{"id":3888,"date":"2016-07-17T08:10:03","date_gmt":"2016-07-17T14:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=3888"},"modified":"2020-09-21T18:53:15","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T00:53:15","slug":"black-hills-sd-expedition-no-113-the-search-for-thrall-mountain-1-1-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=3888","title":{"rendered":"Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 113 – The Search for Thrall Mountain (1-1-15)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lupe was very surprised – and enthusiastic, when on the very first day of 2015, SPHP suggested another Black Hills, SD Expedition.\u00a0 Just yesterday, Lupe and SPHP had gone on Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 112 to New Year’s Eve Peak<\/a><\/span> (6,046 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>, Lupe’s last expedition of 2014.<\/p>\n

However, the weather was cooperative, and SPHP figured nothing helps break the sadness of the passing of another year like a good start to the next one.\u00a0 So, on New Year’s Day 2015, at 11:02 AM (38\u00b0F), SPHP parked the G6 at the Pactola Reservoir Visitor Center along Hwy 385\u00a0near the S end of the dam.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe arrives at Pactola Reservoir to start out New Year 2015 right with one of her Black Hills, SD Expeditions. Pactola Reservoir is the largest lake in the Black Hills.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>Lupe’s peakbagging goal for the day was Thrall Mountain<\/a><\/span> (5,091 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0 Thrall Mountain\u00a0didn’t seem like\u00a0a very ambitious goal, since it lies just a little over 2 miles E of Pactola near Johnson Siding.\u00a0 Even on a short winter day, Lupe should have plenty of time to romp in the snow, and still make her goal.<\/p>\n

Lupe and SPHP started out crossing Hwy 385 to the E.\u00a0 Right away, Lupe turned S to\u00a0climb a forested ridge, which soon ended near McGurdy Gulch.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP\u00a0came down off the\u00a0ridge to follow USFS Road No. 165.1B heading SE up\u00a0McGurdy Gulch to a saddle at the highest point on the road.\u00a0 From there, Lupe left the road and turned NE,\u00a0still climbing through a snowy forest\u00a0to reach\u00a0a couple of minor high points of similar elevation.<\/p>\n

Wandering NE, Lupe and SPHP came to a Centennial Trail No. 89 marker.\u00a0 With the trail hidden under up to 6″ of trackless\u00a0snow, if it hadn’t been for the marker, SPHP wouldn’t have known the trail was there.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP were somewhere in the saddle area between Tamarack Gulch to the N, and Gold Standard Gulch to the SE.\u00a0 Thrall Mountain was still close to 2 miles to the NE.<\/p>\n

Lupe and SPHP crossed Centennial Trail No. 89\u00a0intending to\u00a0continue NE, but soon steep terrain in that direction forced Lupe more to the E in order to stay on relatively high ground.\u00a0 The going was somewhat slow in the snowy forest for SPHP, so when Lupe came to a road heading ESE, Lupe and SPHP took it, even though it was losing elevation slowly.<\/p>\n

SPHP didn’t immediately realize the road was USFS Road No. 727.1A.\u00a0 It was taking Lupe down into Gold Standard Gulch.\u00a0 It wasn’t until a little later on when SPHP\u00a0noticed another Centennial Trail No. 89 marker off in the forest about 25 feet S of the road, that SPHP realized Lupe was in Gold Standard Gulch.<\/p>\n

Lupe was actually not far from where she needed to go to reach Thrall Mountain.\u00a0 She just needed to get across the ridge to the NE and over to the upper end of Powerhouse Gulch, which wouldn’t have been hard to do.\u00a0 However, SPHP made a major mistake and did not check the maps.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP continued on down Gold Standard Gulch, which gradually turned\u00a0more to\u00a0the S, taking Lupe farther away from Thrall Mountain.<\/p>\n

When Prairie Creek entered Gold Standard Gulch from a side valley, the going got tougher.\u00a0 The road forded Prairie Creek 4 or 5 times.\u00a0 Prairie Creek isn’t very big, just a few feet wide and only a foot or two deep most places.\u00a0 Ordinarily, crossing it is easy, but the creek was lightly frozen over.\u00a0 It wasn’t possible to see where or how deep the water was, and the banks were slippery\u00a0and hidden by snow.<\/p>\n

