Rubber Tramping the Country....

August 11- August 16

We started our rubber tramping journey on August 11th. We left Gorham, NH and made it to Verona, NY where we stayed in a hotel for the night. I was really excited about the new adventure we were on, but I also felt sad to leave the AT. I felt like I had given up, like I had failed in some way. Brian reassured me that it wasn't a failure and that we would be back on the AT for day hikes, weekend hikes, other longer section hikes, and eventually a thru hike. "It is in our backyard after all," he said. As I fell asleep, I still felt very mixed emotions. I was awoken around 3 am by Brian saying he had to hide his clothes in the bathroom because they were going to smell like skunk! He must have dreamt that he was smelling skunk and he literally put his clothes in the bathroom, closed the door, and went back to bed. I have to say this may have been the best thing Brian has done in his sleep... And that's quite the accomplishment (he's told me I look like a princess, a gardener, and an octopus in the same sentence and has even gone looking for bread in the underwear drawers in our closet)! It's ok though, because he got quite the laugh when the alarm went off in the morning. He was already awake and I had mistaken my phone alarm for the alarm clock on the side table. When it went off, I started pressing every button on the alarm, then started hitting it, and then picked it up, held it out to Brian and exclaimed, "I can't turn this off!!! You turn it off!" He was eventually able to help me understand that it was my phone and the problem was solved. I guess we both needed our sleep.

We started our drive and ended our day in Howe, Indiana. I was pretty excited because we were staying at a Holiday Inn Express and I remember the cinnamon buns they serve for breakfast from when we stayed at one last year while on the trail. They were delicious, but I must say, they are not as satisfying when you haven't walked to them. We continued to Fairmont, Minnesota (and even stopped at a Walmart in Michigan on the way... Another new state!!). It was this day that I realized how much flat land America has. It is only rivaled by the amount of corn fields and Cracker Barrels!!

On the 14th, we made it to Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Wow!!!! What amazingly unique topography!!!! We explored some of the formations and canyons and then set up camp for the night at Cedar Pass Campgroud within the park. Now that we are "car camping," it seems we are not prepared enough. Everyone around us has pop ups, RVs, or at the very least, HUGE tents that give some houses competition! They have coolers, BBQs, tables, chairs, bicycles, food to feed a whole town, and even kites! It's quite the contrast from the AT, where we often feel over prepared; as though we packed too many comforts. Either way, we had what we needed for us. We woke up early and drove the scenic route to the other end of the park, although there was a lot of fog so it wasn't too scenic. On the way to the Badlands, we must have passed over 100 signs for "Wall Drug." With one sign, or even 10, we wouldn't have stopped, but with 100+, it left us no choice. We pulled into the town that looked like an old western town, but was filled with souvenir shops and restaurants. We had breakfast and the five cent coffee they advertised on the billboards, but we didn't have the free water that was advertised. We got out of there just in time for it to fill with every tourist in the town and continued to Rapid City.

We went to the Crazy Horse monument, which is the largest mountain carving in progress. It is dedicated to all Native Americans and has been in progress since 1948. It is a carving of Crazy Horse, a leader of the Lakota Tribe. He is said to be pointing to his land where "his people lie buried." Next, we were off to Bear Country, USA, a drive through wildlife tour. We saw deer, elk, big horn sheep, bison, wolves, foxes, bob cats, badgers, and of course bears... black bears, baby black bears, and even grizzly bears!! Right when we were at the black bear area, a truck came through with their dinner. A worker was throwing shovel loads of bread to the bears and there were tons of bears were walking towards us to get to their food. It was really cool. I'm not usually a fan of zoos because of animals living in captivity, but these animals seemed to be well taken care of, well fed, and most important of all... Happy. Their environment was set up much like their natural environment. We made it back to the hotel, ate, and relaxed before going to sleep.

Today (August 16), we headed to Mount Rushmore to start our day. It was pretty neat to see the faces of George, Thomas, Teddy, and Abe in the side of a mountain. After admiring it for about a half hour, we left the tourists and took an awesome, scenic drive up and down the Black Hills, over awesome bridges built from logs, and through one lane tunnels that required us to "sound the horn" before passing through. I was very happy that Brian was driving because the road was narrow, the edge was close, and the cliffs were steep. We made it to a beautiful lookout where we sat for a while on rocks and admired the view of Mount Rushmore in the distance. As we were enjoying the views, we received a call from Miles Supertramp!!! It was great to hear his voice. We've been in touch since the AT last year, but always through text. He called to share some of his favorite must see places for us to see, to reassure me that we were on an epic journey and the AT will always be waiting for me and most importantly, to tell us that his mom thinks Brian is "dreamy." Mama Supertramp, if you're reading this, I'm sorry your son sold you out! We continued to follow the beautiful death trap of a road until we got into Custer State Park. Immediately, we saw bison. There is a huge herd that lives in the park. We stopped at the visitor center to get some hiking information and then drove some of the Wildlife Loop to eat lunch at Blue Bell lodge. It is a western motif restaurant and I ate a pulled bison sandwich and Brian ate ribs. When we walked out, I tried to steal one of the horses that were tied up outside, but Brian reminded me that it was not likely to fit in the Prius. We drove on Needles Highway to the trailhead. The highway was another narrow strip with hairpin turns, one lane tunnels, and steep cliffs, but added to this drive were HUGE towering stacks of granite. They were incredible (Pictures of all of this will be on Brian's blog soon). We reached the trailhead for the Little Devils Tower trail and started the 1.3 mile hike. We were going to do the hike up Harney Peak since it is the highest peak east of the Rockies, but Little Devils Tower was rated as a more difficult trail and is only a little more than 200 feet shorter than Harney Peak. Most of the trail was a meandering, inclined dirt path, but at the end there was some really fun climbing on rocks and up ledges. We flew up in less than 30 minutes and at the top, we had gorgeous views of the surrounding Black Hills, Harney Peak, and the awesome granite needles. I was at the highest elevation I have climbed to at this point! 6980 feet! I'm sure that record will be beat soon, but it was pretty cool for now. We hiked down in about 30 minutes, caught a glimpse of two baby deer with their mama, and then started the two hour journey to Devils Tower in Wyoming! A new state for me!! I am LOVING the HUGE skies of the west! It feels like I am in a huge planetarium, surrounded by a gigantic dome!! We arrived at Devils Tower just as the sun was setting and set up camp at the campground in the park. We have a front row view of the tower from our campsite. We chose to sleep in the back of the Prius tonight. We folded down the back seats and made a bed out of it. My Prius would make for an AWESOME Toyota commercial right now!!!

Tomorrow, we will walk around the tower and then head to Yellowstone!!! What an epic journey we are on!

Peace Be The Journey
~Flicka