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Starkweather Beer Company

 When I moved back to Madison to attend law school in 1987, we moved to a crappy little apartment near the banks of Starkweather Creek on the unfashionable east side.  Today, the east side is booming, and one of the newer brewpubs is called Starkweather Beer Company. It was Saint Pat's Day.  While Guinness is a decent light-bodied stout, I opted for Starkweather's dry Irish Stout, named "Jamestown Jackdaw." Coming in at 5.9 ABV, it had a malty chewable backbone.  It's a new favorite stout for me.  Julia had Late Winter Haze, a New England IPA that didn't have as much fruitiness as she likes in a hazy.  It was still well-executed. We walked down the street to the Harmony Bar, where Julia enjoyed a complete corn beef and cabbage dinner.  I opted for the Reuben sandwich.  Mine was washed down with an Edmund Fitzgerald porter from Great Lakes Brewing.  Julia enjoyed her Chaos Pattern IPA from 3 Sheeps Brewing.  Both are great beers. Justin update:   After a long h

Devil’s Tower


Last night at Wyatt’s Hideaway, after stopping for groceries in Belle Fourche, I retrieved my cast iron skillet, seasoned my steak with freshly purchased salt and pepper (how could I have forgotten that?), and cooked up the meat medium rare. After supper, I had a big bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough and then sat outside in my chair, sipping an IPA, as temperatures cooled into the evening.

These are some of the luxuries that I never enjoyed on my Appalachian Trail thru-hike, made possible by Scamp Manufacturing (a/k/a the Brew Hut).

Empowered by wi-fi at Wyatt’s, I caught up on the news, blogs, and email. The days are getting shorter. By 8:00, it was dark out, and by 8:30, I was asleep. Several times during the night, I awoke to the sounds of trucks passing close by on the highway. I realized that the weather is also starting to change. Last night was the first time that I actually got cold enough to wrap up under the heavy double sleeping bag.

By 4:15 a.m, I was pretty much wide awake. I tossed and turned for an hour, gave up, and fed Elvis, who was only too happy to get an early breakfast. By 7:15, I had eaten breakfast, used the luxurious bathrooms, hitched up, and dumped by gray (sink and shower) and black (toilet) tanks. I gave Julia a call and then was on the road by 7:30 a.m.

My initial plan was to visit Devil’s Tower National Monument on the eastern edge of Wyoming and continue across the state to Buffalo, Wyoming for a camping spot nearby. However, Devil’s Tower was much more spectacular than I was expecting. Also, even though it was only about 8:30 a.m., people had started leaving the full campground, and there was a beautiful campsite on Loop A (the no generators loop), which looked directly at Devil’s Tower. I snagged the site, paid by $20 and went to see about the trails.

Stymied again. No dogs allowed on the trails. The sign suggested walking your dog in the campground, limited picnic area, or on a dirt road with no directions to get there. The sign also said that dogs were no allowed more than 15 feet off the road. Okay, we would improvise. Elvis and I walked about a mile and a half from the campground towards the visitor’s center. We had to dodge a few buses, motor homes, and large campers, but we made it to the dirt road that I believe they were taking about. It was definitely a challenging walk, but still fairly cool out.




During the afternoon, the temperatures climbed to 90 and higher than that inside the Brew Hut. We had a couple of shade trees at the campsite, and we moved our hanging out shady spot to match the sun’s progress across the sky. I read and blogged. Elvis slept.

After Wyatt’s, I  appreciated the quiet of nature again. The wind and the rustling of leaves. And there might be a bit of ice cream left in the freezer.  I will be headed west next.

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