At first, No. 170.2B\u00a0rose steadily at an easy to moderate pace.\u00a0 After a little while, though, the road reached a meadow where it leveled out, and then started to wind its way N around several fingers of the mountain coming down from the W.\u00a0 Almost as soon as the road leveled out, Bear Butte<\/span><\/a> (4422 ft.)<\/span><\/strong> came into view off to the NE.<\/p>\n Following No. 170.2B as it\u00a0wound around on the level was easy and fun, but it wasn’t going to get Lupe to the top of Deadman Mountain.\u00a0 When No. 170.2B showed no sign of wanting to resume its upward climb after winding around several fingers of the mountain, Lupe and SPHP abandoned the road, turned W and\u00a0resumed climbing.<\/p>\n Lupe\u00a0went only\u00a0a few hundred feet before\u00a0coming across\u00a0a faint jeep trail.\u00a0 The jeep trail climbed aggressively right up the mountain.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP followed it through the forest.\u00a0 For a road, the jeep trail was steep, but on\u00a0paw and foot\u00a0it was no problem.\u00a0 The road\u00a0eventually reached the top of a ridgeline.<\/p>\n Here, the jeep trail improved and leveled out.\u00a0 It continued W along the N side of the mountain.\u00a0 The ridgeline, however, angled SW continuing to gain a little elevation.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP stayed on the road after it leveled out for just a couple\u00a0more minutes.\u00a0\u00a0A rock outcropping near the top of the ridgeline a short distance S of the road looked interesting.\u00a0 Lupe left the road to go check it out.<\/p>\n After following the ridge for 5 or 10 minutes, Lupe came to what appeared to be the highest part of the mountain.\u00a0 A stretch of the ridge 200 feet long was all at about the same elevation.\u00a0 Toward the SW end were three big trees close together.\u00a0 They seemed to SPHP to be standing at the true summit.<\/p>\n It sure seemed like Lupe was at the true summit of Deadman Mountain, but SPHP wasn’t\u00a0100% certain.\u00a0 After all, it had been a long\u00a0trek up through the forest with no views since seeing Bear Butte way back down on USFS Road No. 170.2B.\u00a0 Maybe there was another higher point around up ahead?\u00a0 Lupe would have to do some more exploring to confirm her success.<\/p>\n SPHP studied the topo map.\u00a0 From the summit of Deadman Mountain, there was supposed to be a saddle about 100 feet lower to the NW.\u00a0 The saddle led to a slight rise along a wide level ridge that went N, and then NW to the edge of Deadman Gulch about 0.33 mile away.\u00a0 Peering down between the trees, it did look like there might be a saddle to the NW.\u00a0 It wasn’t very far away.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP went to investigate.<\/p>\n Before Lupe even got all the way down to the bottom of the saddle, she came to a clearing in the\u00a0woods where there were views off to the W.\u00a0 There was even a handy Carolina Dog display stump to facilitate the addition of extra beauty and grace to the scene.<\/p>\n Lupe and SPHP crossed the saddle.\u00a0 An unmarked road\u00a0coming from the W side of Deadman Mountain farther S went up a gentle rise (shown on the topo map), and continued on to the N.\u00a0 A fainter road soon veered off to the NW.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP followed the fainter road along the nearly level ridge.\u00a0 The road slowly lost elevation.<\/p>\n Lupe arrived at the edge of Deadman Gulch.\u00a0 There was no question about it now.\u00a0 It was clear that she really had been to the top of Deadman Mountain.\u00a0 The forest pretty effectively hid the views of Deadman Gulch, although there were glimpses of it here and there.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP explored to the N near the edge of Deadman Gulch, but the ground kept losing elevation and the views didn’t open up.<\/p>\n Lupe and SPHP gave up on going any farther N, and doubled back to the S.\u00a0 This time, SPHP noticed a\u00a0narrow rocky point\u00a0protruding out to the SW from where Lupe had first come to the edge of Deadman Gulch.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP went out on the point.\u00a0 There were some views from here!<\/p>\n Lupe had two more peakbagging goals for Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 162, but they were both on the other (W) side of Deadman Gulch.\u00a0 To get over there, SPHP thought it best to return to the G6.\u00a0 It would be a lot easier to drive over to a closer starting point, than try to find a long route on paw and foot around Deadman Gulch.<\/p>\n Lupe\u00a0and SPHP returned to the summit of Deadman Mountain one more time.\u00a0 It was practically on the way to the G6.<\/p>\n Lupe and SPHP took the same route back to the G6.\u00a0 It was still early afternoon when Lupe arrived\u00a0(1:33 PM, 50\u00b0F).\u00a0 Plenty of time remained for more fun and adventures!\u00a0 SPHP drove SW a few miles, and parked the G6 again (1:45 PM, 51\u00b0F).\u00a0 This time, Lupe would start out from the intersection of USFS Road No. 170 and No. 171.1 (1:45 PM, 51\u00b0F).\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP\u00a0headed N on No. 171.1.