Bear Butte State Park

I’m camped at Bear Butte State Park, which is just a few miles from Sturgis, South Dakota.  The campground is small, no hookups, vault toilet (i.e. outhouse), a water spigot, a few small trees for shade, and decent T-mobile service.  The only noise is the sound of the wind.

There are a couple of tent campers and a campground host with a big motor home.  He/She has full hookups.  But I didn’t camp here for the company or the amenities or the $11.67 (tax included) campsite.  Bear Butte is a special place, long-held sacred by the Cheyenne and Lakota.  On the summit trail, the indigenous people perform ceremonies during special occasions.   Just off the path appear sacrifices of tobacco, pieces of clothing, and other items. Hikers are requested  to remain quiet and respectful.  The place made a special impression on me during a previous visit many years ago.

Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed on the summit trail. I could try to leave Elvis in the camper or the truck while I hike the two to three hours round trip, but it doesn’t seem right.  I’ve been here once before, I remember the trail; it needs no repeating if Elvis can’t come.

So I’ll spend my time here enjoying the views of Bear Butte,  the reservoir, and the Black Hills in the distance.  There’s a stiff, cooling breeze, blowing across Bear Butte Reservoir.  A couple of hiking paths lead from the campground around the water.  Even though I’m not up on the mountain, I’m still getting that peaceful feeling of enjoying the simple things in nature.  There will be other mountains, Elvis.

Now that I’m Settled In, It’s Time to Go

I absolutely love this camping spot in the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands.  Free, access to water in a nearby town, relatively decent Internet, lots of solar energy to harness, views to forever, a nice five-mile hiking route, bighorn sheep and whitetail deer, and did I mention free?

Elvis and I have settled into a routine.  We get up before sunrise and go for a hike along the Wall’s rim, trying not to wake up other campers on their own perches on the cliff. 

Then I eat breakfast outside, enjoying coffee, the view and pleasant temperatures of the morning.  By late morning, the sun has driven us inside the Brew Hut, which is still pleasant with the cooling strong breezes.  After a light lunch, we take short walks and spend the afternoon in the shade, reading the (digital) newspaper and my Kindle.  By late afternoon, it’s time for a beer or two, supper,and then more view enjoyment as the temperatures subside.  We end the day with an evening walk as the sun sets.

With a routine, however, my mind starts to wander and thoughts rise of cooler weather and higher elevation.  I’d like to hike some bigger hills and a couple of mountains before the cold weather comes.  So in a day or so, Elvis and I will head north and west to a special place in the Black Hills.  With that move, we will probably lose Internet reliability, so do not worry if I do not post for a bit.  I will continue blogging and post online when able.

At least, that’s the plan.

The Badlands: It’s all good

I made it to the Badlands yesterday at about 1 p.m. (Mountain Time Zone).  This isn’t my first trip; I’ve been here several times as a kid and as an adult.  There’s something about this place that takes all of life’s tensions and washes them away.  Blows it away is more apt.  The wind is nearly constant here.  Some people complain about the wind, but I’ve always found the wind soothing.  One of my Iowa relatives used to say that the wind blows the stink off you.

I’m camped just a few miles from Wall Drugs.  This place has nothing in common with Wall Drugs.  Coffee might be five cents at Wall Drugs, but it doesn’t taste anything like the coffee that I roasted myself, ground on a manual knee grinder manufactured over 50 years ago, made in a cone filter without any electricity. and sipped outside while overlooking the wide expanses of the West.

I’m perched on a cliff in Buffalo Gap National Grasslands.  The temperature gets up into the 80’s during the day but falls into the 50’s at night.  I hear coyotes at sunset and steers at sunrise.  I’m just going to let all of this soak in for a few days, but all is well.

Magnolia, Minnesota

I’m not going to lie.  Last night was rough.  I picked up Allie at O’Hare in Chicago at about 11p.m., dropped her off in Milwaukee, and arrived home at about 2 a.m. She was sick and understandably upset about saying goodbye to her boyfriend for who knows how long after having the time of her life in the Greek Isles. Once home, I slept for maybe four hours, off and on.

Then, with the help of a full French press pot of fresh-roasted Brazilian coffee, I began making my way west.  I was originally going to stay off of the interstate, taking Hwy 60 and then Hwy 18 across northern Iowa.  However, there was extensive flooding along that route, so I opted for Interstate 90, boring but not flooded.  By afternoon, I was making frequent bathroom stops to balance out all of the coffee consumed and was singing loudly to myself with the windows open to stay awake.

We arrived at the Magnolia City Campground at about 4 p.m. It’s a typical Midwestern small town with no services except for this nice campground less than a mile from the interstate with full hookups for $10/night. A café offers breakfast but closes at 2 p.m.  There’s a campground sign that says no discounts are offered  because the rates are already so cheap. I can’t disagree: electricity, water, showers, dump station, good Internet coverage from T-mobile, and a bunch of free digital tv stations.

Unfortunately, there’s no grocery store or even a convenience store.  I haven’t really stocked my fridge, so it’s a cold beer and scrambled eggs and cheese for dinner.  The good news is that I’m ahead of schedule and hopeful that I’ll be in the Badlands tomorrow night.

Elvis is very excited about this trip. Or maybe he’s just ready for supper.