The ice\u00a0over Prairie Creek barely supported Lupe’s weight.\u00a0 At\u00a0one of the crossings, she almost got dunked twice before she could leap to safety, as the ice cracked and sank beneath her.\u00a0 SPHP had to search for particularly narrow sections of the creek in order to cross without getting wet.\u00a0 Tromping through the snow with soaking wet feet wouldn’t have been a good thing in January.<\/p>\n

When Prairie Creek reached Brush Creek at USFS Road No. 772.2, SPHP finally checked the maps.\u00a0\u00a0A lot of time had gone by, and Lupe was still nearly 2 miles away from Thrall Mountain, which was now almost due N.\u00a0 Lupe was hardly any closer to Thrall Mountain than she had been at the very start of the\u00a0expedition\u00a0at the Pactola Reservoir Visitor Center!\u00a0 SPHP now realized what an error it had been to follow Gold Standard Gulch so far.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP went E a short distance toward gentler terrain before leaving the road to turn N.<\/p>\n

Lupe and SPHP wandered NNE through the forest.\u00a0 Along the way, Lupe came to a couple of unidentified minor roads\u00a0which she followed for short stretches before they turned off in wrong directions.\u00a0 The terrain wasn’t very steep, and Lupe had fun roaming the snow-filled forest.\u00a0 Lupe\u00a0and SPHP\u00a0crossed another mysterious snowy road (probably No. 772.1E) to reach the top of a small ridge.\u00a0 On the other side, the land dropped off steeply.\u00a0 There was a view to the NE.\u00a0 Nothing in that direction looked high enough to be Thrall Mountain.<\/p>\n

Lupe and SPHP followed the small ridge NW.\u00a0 Occasionally there was a glimpse through the trees of\u00a0a high point to the N that barely stuck up over\u00a0some intervening\u00a0hills.\u00a0 That high point was probably Thrall Mountain, but it was hard to tell for certain.\u00a0\u00a0The ridge ended.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP had to backtrack a little bit, and turn SW\u00a0to start dropping down into a draw.\u00a0 The draw led Lupe NW and then N, losing elevation the whole way.<\/p>\n

Down in the draw, there were faint signs of an old abandoned road.\u00a0 A tangle of\u00a0dead trees\u00a0greeted Lupe at the lower end of the draw.\u00a0 Once past the tangle, the faint\u00a0road\u00a0continued until it met up with a better road in a\u00a0much larger valley the draw fed into.\u00a0 Time for a break.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP shared a chocolate granola bar.\u00a0 It only made Lupe realize how famished she was.\u00a0 She followed up the granola bar by devouring most of the Taste of the Wild supply.<\/p>\n

SPHP checked the maps.\u00a0 This big valley was\u00a0almost certainly\u00a0Powerhouse Gulch.\u00a0 In that case, the better road Lupe had just found here was USFS Road No. 772.1.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP followed the road\u00a0NW.\u00a0 Pretty soon No. 772.1 turned S at an intersection with USFS Road No. 772.1B.\u00a0\u00a0Although No. 772.1 was unmarked at this intersection,\u00a0there was a\u00a0marker for No. 772.1B, which continued NW up Powerhouse Gulch.<\/p>\n

Lupe was now only 1 mile S of Thrall Mountain!\u00a0 However, there was a new problem.\u00a0\u00a0The sun,\u00a0seen only as a faint glow\u00a0in the overcast sky, was getting lower.\u00a0 Sunset was at most\u00a02 hours,\u00a0more likely\u00a0just 1.5 hours, away.\u00a0 Although SPHP was confident that there was still plenty of time for Lupe\u00a0to find and\u00a0climb Thrall Mountain, it would almost certainly get very dark well before she could get back to the G6, even by the most direct route.<\/p>\n

SPHP checked the maps again.\u00a0\u00a0Although they\u00a0showed\u00a0No. 772.1B\u00a0going NW up Powerhouse Gulch, and then continuing on to Tamarack Gulch not too far from Pactola Reservoir,\u00a0SPHP and Lupe had never been on\u00a0this road\u00a0before.\u00a0 Lots of minor roads in the Black Hills aren’t really as shown on the maps.\u00a0 It’s not uncommon for them to dead end, be blocked or nearly impassable due to deadfall timber, or have lots of confusing side roads.<\/p>\n

