If you’re aiming to get off the beaten path, consider hiking Grizzly Bear Creek Trail #7 in the Black Elk Wilderness. We hiked it during the rallly since the trailhead is close to our home and is remote enough that tourists/casual hikers don’t really stumble upon it.

The trail follows the streambed with a gentle 1,500 elevation gain. While that may not sound gentle, keep in mind that this trail is 6.3 miles long, so it’s not terribly strenuous. There are several creek crossings but stepping stones were pretty handy. Wear bug repellent on this trail in the summer! Since we don’t have mosquitoes here at our house, we didn’t expect them on the trail, big mistake. Luckily I had some Avon sunscreen/bug repellent in my pack, so we were able to ward them off.

Since this trail is quite long, you need a plan before you decide to hike it. If you decide to hike its entirety, you’ll either need to return to your car the way you came, making for a 12.6 mile round-trip, or arrange to picked up at Sylvan Lake. We did the latter by leaving our car at Sylvan Lake early in the morning, while parking spots were still available, and then driving our other vehicle the few miles from our house to the trailhead. This made for about a 9-mile hike, but once you leave the Grizzly Bear Creek Trail to tie in with the Norbeck Trail and subsequently Harney Trail #4, there are steep climbs. Keep in mind that you will have already hiked over six miles, so you may be pretty tired by this point. If you’re not sure of your endurance, skip this one.

Another caveat: Don’t attemp to hike in this area without a map. This is wilderness; the trails are less traveled and there are fewer people. We hiked for hours without meeting another soul, so you cannot depend on asking directions if you aren’t sure where to go. Plus, tying in with other trails can be confusing and a wrong turn can result in getting lost. The Forest Service has a great map with these trails, “Black Elk Wilderness and Norbeck Wildlife Preserve Trail System;” you can pick it up at any Forest Service information office.

To get to the Grizzly Bear Creek Trail, take Highway 87 (Needles Highway) to Custer County Road 345; look for the sign that says Remington Horse Camp and turn east. The trailhead is a little over a mile up the road; you will have to register at the entrance to the wilderness area.

In these hottest days of summer, it’s a good time to think about that most essential element: water. On nearly every hike I take, I notice people short on water, adults and children alike. Not only do people bring inadequate water for themselves, but also for their kids. Being thirsty is miserable; kids will remember that experience the next time their parents want to go hiking and they’ll balk. Aside from that, it’s dangerous.

Losing two quarts of body fluid without replacing it can reduce the body’s efficiency by 25 percent. Symptoms of dehydration are: dizziness, fatigue, a slowing pace, headache, fever, emotional upheaval, slurred speech, confusion, and sleepiness. A loss of 25 percent of the body’s fluid can be fatal, so taking enough water is not a joke.

On a hot day, the average person can lose up to two or three quarts of water per day; increased activity and higher temperatures can increase that amount. Being smaller, children lose less and require less water; however, that doesn’t mean a 12-ounce bottle of water will cut it.

So how much is enough? First of all, it depends on how long you’re hiking. I usually take two or three quarts for any hike longer than an hour. Yes, that means I usually have extra water, which is the point; I’d rather have extra that I can use to water my plants when I get home rather than run out and be thirsty on the trail. My daughter has a hydration pack that holds 64 ounces of water, or two quarts. We can always pack an extra bottle in our pack if we need to, or clip one to our belt loops, too. We don’t do this for an afternoon hike, but if I were taking a long hike through the Black Elk Wilderness, I would.

Finally, it’s important to be well-hydrated before you leave on your hike. This will ensure that the water you take lasts through the hike. This is especially important for children who may quickly feel thirsty when they begin strenuous activity. Making the outdoors fun means having the necessities of food and water available so everyone has a good, safe experience.

I’ll admit this entry has been a long time coming, but I’ve been hesitant because it’s such a loaded subject in the Black Hills. However people may feel about lions isn’t always the point; the fact is that lions are here, and so are we. The endless, circular debate about proper lion management is not my topic today. So how do we go about living with lions? Knowing how to react around a lion is perhaps the single-most important thing that everyone can do. There is a line in Tolkien’s book, The Hobbit, “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations if you live near him.” Same goes for lions.

 

Before I go on, I want to clarify that I do not aim to cause any type of hysteria. I don’t believe that lions are so thick that you’ll see one each time you venture into the woods. In fact, my experience has been very much the opposite of that.

 

I live in the Custer area and spend a fair amount of time outdoors hiking, running, and so forth. Last summer, over two years after moving to the area, I saw my first wild lion while hiking on the edge of the Black Elk Wilderness near the Iron Mountain Road. My daughter and I were about 300 yards from the car when we spotted a lion trotting down the trail toward us, totally unaware of our presence since we were slightly uphill as well as downwind. We stopped dead still for an instant, looking at each other briefly before my daughter stepped behind me. Then the lion saw us; he (or she) was about 30 yards ahead of us, and we raised our arms in the air, waved them around and started yelling like we were heckling the visiting team in a playoff game. In short, we did what all the articles tell you to do: Look big and be noisy — be scarier than the lion. Well, it worked and the cat shot away in an instant. Of course, we still had to get to the car, and didn’t want to take any chances that lion would hang around, so we continued walking tall and raising cane until we arrived back at the car.

