Saturday, October 4, 2014

Day 8



It was a cold, over-cast, misty morning.  Doing dishes was miserable.  We succeeded in filtering about 3 quarts of water out of Little Spearfish Creek.  The Berkey runs a little slow for my liking.  We've been questioning whether the filters need to be cleaned.



We drove back toward Lead so we could see the scenery we missed coming in the dark and then continued up 14A, which is the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway, towards Spearfish and I-90.  It was a gorgeous drive!

Coming down out of Lock & Gun



And I love these mittens!  Thanks for the loan, Leah!

Many gorgeous spots along Spearfish Creek




We stopped and saw Bridal Falls along the way.  And then to Devil's Tower!

Our first glimpse, after which we proceeded to argue and whether or not it was Devil's Tower.  :)

It was cold and misty.  A lot of the time we couldn't see the top.

Rather ominous.

The view with our backs to Devil's Tower.

Happy face!!!!

Poor, cold, lucky guys!  There were a lot of them!

Hi everybody!  I miss love and miss you all!
We walked the mile trail around the Tower and saw lots of climbers and lots of the prayer flags.

We stopped for gas in Gilette and pizza in Buffalo.  Mom didn't want me trying to good out in the rain and cold.  From there we hotfooted it to the southern Big Horns toward Tie Hack Campgroud near the reservoir.  It was closed.  As was Circle Park and Heddinger campgrounds.  Our last option was Middle Fork and it was OPEN!!!!  It was well past dark, around 9:30pm.  The boys picked a site near the creek and we pitched camp.  It looked very pretty in the dark.  Glorious tall pines, giant rocks, and we crossed a cool wooden bridge on the way in.

Jeremiah spent a good chunk of time chopping into the dry middle of a wet log he'd found so we'd have dry wood in the morning for the stove.  I cut some squares of Tyvek to put under the dogs' towels so they would stay dry.  They got pretty cold, but seemed ok.  I packed on the layers and headed to bed around 11pm.

1,798 miles in.

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