9:49 AM, 44°F, junction of Lower French Creek Road & USFS Road No. 341 – More snow than SPHP expected. Although lots of snow had finally started melting back home, not much appeared to have melted here. Either that, or this part of the Black Hills had received considerably more new snow out of the last little storm.
Whatever. Lupe didn’t care. She was just happy to be doing something again. January had been a tough month on the American Dingo. Way too much time had been spent staring out the window at the cold, barren winter landscape. This was only her 2nd Black Hills, SD expedition of 2017. By this time in 2016, she’d been on 5. Lupe was raring to go!
The Carolina Dog was here to continue her explorations of the southern Black Hills peaks Brian Kalet had added to the Peakbagger.com data base last spring. Her first objective was Peak 5778, located 0.33 mile SE of Stockade Lake, and 1 mile due E of where Lupe was starting out from. She crossed over to the E side of Lower French Creek Road, and headed ENE into the snowy forest.
A gradual climb ended on a forested ridge where Lupe had a nice view to the N. She could also see part of Stockade Lake.
From this first viewpoint, Lupe turned E, following the ridgeline down through the forest. She hadn’t gone too far before the road leading to the Stockade Lake dam came into view below. Lupe went N down a short, snowy slope to the road.
Here in the shade, the road was snow-packed and slippery, but it soon led Lupe E to sunshine at Stockade Lake. Peak 5778 was now in view dead ahead.
Before crossing the bridge over French Creek, Lupe left the road to take a quick look at French Creek below the spillway. The stream was mostly iced over, but part of it was open and free flowing. A little downstream of the bridge, it went over another drop where a small waterfall was bordered on each side by ice formations.
After checking out French Creek, Lupe returned to the road, crossed the bridge, and continued on around the SE end of Stockade Lake. From a deserted picnic ground along the S shore, Lupe had a view of the biggest part of Stockade Lake. Some of the highest and roughest ground in the Black Hills could be seen beyond the lake in the distance.
Lupe continued on around the SE shore of Stockade Lake until she was almost even with the far E end of the lake. She then left the road to scramble up a bank to the E which brought her to the top of a small ridge. Upon reaching the ridgeline, Lupe was excited to see a few deer. The deer ran off, but Lupe found a squirrel tree, too, another encouraging development!
Lupe was now directly NW of Peak 5778. It was time to begin her journey up the NW slope. The minor ridgeline she was on slowly faded, blending into the rest of the slope. The terrain gradually became steeper as Lupe climbed. The forest in this area had been thinned by logging operations. Lupe had some tree-broken views, but no clear views.
The climb was steady, but only moderately steep. A good 6″ of snow covered the entire slope most of the way up. The snow, and a fair amount of slash left behind by the logging operations, were the only obstacles. The route up wasn’t very rocky. Lupe had an easy time, but somehow the climb seemed tougher to SPHP than it should have been. All that sitting around during the holidays and cold weather in December and January hadn’t done SPHP any good, either.
After a steady slog up the snowy slope, Lupe was finally getting close to the summit. The ground started leveling out. Lupe encountered much less snow up here, but many more rocks.
At the top of Peak 5778, Lupe reached a narrow summit ridge oriented NW/SE. It wasn’t very long, maybe 40 or 50 feet. Lupe found the highest rocks of the true summit near the SE end. SPHP congratulated Lupe on her successful ascent of another Brian Kalet peak!
The forest on much of the NW slope of Peak 5778 had been thinned by loggers, but the logging operations hadn’t extended to the upper part of the mountain. The summit ridge was still heavily forested. Although glimpses of nearby mountains could be seen between the trees, the only even partially clear view from the top of Peak 5778 was toward Custer Mountain (6,089 ft.) to the WSW.
Lupe had been on top of Custer Mountain only 12 days ago near the end of Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 188.
It hadn’t taken Lupe long to climb Peak 5778. With no views to ponder, there wasn’t much reason to stick around and take a break this early in the day. Lupe and SPHP stayed only 10-15 minutes up on Peak 5778 before starting down again.
Lupe explored a different route on the way down the mountain. She followed a ridge going WSW. This was actually a more interesting route than the NW slope had been. The Carolina Dog discovered a series of rock outcroppings in the forest along the way. Before losing much elevation, Lupe found a fairly decent viewpoint.
From one of the rock outcroppings, Lupe could see several peaks she had been to before. Kruger Peak (5,838 ft.) and Daisy Peak (5,948 ft.) were both lined up directly in front of higher and more distant Northeast Cicero Peak (6,240 ft.).
After losing quite a bit of elevation going down the WSW slope of Peak 5778, Lupe started turning NW. By the time she reached the base of the mountain, Looper was close to the road near the SE end of Stockade Lake. Upon reaching the road, Lupe retraced much of her original route back to the G6 (12:28 PM, 48°F).