 

All in all, it was a positive encounter. No one was harmed, either us or the lion. The techniques worked. As much as we hear about mountain lions, we don’t always hear enough about how to react, and our kids may not get that information at all. That’s why it’s important we parents familiarize ourselves with the skills and take the time to instill them into our kids. Even though my daughter knew what the proper procedures were, when we met that lion on the trail, she was scared. The “fight-or-flight” impulse is very strong, and when we’re scared, everything we think we know can just evaporate from our brains. So go over (and over) the techniques with your kids – and it doesn’t hurt to refresh yourself.

 

v     Above all else: stay calm. Panic will not help.

v     Do not run! Lions are hardwired to chase prey that runs.

v     Do not turn your back toward the lion.

v     Do not approach the lion – you don’t want it to think it needs to fight you rather than running away.

v     Do not approach the lion – you don’t want it to think it needs to fight you rather than running away.

v     Hold small children; make sure older children are very close to you, preferably behind you.

v     Raise your arms in the air to make yourself look taller and more menacing. You can also pull up your jacket to make yourself look bulkier. Tell the kids to do the same.

v     Wave your arms around, if you happen to have a walking stick, wave that around too.

v     Smile by showing your teeth; again this helps you to appear menacing.

v     Yell; make a lot of noise but not screaming. High-pitched screams may sound like something the lion would like to eat, so guttural sounds are better.

v     If the lion isn’t too close, and you can reach a branch or stick easily without bending too close the ground, you can use a stick to brandish about and/or hit tree trunks to make more noise. Do not do this if you have to bend all the way down or the lion is too close because you’ll look vulnerable.

v     Continue to walk calmly to your car/house, etc. – even after the lion has gone, do not run.

v     And because it bears repeating, stay calm.

Today while washing windows, which is a very meditative activity – just ask the Karate Kid – I pondered on the fact that while people that visit us here at our home outside Custer profess to love the view we have and express envy that we live so close to nature, they never really want to venture outdoors. Yes, our view is lovely, but what drew us to this place wasn’t just that we could look at nature, we could actually experience it. However, most of our guests seem content to peer at it through the windows.

                                                                                         

I don’t expect that everyone who drops in for coffee on a Saturday morning is going to want to go for a hike, but for those who stay overnight or spend a weekend, I would think would want to at least take a walk. We live just over a mile from the Custer State Park boundary; we’re less than a mile as the crow flies from Bismarck Lake; about half a mile up the road is access to national forest land connected with the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve and Black Elk Wilderness. For some reason, it doesn’t draw our guests as I had assumed.

 

Even barring those excursions due to time constraints, there is a pond across the road from our house. If you stand at the edge of our front yard and throw a rock you can hit the water; I point this out to illustrate that it’s very close. There is an excellent view of it from our living room, but less than one in 10 people actually will walk over to it for a better look. It’s the home of ducks, geese, herons (well, their lunch spot rather than home), turtles, and frogs but few people seem to want a closer view, and no one has asked to go out in our canoe.

 

What has happened to our collective curiosity? Are we so lacking in vigor and imagination that we can’t muster the energy to go outdoors even when the opportunity presents itself? There is so much nature to enjoy, but I worry about its future if the public remains so apathetic.

 

The Black Elk Wilderness is South Dakota’s only designated wilderness area; it’s surrounded by Custer State Park as well as the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve. Because of its remote location, you can enjoy some of the quietest hiking in the Black Hills. Furthermore, it’s not open to mountain bikes or any type of mechanized travel, so it’s just hikers and horseback riders.

 

The area is named for Black Elk, a Lakota holy man, whose story is told through John Neihardt in the luminous book Black Elk Speaks. This area of the Black Hills held special significance for Black Elk since he was taken to the summit of Harney Peak in his great vision. This vision was a sign that he was to be a medicine man for his people. So please know that when you spend time here, it is a very special place.

 

The 13,426 acre area hosts 12 trails within its boundaries. Other trails within Custer State Park and the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve will give hikers great views of the wilderness as well. The U.S. Forest Service has an excellent trail map available at any information station; I would highly recommend one if you intend to spend time here since several of the trailheads aren’t where most people are used to going.

 

The wilderness has too many trails to adequately cover in one piece, so I’m only focusing on the Lost Cabin #2 and Iron Creek #15 trails today. The Lost Cabin trail can be accessed either via the Harney Peak Trail #9 at Sylvan Lake or via the Palmer Creek trailhead on County Road T357, which branches off Highway 244 (this is the road that leads to Mt. Rushmore off Highway 16). If you start at either trailhead and hike to the end, then turn around and go back, you will have a hearty 10-mile hike. There are some steep hills on this trail, so it can be strenuous. I would recommend it for older children. You’ll get some stunning views of Harney and a great deal of solitude along the way. Compared to the Harney trails, this one is very quiet. We met only three other parties during the whole 10 miles.

 

The Iron Creek Trail is much less rigorous, but a little less accessible. The trailheads are on the Iron Mountain Road and at the very end of Forest Service Road 345. The trail is 2.4 miles long between the trailheads and is mostly level; however there are 11 water crossings as it runs along Iron Creek. The crossings aren’t difficult, but you might get your feet a bit wet. We met no one else along this trail, and hiking alongside the creek was delightful.

 

Because this is a designated wilderness area, there is self-registration at major trailheads. This provides the USFS with usage information. Only primitive forms of travel are allowed: no mountain bikes or strollers. To prevent congestion, group size should be limited to 25 people and animals combined. As always, leave no trace from your visit.