\u00a0 Lupe’s new peakbagging goal was Red Hill<\/span><\/a> (4,690 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>, more than a mile to the N.<\/p>\n By now it had been warm long enough so yesterday’s skiff of snow had melted almost everywhere, except\u00a0in very\u00a0shady spots.\u00a0 The moisture made No. 171.1 soft and muddy.\u00a0 Lupe soon passed a big open area where several roads met.\u00a0 There was a lot of garbage strewn around here, including some broken glass.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP hurried on by.<\/p>\n Beyond the intersection, No. 171.1 continued N gaining a little elevation before leveling out.\u00a0 This was actually the high point on Lupe’s journey to Red Hill.\u00a0 Before long, Lupe\u00a0came to some heavy equipment sitting idle along the side of the road.\u00a0 Even though this area is all Black Hills National Forest land, a big thick underground power line is being installed along the road.\u00a0 Three huge spools of cable were up on a truck trailer.\u00a0 No one was around.\u00a0 The equipment was idle.<\/p>\n Past the equipment, the road lost elevation gradually.\u00a0 The equipment had recently been\u00a0at work\u00a0along this stretch.\u00a0 The roadbed was freshly churned up and very soft.\u00a0 So much mud clung to SPHP’s boots, that SPHP\u00a0quickly gave up on the road.\u00a0\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP went through the forest.\u00a0 Lupe liked going through the forest better than staying on road, anyway.<\/p>\n The road improved again by the time Lupe reached an intersection with USFS Road No. 171.1B.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP followed No. 171.1B W to an intersection with No. 171.1U.\u00a0 This was the low point of Lupe’s journey to Red Hill.\u00a0 From the intersection, No. 171.1B turned N and started regaining elevation.\u00a0 Soon Lupe was getting close to one of two possible locations for the true summit of Red Hill.<\/p>\n Looking at the topo map, Red Hill is shaped like an upside down “U”, except that the bottom half of the SW side is “missing” – it’s\u00a0not really part of the high ground.\u00a0 Red Hill features two areas enclosed by the 4,680 foot contour.\u00a0 The largest area is at the NE corner, and a smaller area is at the SW end of the high ground.\u00a0 Lupe would have to visit both areas to be certain of reaching the true summit.<\/p>\n No. 171.1B stopped gaining elevation and turned NW.\u00a0 Peering N through the forest, it did look like the terrain gained elevation in that direction.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP left the road.\u00a0 Within 5 minutes, Lupe was standing on top of a small hill in the forest next to a fairly impressive cairn.<\/p>\n The impressive cairn seemed to indicate that Lupe was already at the true summit of Red Hill.\u00a0 Just to make certain, Lupe and SPHP did go looking for the SW high point.\u00a0\u00a0About 0.5 mile away, Lupe found it at a very flat piece of ground only marginally higher than the surrounding terrain.\u00a0 There was no cairn here.<\/p>\n The NE hill with the cairn definitely felt<\/em> like the true summit of Red Hill.\u00a0 Whether it was or not, Lupe had visited both the NE and SW high points.\u00a0 Both high points were buried in the forest.\u00a0 Nearby trees were the only views.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP went back to USFS Road No. 171.1B, and followed it back to No. 171.1.<\/p>\n The truth is, Red Hill is not an impressive mountain.\u00a0 It hardly seemed like a mountain “peak” at all.\u00a0 The whole area was an unremarkable part of the forest comprised of undulating terrain without any significant elevation changes.\u00a0 It made SPHP wonder why Red Hill even had a name.\u00a0 Not too far away are other higher and much more impressive hills that seem far more deserving of attention.\u00a0 Nevertheless, Red Hill was shown on all the maps.<\/p>\n Lupe and SPHP turned N again on No. 171.1.\u00a0 Granite Peak<\/span><\/a> (4,424 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>, more than 2 miles N of Red Hill, was Lupe’s 3rd and final peakbagging goal.\u00a0 Getting there was basically just a road hike along No. 171.1.\u00a0 Lupe came to a junction with No. 171.1C, but none of the junctions she came to\u00a0after that\u00a0were marked.\u00a0 At the turn to the NW toward Granite Peak, big pieces of white limestone had been placed across the side road to block it.<\/p>\n The sun was getting low by the time Lupe reached the summit of Granite Peak at the top of a small wooded hill.\u00a0 Leafless scrub oak mixed in with the pines made the forest less dark.\u00a0 It was possible to see a little more here than at Red Hill, but there still weren’t any clear views.<\/p>\n Lupe was ready for a break.\u00a0 She wasn’t hungry, even though she hadn’t eaten all day.\u00a0 She just seemed a bit tired, or perhaps just bored?\u00a0\u00a0Maybe she was just disappointed that she\u00a0hadn’t found many squirrels in the forest?<\/p>\n Granite Peak was another unremarkable high point.\u00a0 If it hadn’t been so late in the day, Lupe would have continued another 0.50 mile NW to a sharper edge of the mountain where there might have been some views.