Countdown at 5 days

Wisconsin doesn’t win many firsts, but we were apparently the first state in the nation in rainfall over the last two weeks with all of the usual consequences that go along with that. An elderly man in the Madison area was swept away by flood waters from his car into a culvert and drowned.  Milwaukee released 296 million gallons of raw sewage into local rivers and Lake Michigan so that the effluent didn’t back up into people’s basements.  We have had plenty of heat to go along with the rain which has meant high humidity and a healthy crop of mosquitoes.


Closer to home, I moved Justin back into the dorms for the fall semester on Thursday.  He was ready to go back to leading life without parents nagging him, and we were ready to stop nagging him.  Classes start next week.  I talked to him last night on the phone, and it sounded like he was making new friends and settling into dorm life.

Allie is still in Greece, vacationing with her Turkish boyfriend. It sounds like they are having a great time, living on a meager budget but enjoying the street food and beaches. My last “to do” task will be picking her up at the Chicago airport late Tuesday night and driving to her Milwaukee apartment where she will start the fall semester one day late on Wednesday.  I will try to get some sleep on Wednesday before taking off west in the Brew Hut.

Most of my preparation work for the trip west is done.  I’ve been picking up little odds and ends at the last-minute.  The square plate at the bottom of the Brew Hut’s trailer tongue’s jack has seemed a little shaky to me, so Amazon shipped me an 8 dollar Camco cone stand which is supposed to be more stable and multi-functional.  We’ll see.  The plate can be re-installed if the plastic thing doesn’t work out. If it works, I can eliminate the cinder block that I’ve been carrying around as a jack stand.

I also restocked green (raw) coffee beans for the trip.  Friday afternoon was spent roasting so that Julia can have fresh coffee while I’m gone.  Most people don’t know that you can freeze (colder the better) freshly roasted coffee in small one pound freezer bags, and then use one bag at a time (defrosted and staying at room temperature), and the quality is excellent.  Blind taste tests don’t lie. What you don’t want to do is take frozen coffee back and forth out of the freezer allowing it to partially defrost or be exposed to humidity. It should go without saying that the coffee has to be fresh-roasted.  Putting stale coffee into the freezer doesn’t preserve anything.   For myself, I plan on roasting coffee in the Brew Hut while traveling.  Still working out those details.

Other than that, I’ve been stocking the kitchen with canned goods (black beans, coconut cream) and spices so that I can make my staple curries and dirty beans with rice.

Recent reports from the Badlands are that it may be muddy with reduced access to the location that I hoped to camp, but weather changes.  We’ll see how it goes.  There will be a back-up plan.

Preparation and Planning

“Plans made in Jello.”  That’s a full-time nomad’s cliché with meanings at multiple levels.  I remember a minister with a similar sermon:  “Man plans, and God laughs.” Things outside our control often influence the best laid plans.


That’s tough for me, as someone with plans, back-up plans, and back-up to back-up plans. My mentor at the law firm liked to tell me in relationship to the practice of law:  Worry about the things that you can control; let go of the things you can’t control, and practice the skill of learning the difference between the two.  I’ve always been one to try to push more into that first category than most people would do.  Planning and organization do tend to increase the limited ability to control variables.

With that in mind, and two weeks before my scheduled departure out west, I’ve been tightening up the specifics of the plan.  As a general plan, I’m going to drive to the South Dakota Badlands, dry-camp without electrical hookups for awhile at a well-reviewed location, and then make my way over to the Black Hills and Spearfish, where I’ll camp for another week.  I have a few possible locations in mind–mostly dry camping.

From there, my plans are highly variable on the weather.  I’d like to spend some time in the Big Horn mountains of Wyoming and meander across Wyoming to northern Utah. The latter part of September can bring snow and freezing temperatures at higher elevations, so I might have to head lower and south before too long. I will play it by ear, but I need to be in Las Vegas in mid-October to pick up Julia for her portion of the trip.

In preparation, I’ve ordered Benchmark maps for the states I’ve mentioned above, and I’ve been researching google maps, campendium, freecampsites.net, public lands maps, and reviews of different places to camp, hike, and drive.

I bought a small inverter to charge my laptop and other small electronic devices not powered by 12 volts.  It has enough capacity to run the small tv also in case the world suddenly changes, and I need to watch the news or something.  My friend Dean showed me how to repack the wheel bearings with grease on the Brew Hut, so that needed task has been checked off the list. He also checked the brakes for me, which provides peace of mind.  I still need to organize space in the Nissan truck and Brew Hut. Packing clothes and planning food provisioning is also still ahead.

Justin has decided not to bring Elvis the service dog to college, which is probably for the best for now. Although having a service dog at college sounds good in theory, Justin and his caregivers have enough to do without worrying about feeding, watering, and toileting Elvis.  Those tasks are mine at home but would need to be performed by someone other than Justin at school.  Justin’s caregiving hours are limited,  Also, because we live in the country, Elvis has developed a bad habit of barking (for a service dog, not a watch dog) when there are strange noises or strangers (rare).  In a dorm setting, that is a common occurrence and a potential behavior problem.  Julia has asked me to take Elvis along, so that Elvis is not alone in the house all day while she is at work.

Taking Elvis on the trip west has pros and cons, but he is good company so we will make it work.  I know that he would rather be on an adventure rather than left at home. We both have worked hard during the last six years, so it’s only fair that Elvis is rewarded also for his own gray hairs. When we return home before Thanksgiving Break and then during semester break, we will both be put back to work for Justin.