Good job T.E.A.M. 42

I am very glad you folks had a successful adventure.

At Sonic in RC. Great expeditiin in the Black Hills. Harney Peak is a new TEAM42 favorite!

DW, CV & KJ at happy hour in Rapid City, SD. 1 hour from trailhead, meeting Jim in the morning for our third Turkey Day Expedition.

Harney Peak

FYI - Harney Peak, which is on our route, was named readers choice favorite mountain in the midwest in Backpacker magazine.

Turkey Day III

Jim, the route sounds good. We're good on the pies, right????

Where exactly would you like us to meet you? We're shooting for 10:00am?

I think your route is a good plan, as long as there isn't any snow. Aside from that I think we can cut out the BSing as long as there are no cool signs for me to stand on top of! Also, pole tricks are really sweet when done as part of a small group, but kinda lame by oneself.

Chad and I are going shopping for the Thanksgiving feast tonight. How many liters of gravy do you need?

Proposed Route

I looked at the map and came up with something. There is supposed to be a Trail Head right by Mount Rushmore, which I thought would be a good place to start. From there it should be a short hike into the Black Elk Wilderness. We can either stop there for dinner or push on a little farther. In the wilderness (see map below) we can go a number of differnt ways but I picked a route that takes to Cathedral Spires, which is just outside the wilderness, then north to Harney Peak. After that we keep heading north to loop back to the Centennial Trail.

I figure we can probably get through most or all of the Black Elk Wilderness in 1 day, depending on how ambitious we are. After the Wilderness, we'll keeping heading North on the Centennial Trail. There are a couple good stopping points, again depending on how ambitious we are (see map below). The first is Sheridan Lake Rec Area, about 10 miles North of Black Elk Wilderness. The second is Pactola Reservoir Rec Area, about 10 - 15 miles North of Sheridan Lake. (These 2 areas are in the red insert boxes in the map). If we do a little on Thursday then follow 15 miles a day we should be able to do all of it. If we follow our pace from last year we'll be lucky to get through the Black Elk Wilderness. So it depends on how much BSing we want to do. Let me know what you guys think.

To see more maps and info http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/blackhills/maps/index.shtml

Thanksgiving Hike

What dates are we planning for our Thanksgiving trip? It'd be nice to know so I can take the right days off from work. Also, we should probably figure out a place to meet. If we are going with the Centenial Trail and the Black Elk Wilderness there is supposed to be a Trail Head off of Hwy 16 a few miles North of the wilderness. There is also a trail head and campground just north of the wilderness off of 244 just pass Mt. Rushmore. Any input?