With the days still being as short as they are in late January, Lupe got a ride in the G6 closer to her next Brian Kalet peak objective, Peak 5834. S of Custer Mountain, SPHP parked the G6 again along USFS Road No. 337 (Glen Erin Road) about 0.33 mile S of County Road No. 343 (the Hazelrodt Cut-Off). Lupe was still a couple miles NNE of Peak 5834 (12:43 PM, 48°F).
Lupe followed No. 337 going SSW for 1.5 miles, passing to the W of both Kruger and Daisy Peaks. The road was snow-packed and quite slippery. Even Lupe skidded around on some wet, icy spots. However, there was no traffic at all, and the road was an otherwise easy stroll. Lupe gained elevation along the way, but very slowly.
When Lupe was getting close to Peak 5834, she saw a big rock formation of rounded boulders on the W side of No. 337.
Peak 5834 was soon in view ahead.
Lupe followed USFS Road No. 337 until she was at the base of Peak 5834. She wasn’t quite far enough S to be directly E of the summit yet, but left the road here to follow a drainage leading up to the WNW. She followed this draw almost all of the way up to a saddle N of the mountain. Nearing the saddle, she turned S to start her climb up the N slope of Peak 5834.
Peak 5834 was densely forested. Many trees had been killed by pine bark beetles, but there were still plenty of live trees, too. Once again, there were no views to speak of as Lupe climbed.
For some reason, the snow was even deeper on the N slope of Peak 5834 than it had been on the NW slope of Peak 5778. For most of the way up, Lupe was having to leap through foot deep snow. In places, it had drifted even deeper. As usual, Lupe did fine, though, leading the way while SPHP brought up the rear. Other than the deeper snow, the climb was pretty similar to Lupe’s trek up Peak 5778.
However, when Lupe reached the summit, she found the top of Peak 5834 was quite different. The summit area on Peak 5778 had only been a short narrow ridge. The top of Peak 5834 included a much larger area. Peak 5834’s summit was shaped like a big boomerang, with the center of the boomerang toward the NW. Two big arms extended out from the center, one to the E and the other to the SW. Lupe reached the summit area near the middle of the E arm.
Lupe explored the E arm of the boomerang, but found no clear views. She then went W toward the high point, perhaps 200 feet away. This was the true summit of Peak 5834. It was none too pretty. Lupe got up on the highest rocks of a small rock formation to claim her latest peakbagging success, but dead pines were all she could see.
A dead tree trunk extended out to the W from the true summit. The W end of the dead tree was even a little higher than Peak 5834’s summit. Lupe readily agreed to strike a dramatic conquering Dingo pose from this lofty dead tree.
A little to the W of the true summit was another minor high point, but it wasn’t quite as high. More interesting was a ridge only a few feet high toward the end of the SW arm of the boomerang. It looked sunnier and more open over there. Maybe there would be some views and less snow?
Lupe went over to the little ridge at the end of the SW arm of the boomerang. The ridge was very small, just a line of medium-sized rocks really. However, the SW side of the little ridge was snow-free and dry. Lupe did have better views from here, too. Trees still interfered to a significant extent, but Lupe could see a few things.
With a bit of a view and some nice dry, snow-free ground on the SW side of the little ridge, this was the place to finally take a break. Before settling down, Lupe posed for a photo of the best view from here, a distant forested ridge off to the SW. Somewhere in that direction 3 more Brian Kalet peaks were lined up in a row.
Maybe that distant ridge was where those Brian Kalet peaks were? It seemed quite likely. If so, Lupe would probably soon be exploring that ridge on Expedition No. 190. It was fun to think about the adventure to come, and fun to simply relax and enjoy being right here, right now, with Lupe on seldom visited Peak 5834.
SPHP sat on the ground beside Lupe, while eating an apple. Lupe was offered some Taste of the Wild, but she wasn’t hungry. Instead, she sat contentedly basking in the sunshine.
Lupe had plenty of daylight left to get back to the G6, but not enough to tackle any more peaks on Expedition No. 189. For now, she was happy right here on quiet Peak 5834, staring off toward that distant blue ridge.
All told, Lupe and SPHP spent 40 minutes or so up on Peak 5834 before it was time to mosey on. On the way back, Lupe went down the N slope again, but a little farther to the W. When she reached the saddle to the N, instead of going down the draw to the ESE to the road, Lupe angled NNE staying on higher ground. Together, Lupe and SPHP explored the snowy forest.
Lupe went quite a distance NNE before she finally lost the rest of the elevation she’d gained, and hit USFS Road No. 337 again. From then on, it was an easy trot back along the road to the G6 (4:31 PM, 38°F).
It had been a nice day, a beautiful outing. Lupe had successfully climbed 2 more Brian Kalet peaks. They weren’t the most spectacular peaks around, but it was still fun to be out and seeing someplace new.
Sometimes that, and being together, is all it’s about.
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