.25 mile, though, it was possible to see that Loop was getting close to the N end of the valley. A snow-covered road on the far side led up toward a minor saddle.
A check of the map confirmed Lupe ought to head over to that saddle. She would lose less than 50 feet of elevation crossing the valley here, so she went down to it.
The valley was dazzlingly bright. Lupe trotted W across it. She did not head directly for the snowy road leading up to the minor saddle. She stayed on hillsides N of it, where a S exposure meant far less snow to deal with. In some places, none at all.
Halfway up, the N hillsides became snowy, too. Lupe finally took to the road. She even tried crossing it and going directly up the hill to the SW, but the snow was 2 feet deep. Returning to the road, she bounded the rest of the way up to the saddle.
Lupe was now on Peak 5438’s N ridge. A small hill along this ridge was directly to the S, but there was no need to go clear to the top of it. An open lane went SW from here toward another, as yet unseen, slightly higher saddle. Lupe explored the forest near the open lane on the way to this second saddle.
From the second saddle, Looper traveled S along the W side of the hill she was circumventing. This slope wasn’t nearly as snowy, but deadfall timber was present. For the first time, Lupe had tree-broken glimpses of Custer Peak (6,804 ft.) far to the SW.
Once S of the hill she had just bypassed, a long, broad incline was ahead. All Lupe had to do now was follow it to the top of Peak 5438. The summit was barely 0.33 mile away.
Near the top, the slope of the terrain diminished. The ridge was almost flat by the time it turned SW and began widening out even more. The snow was 1.5 feet deep. Looper traveled SW through the forest. SPHP expected she would soon come to a 20+ foot rise shown on the topo map where the true summit of Peak 5438 was located.
She never did. The whole mountaintop covering quite a large area was almost completely flat. The topo map showed a definite 20+ foot rise near the W end of the greater summit area, but Lupe arrived at the W edge of the mountain without having seen any such high point.
A second brief reconnaissance of the whole region where the 20+ foot rise was supposed to be revealed nothing at all. Lupe hadn’t somehow missed it. The rise didn’t exist. Never had, either. This summit was undisturbed. The topo map was simply wrong. Yet this was Peak 5438 alright. Everything else matched up just fine.
The highest ground did seem to be about where the topo map indicated, not far from the W edge. A few little rocks seemed to be about as high as anything else around. As far as could be determined, this unremarkable spot in the woods was the true summit of Peak 5438.
Maybe Peak 5438 isn’t as high as what the topo map would lead one to believe. Or maybe the entire mountaintop is virtually that high. Either way, it was what it was. The mountain was quiet and undisturbed, a pleasant place to be on a warmish January afternoon.
Lupe and SPHP took a break near the highest ground. A rock formation along the W edge was the most interesting thing around. Lupe climbed up on it. Within a couple feet of being as high as the actual summit, this was a prettier spot.
The rock formation provided a distant view of Custer Peak (6,804 ft.) again. SPHP was tall enough to get a clearer look at it from another spot a little to the S.
Lupe laid in the sun on a patch of snow-free of ground. She crunched up a bowlful of Taste of the Wild. Custer Peak was about the only distant point of interest not hidden by the forest. 40 pleasant minutes of repose and quiet solitude shot by. Time to go.
Loop and SPHP made a short trek around the S end of the summit area. Another dog-hair pine thicket was on the SE side. Not much to see. Lupe started back N, the way she’d come. An opening appeared permitting a view to the SE.
On the return trip to the G6, Lupe made only a couple of variations to the route she’d taken to Peak 5438. She climbed the little hill along the ridgeline, taking a shortcut from there through snow as much as 3 feet deep down to the upper N end of the valley to the E. On the first ridge she’d climbed, she followed a snowy road S to the biggest clearing. She wandered the forest a bit N of where she’d been before.
The last part was all the same, though. A snowy trek down USFS Road No. 135.2C brought Lupe back to the G6. (1:59 PM, 41°F)
Peak 5438 hadn’t been spectacular in any way, but Lupe was happy with her expedition. At least she’d explored a new place in the Black Hills. These precious hours had broken the monotonous spell of winter.
Winter wasn’t over yet, though. Not by a long shot. The Carolina Dog would be staring out the window at home many a tiresome day before spring would arrive. Peak 5438, or most anywhere else, would sound mighty good!
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