There was no sense starting New Year 2015 off by getting lost on a cold, dark winter night.\u00a0 Expedition No. 112 was just going to have to be chalked up as an exploratory one.\u00a0 Lupe had gotten close, but she\u00a0wasn’t going to get to\u00a0climb Thrall Mountain today after all.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP continued NW on up Powerhouse Gulch on USFS Road No. 772.1B.<\/p>\n

As it turned out, it was a good decision.\u00a0 In daylight, Lupe and SPHP didn’t get off on No. 772.1C by mistake\u00a0where No. 772.1B unexpectedly dropped over an embankment at\u00a0the intersection, which would have been very easy to do in the dark.\u00a0 Even with the advantage of\u00a0daylight, a little farther on SPHP\u00a0managed to lead\u00a0Lupe onto\u00a0a side\u00a0road.\u00a0 It eventually dead ended high up on a steep rocky slope.\u00a0 In the light, it was easy to go back and find the right road.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe on USFS Road No. 772.1B, already W of Powerhouse Gulch on her way back to the G6. There were no other tracks in the snow.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Up ahead, the Pactola Reservoir dam came into view.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP crossed Centennial Trail\u00a0No. 89 again, not far from the Tamarack Gulch trailhead.\u00a0 Lupe\u00a0pressed on to\u00a0McGurdy Gulch road, this time farther N than where she had reached it early in the day.\u00a0 Soon she was climbing up the S end of Pactola Reservoir dam.\u00a0 She reached Hwy 385 at the top of the dam.\u00a0 The Pactola Reservoir Visitor Center and the G6 were in view\u00a0right across the road.<\/p>\n

The sun was just setting.\u00a0 A small break in the clouds allowed the colored rays of sunset to burst through for just a few minutes.\u00a0 The first day of 2015 was ending.\u00a0 From a peakbagging standpoint, Lupe’s first expedition of 2015 was a failure.\u00a0 She never even really saw Thrall Mountain.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe returns to the Pactola Reservoir Visitor Center just in time for sunset on New Year’s Day 2015. The beautiful sunset lasted only a few minutes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But\u00a0Lupe had a wonderful day roaming the\u00a0Black Hills.\u00a0 She explored many pretty places in the quiet snowy woods she had never\u00a0been to\u00a0before,\u00a0some of which she\u00a0might never see again.\u00a0 Best of all, Lupe and SPHP had spent the day together, doing what American Dingoes love to do.\u00a0 And, of course, Lupe would\u00a0return to climb Thrall Mountain another day!<\/p>\n

\"Pactola<\/a>
Pactola Reservoir and Scruton Mountain<\/a><\/span><\/strong> (5,922 feet)<\/span><\/strong> – the highest point just L of the center of photo). The Seth Bullock Lookout Tower is on Scruton Mountain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Links:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Next Black Hills Expedition<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Prior Black Hills Expedition<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Want more Lupe adventures?\u00a0\u00a0Choose\u00a0from\u00a0Lupe’s Black Hills Expeditions Adventure Index<\/a><\/strong><\/span> or Master Adventure Index<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0Or subscribe free\u00a0to\u00a0new Lupe adventures<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lupe was very surprised – and enthusiastic, when on the very first day of 2015, SPHP suggested another Black Hills, SD Expedition.\u00a0 Just yesterday, Lupe and SPHP had gone on Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 112 to New Year’s Eve Peak (6,046 ft.), Lupe’s last expedition of 2014. However, the weather was cooperative, and SPHP … Continue reading Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 113 – The Search for Thrall Mountain (1-1-15)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[105,9,106,104,304,542],"class_list":["post-3888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-black-hills","tag-american-dingo","tag-black-hills-expeditions","tag-carolina-dog","tag-lupe","tag-south-dakota","tag-thrall-mountain"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adventuresoflupe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/P1050818.jpg?fit=1651%2C1238&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3888"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28252,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888\/revisions\/28252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}