{"id":820,"date":"2015-05-24T14:54:13","date_gmt":"2015-05-24T20:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=820"},"modified":"2019-04-25T11:58:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T17:58:48","slug":"black-hills-sd-expedition-no-129-centennial-trail-near-fort-meade-5-22-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=820","title":{"rendered":"Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 129: Centennial Trail near Fort Meade (5-22-15)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lupe’s uncle Joe and cousin Dusty from Arvada, CO\u00a0arrived in\u00a0town late Thursday evening prior to\u00a0Memorial Day weekend.\u00a0 Naturally, Joe, Dusty, Lupe & SPHP wanted to start the weekend off right with an outing the very next day.\u00a0 A 70% chance of rain was in the forecast, so rather than go up into the higher Black Hills, Joe suggested a hike he is fond of which he refers to as “The Ponderosa”.\u00a0 The Ponderosa hike starts at the Alkali Creek trailhead on the Centennial Trail<\/span> <\/strong><\/a>No. 89 just\u00a0a few miles SE of Sturgis, SD, and goes N from there up a pine-covered ridge and back down again onto a more open ridge.\u00a0 This area is on the very NE edge of the Black Hills.<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0upon reaching\u00a0the Alkali Creek trailhead, Joe changed his mind and suggested doing a part of the Centennial Trail a bit farther to the N.\u00a0 After driving a couple of miles farther\u00a0N, the G6 was abandoned at the Fort Meade National Cemetery.\u00a0 Lupe and Dusty served as advanced scouts along the Centennial Trail heading N from there.\u00a0 Joe and Dusty had never been on this part of the Centennial Trail, although Lupe and SPHP had.\u00a0 From the cemetery, it was a 0.5 mile heading N\u00a0generally downhill through pine and scrub oak forest to the Fort<\/span> Meade<\/span><\/strong><\/a> trailhead.\u00a0 Lupe and Dusty sniffed around what remained of the foundations from some old buildings along the way, and generally had a good time roaming around.<\/p>\n

Just N of the Fort Meade trailhead, the Centennial Trail crosses Hwy 34\u00a0less than a\u00a0mile E of Sturgis.\u00a0 From there the trail heads N into the trees along Bear Butte Creek, across a wooden bridge, and then heads up onto a barren exposed ridge.\u00a0 Once up on the ridge, the Centennial Trail turns and heads ENE in the direction of Bear Butte<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0(4,422 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>, which is in clear view a few miles away.<\/p>\n

Up on the ridge there was a S breeze blowing.\u00a0 It was unseasonably cool out, somewhere\u00a0in the\u00a050’s although it was near mid-day.\u00a0 The sky was all overcast, and the clouds were especially dark\u00a0back to the W towards the Black Hills.\u00a0 The ponderosa pines\u00a0growing on\u00a0the hills made them look quite dark in contrast to the\u00a0lighter green of the prairie.\u00a0 It really was very pleasant out in the cool breeze, shaded by the clouds.\u00a0 N of the ridge was open ranch land dotted by little stock ponds.\u00a0 It has been wet recently, so the stock ponds were full.<\/p>\n

The Centennial Trail eventually leaves the ridge to go down into a lower area between the ridge and Bear Butte Lake.\u00a0 Joe, Dusty, Lupe and SPHP went partway down the ridge before stopping at some low rocks sticking up out of the prairie.\u00a0 Using rocks for stools during a short rest break, Joe and SPHP ate energy bars while admiring the scene.\u00a0 Lupe and Dusty had water and Taste of the Wild.\u00a0 Dusty doesn’t normally get Taste of the Wild and was pretty enthusiastic about it.\u00a0 Dusty was prepared to devour the entire supply on the spot, but SPHP rationed it out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Lupe & Dusty up on the ridge a few miles SW of Bear Butte. The 111 mile long Centennial Trail starts at the top of Bear Butte, and runs S through the Black Hills to Wind Cave National Park.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When the rest break was over, Joe was ready to head back.\u00a0 Everyone had just as\u00a0 good a time on the return trip to the S\u00a0as before.\u00a0 Lupe and Dusty investigated everything along the way again, and at one point both dogs ran far off down the ridge before racing back to arrive breathless and panting hard.\u00a0 Despite the forecast, the rain held off.\u00a0 For Lupe and SPHP, it had been a pretty short trip, barely enough to qualify as one of Lupe’s expeditions, but it was a\u00a0pleasant time spent with good company.<\/p>\n

Lupe was thrilled with\u00a0this expedition.\u00a0 After spending most of the first few weeks of May indoors due to inclement weather\u00a0and waiting\u00a0many days for SPHP to finish up on some work that had a deadline, Lupe finally got to spend some time sniffing, exploring, running and roaming around again.<\/p>\n

The fun wasn’t done yet either. \u00a0Lupe got to spend\u00a0the evening with\u00a0her Uncle Joe, Aunt Andrea, Grandma Kitty, Cousin Dusty and SPHP at her grandma’s house at the edge of the big canyon.\u00a0 Hamburgers and chocolate ice cream were on the menu.\u00a0\u00a0A very satisfied dingo spent the late evening snoozing on the plush carpet at Grandma’s house while the rain finally started outside.<\/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 Prior Black Hills Expedition<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Centennial Trail No. 89 Map & Brochure<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 149 – Centennial Trail No. 89: Fort Meade to Bear Butte Lake (12-19-15)<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Next Trail Section South:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 241 – Centennial Trail No. 89: Alkali Creek to Fort Meade (12-10-18)<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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

Lupe’s uncle Joe and cousin Dusty from Arvada, CO\u00a0arrived in\u00a0town late Thursday evening prior to\u00a0Memorial Day weekend.\u00a0 Naturally, Joe, Dusty, Lupe & SPHP wanted to start the weekend off right with an outing the very next day.\u00a0 A 70% chance of rain was in the forecast, so rather than go up into the higher Black … Continue reading Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 129: Centennial Trail near Fort Meade (5-22-15)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":822,"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":[105,148,9,106,144,146,145,104,304],"class_list":["post-820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-black-hills","tag-american-dingo","tag-bear-butte","tag-black-hills-expeditions","tag-carolina-dog","tag-centennial-trail","tag-dusty","tag-fort-meade","tag-lupe","tag-south-dakota"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adventuresoflupe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/P1060253.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\/820","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=820"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22491,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions\/22491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}