Black Hills, SD

We camped in a USFS camp ground in the Black Hills where the camp hosts were from Texas. They told us they had decided to be the hosts with another couple, and the other couple copped out. They came May 10 and will stay until September 10 or so, work 6 1/2 days a week, often 10-12 hours per day cleaning the 58 campsites and the pit toilets. It's really hard work. Also at the campground we met this nice family from London, Ontario with two kids who could really throw Darwin's disc and were very enamoured with him. A match made in heaven. The lake had a sandy beach and Bob went swimming before dinner.

In the morning we decided to take a hike because I was finally over my cold and felt like I could take a serious walk. We went to Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park and took two walks. The first, 1.2 miles round trip was up to Little Devil's Tower. The area is granite and the view from the top (see photo at left) was wonderful. It was also finally a clear day. Darwin made it almost all the way to the top, but finally there was too big a step and we went on without him.


We then hiked a quarter mile over to Sylvan Lake and headed down Sunday Gulch. The lady at the Visitor's Center said that the first half of the hike went steeply down a canyon and the last half followed the road through the forest. We decided we would go only half way and return the same way. The trail had these metal guard rails (see photo at left) going down this very steep canyon. The water was quite high so in various places the concrete steps were covered with water. After going steeply down, the trail leveled out a little, then went down even more steeply. We finally turned around and came back up and went around the other side of Sylvan Lake to get a cold soda. It was about 2 p.m. and we were also hungry and the pizzas looked good, but we continued back to Snoopy, headed down the road to a picnic area and got out our lunch.

We have discovered that it is so easy to set Snoopy up, that instead of packing a lunch, we just stop and take everything out of the refrigerator and storage and make our lunch at a picnic table. Other than the few meals noted (from either "Road Food" or the "Road Tripping"), we've been cooking our meals. More on that later.
Sylvan Lake. This is a very popular place with paddle boats, kayaks, people fishing, peddle kayaks with outriggers, and people walking around the lake. The parking lot was packed. There's also a lodge nearby.

Courses I've Played II

I'd like to descrbe the last 3 courses I playe: The first as outside of Vernon, VC, was private, and was at the home of a very clever and congenial mana who constructed the course on his hillside home.  Some of the features I particularly enjoyed on this pay($5) to play course were: 27 holes of mostly short but sometimes very steep slope wooded disc golf course with a variety of targets including high propane tanks suspended from trees, a copper gong man he crafted and hung from another tree, and baskets and drain pipe and copper tonals.  All this was in the atmosphere of a local club where the businessmen and others  can come if they are invited, and out of towners are generally welcome.  The second day I played with them there was a tourrnament which occurs every Thursday after 4 PM.  Everybody pays 10 dollars and thereis prize money for the winners as well as a "player's pack of a shooter on the 18th (of 27) hole.  The night I played it was a cinnamon iquor of flavored whiskey and was very tasty.  My play was rushed and poor as i was held up by road construction on the long drive from our campsite on Lake Okenagon.

Saturday, June 28, 2 time zones to the east, I played in a one day tournament at St Paul, MN, the Kaposia Open, held at a course of same name, which i a 24 basket trip thru deeply cut forest near the mississippi River in S St Paul.  There were no other grand masters or senior grand masters in the am ranks for me to play with so I played with the pros of same age, and was a division of one, which I won with lousey scores, relatively speaking.  The course is very challenging and I met some interesting people including Richard Hasch, Chuck Kennedy, and Allen Hanson, who I expect to see in Kalamazoo for the ProAm Worlds in August.

The next day as we were going down the Mississippi Bluff highway to the Root River Valley town of Lanesboro, we went thru Winona, which has a lakeside course with water hazards, significant wind, many OB possibilities, and varied length holes.  I'm not playing up to the level I did last year and I suppose I may need to accept that, but for now, I'm designing remedial programs to spiff up my long shot accuracy and do a bit better with up shots as well.  I was so impressed with Gene Fackler's roller and then John Ross's roller, that I'm working with those shots.  Here in the midwest, the courses are more manicured and suitable for this shot.

Tomorrow we will go to Wisconsin and I'm going to try the La Crosse course which is well-regarded in my PDGA directory of courses, where incidentally, directions etc to these courses are available.

Out of the Rockies

We left BC and got as far as Hungry Horse, east of Glacier National Park. There we camped at Lost Johnny USFS campsite and woke up the next morning having to get all the way to Billings. We ate breakfast at Blackberry Patch in Hungry Horse (recommended in the Road Tripping Across America guide), initially concerned because there wasn't a soul in the restaurant. Despite our initial impressions, the food was excellent. As we headed up US 2 across the south end of Glacier National Park, we ended up in the middle of an Airstream caravan. The views were awesome and whetted our appetite to come back without a dog and go back packing. The route follows the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad (more on that later) through the lowest pass in the Rockies at a mere 5,200 feet. Coming out of Glacier we started down US 89 down the east side of the Rockies. For miles and miles you see the snow-covered Rockies over rolling green pasture.
In Great Falls we stopped at the USFS Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. Great Falls was where Lewis and Clark had to make an 18 mile portage around five water falls. The interpretive center was really wonderful. It had lots of interactive exhibits so that you could determine what you would have done in the same situation. It also had a lot of material on the Native Americans encountered along the way. Just down the Missouri River is Giant Springs State Park, which you can walk to along the sides of the Missouri. There are swallows nesting in the rocks, people fishing for rainbow trout, Canada Geese and cool breezes off the river.

Giant Springs is located right next to the Missouri River and Lewis and Clark noted it in their writings. It flows at 150 million gallons/day. The water enters from the Little Belt Mountains, quite a distance away and after 50 years emerges at the Giant Springs. It is clear (see the view of the plants growing in about 7 feet of water below, cold (54 degrees) and there are very large rainbow trout swimming around in it. The water is 400 feet underground at this point, but because it is under so much pressure, it forces its way up through the rocks.

We then headed on to Billings, stopping to have the oil changed and tires rotated (so we keep our warranty). The next morning we tried our first "Road Food" restaurant, Stella's (famous for enormous cinnamon rolls and plate sized pancakes). We didn't try the cinnamon rolls, but the pancakes were great. I get the feeling that Jean and Michael Stern, the authors really go in for pies, pancakes and cinnamon rolls and other sweets.