\u00a0 A narrow\u00a0look to the N was the best view from the summit of Granite Peak.<\/p>\n Lupe and SPHP lingered up on Granite Peak for a little while.\u00a0 SPHP ate an apple.\u00a0 It really was a beautiful evening out.\u00a0 The air was cool.\u00a0 Yesterday’s snow squalls had cleared the air, and it was possible to get glimpses at buttes and very distant ridges far out on the prairie beyond the Black Hills to the N and E.\u00a0 Crook Mountain was off to the NW.<\/p>\n It was probably close to 5 miles back to the G6 as the road went.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP returned to No. 171.1 and followed it all the way.\u00a0 For a while, the high cliffs NW of Deadman Mountain were lit up by sunlight on the E side of Deadman Gulch.\u00a0 SPHP kept busy collecting Lupe Treasures, crushing them in order to be able to carry as many as possible.\u00a0 Lupe sniffed around in the woods near the road.<\/p>\n SPHP thought Lupe would be ready to jump right in the G6, when she reached it at 8:14 PM (45\u00b0F).\u00a0 She wasn’t.\u00a0 It was dark out.\u00a0\u00a0Nearly a\u00a0full moon was shining in the clearing.\u00a0 As Lupe stood there sniffing the air in the moonlight, she was transformed into the ferocious and wily were-puppy!\u00a0 The were-puppy attacked SPHP in mock battle,\u00a0and then raced dizzyingly around and around the G6.<\/p>\n The were-puppy played in the moonlight with great energy and enthusiasm for more than 20 minutes.\u00a0 It refused to be enticed into the G6.\u00a0 Finally it found something valuable.\u00a0 The were-puppy refused to let SPHP see what it\u00a0was, but was suddenly\u00a0seized with the desire\u00a0to\u00a0carry\u00a0this glittering\u00a0prize into the G6.\u00a0 OK, fine, if that’s what it took to get Lupe to jump in.<\/p>\n Pie!\u00a0 Ordinarily, SPHP is fond of pie, almost any kind of pie.\u00a0 Almost, but not quite any kind.\u00a0 In the light in the G6, it turned out the were-puppy’s glittering prize was a big chunk of dried cow pie.\u00a0 Bleh!\u00a0 Well, when in the wild, you have to be realistic and prepared to\u00a0settle for the kind of pie there is.\u00a0 Blueberry, cherry and apple pie are in short supply in the forest, but cow pies are plentiful.<\/p>\n Very true, but\u00a0that didn’t change SPHP’s attitude.\u00a0 When the were-puppy finally dropped the precious cow pie, out the window it went.\u00a0 We can do a lot better than that Lupe, there’s Alpo with whipped cream waiting at home!<\/p>\n Note: Lupe Treasures collected on Expedition No. 162 included 43 aluminum cans, 8 plastic bottles, 3 glass bottles, and part of a dried cow pie.\u00a0 (The dried cow pie was unceremoniously re-released to the wild.)<\/i><\/p>\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\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><\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It did feel like spring!\u00a0 With a Leap Day in 2016, spring had officially arrived on\u00a0the calendar yesterday on March 19th, as early as it ever does.\u00a0 Yesterday hadn’t felt like spring, though.\u00a0 Squall lines blew through repeatedly trying to snow on the Black Hills.\u00a0 The snow hadn’t amounted to much, just a skiff, but … Continue reading Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 162 – Deadman Mountain, Red Hill & Granite Peak (3-20-16)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5006,"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":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[105,9,106,590,591,104,592,304],"class_list":["post-5019","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-deadman-mountain","tag-granite-peak","tag-lupe","tag-red-hill","tag-south-dakota"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adventuresoflupe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_0508.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\/5019","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=5019"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28284,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5019\/revisions\/28284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Bear](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adventuresoflupe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_0501-1024x768.jpg?resize=660%2C495\")
<\/a>![\"Lupe](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adventuresoflupe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_0502-1024x768.jpg?resize=660%2C495\")
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<\/a>Lupe and SPHP continued SW along the ridgeline.\u00a0 Along the way, Lupe came to a couple more rock formations, but the first one\u00a0was the biggest.\u00a0 The ridge was broad and almost flat, but did gain elevation slowly as it continued SW.\u00a0 The entire area was forested, so there were no\u00a0views in any direction.\u00a0 Although there had been only scattered deadfall timber all the way up Deadman Mountain, there was more of it along the ridge, but not enough to impede progress for long.<\/p>\n![\"Lupe](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adventuresoflupe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_0505-1024x768.jpg?resize=660%2C495\")
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