Yankton, South Dakota to Pick City, North Dakota

NOTICE:

You are responsible for your own safety.

Recreation use has inherent risk and you may

encounter a variety of unexpected and/or

dangerous conditions which may lead to serious

injury or death. It is your responsibility

to be informed and take precautions.

(From the back side of a Mississippi SP campground stub 

we just found buried in the camper. We had NO idea 

we were in such danger!)

Since our last post about the trip down the Missouri, we've moved a number of times, through some spectacular and new country for us. We left Yankton, SD the day after the river trip on Thursday, June 12 and drove to Ft. Pierre, across the Missouri River from the state capitol, Pierre. We stayed there until Sunday the 15th, having to do another repack and run from a large and long line of storms coming from the southwest, in the middle of the day on Friday. 

The radar was sporting dark purples & the heaviest concentration of them was coming straight for the campground. Unfortunately, we couldn't run from this one, as it was far too long of an unbroken line to drive around either end. So, in the time we did have, we decided to go north on Rt 83, then west on Rts. 34 & 14, and just drive right into what was the least threatening area of storms, as best we could tell from radar. As we drove towards it, we could see really dark clouds, almost like a wall, coming closer and closer. After a few spats of rain, the road just disappeared in a howl of wind and rain, and it was time to pull over on the side of the highway, along with another car that had been behind us, and wait it out. Kath was behind me in the Tracker, as we had little warning this was coming, and didn't have time to hook the vehicles together before we ran for the hills. 

Afterward, talking about the experience, she said all she did was keep her eyes on the floor, as the car was rocking heavily, and the rain was blowing sideways, looking like snow swirling around in the air and on the road. I found myself, about halfway through the storm, with my foot mashed on the brake pedal even though the transmission was in park, like it was somehow going to keep the camper from being flipped over. A few of those gusts sure felt like that could happen! At the height of it, I was thinking to myself with all the roaring and rain pounding on the camper, that there could be a tornado nearby coming right at us, and we'd never know it. In all , it lasted about 15 minutes, and we moved on to a spot we could turn around and slowly followed the storm back to camp and re-setup. 

Nothing else of note happened there, (as it was mainly a utility stop to restock, repair and wait out the weekend. Both towns looked like they'd seen better days, and Pierre had a construction boom going on 3 miles east of the city, where large housing developments were going up centered around the usual Walmart Supercenter and a host of other big box retailers, most likely spelling the end of what was left of Pierre's already fading downtown.

Anti-smoking murals in Chamberlain, ND

On Sunday the 15th, we took the 1804 road to Indian Memorial R. A., on the Standing Rock reservation just west of Mobridge, SD. It was being run by the Sioux (of the reservation), who had been handed the running of the campground and marina concession by the ACOE. The 2 guys at the check-in booth gave us a pretty funny run down of the situation, saying yes, they run it and manage the money, but the ACOE is always looking over their shoulders and telling them what to do. I thought to myself, ““situation normal-telling the natives “here-you can have control of this, but you really can't””. It was a big campground, and some of it was cramped, cord-wood style sites, and some were big, roomy sites. There were also a number of natives living there full time, one lady across from us in a tent, that worked at their casino up the road, and most others in various types of campers.

We continued the quest for more kayaking, but the wind keeps defeating us! By late morning it's always at a stiff breeze that whips up whitecaps on the river. We did take a drive out into the reservation on back roads, and managed to NOT get lost-it was spectacular out there. They are pretty much into crop farming on the same scale that everyone outside the res does-big equipment, huge fields a thousand acres or more, cattle etc. You wouldn't know you were in a reservation. I hope for natures sake the oil companies don't discover frackable oil beds there, like they have here in North Dakota. More on that in the next post....

Sacagawea Monument

Sacagawea Monument

Sitting Bull Monument

Sitting Bull Monument

Camp

From there, we hit the 1804 road again on Wednesday the 18th, and crossed into North Dakota, headed for Bismarck and General Sibley Municipal Park for camping. This was another utility stop, this time for laundry and restocking, but we never got there. About 30 miles short, we passed an ACOE boat launch on the river, and Kath mentioned it looked like we had passed a campground before the launch, so we turned around and sure enough, it was a beautiful CG in a large, flat prairie, completely empty of campers. There was a big, oval road, that had about 12 campsites along each of the two straight sides, so we took the end site on the far side, away from the entrance. We were in actual prairie, covered in tall grass and studded with Scrub Oak and Russian Olive trees-it was beautiful! And because it was federal, with my “old age” pass, we paid $5 a night with power, as opposed to the $22 we were going to have to pay in town. 

It was early, so we decided to make it a work day, did the complete unpack, threw the laundry in the emptied-out car, and headed for Bismarck to deal with that and run errands. When we got back around 4, we saw another line of weather not far away, and a check of radar showed a line again coming from the southwest heading northeast. As we were close to the southern end, a run due east would keep us out of trouble. There was a gravel road 2 miles south of the CG that ran east to Hazelton, then a state highway that continued on to Napoleon, about 40 miles away. We packed everything BACK into the car, hooked it up and left, about 4:30. It was about 10 miles of good gravel road to Hazelton, but still slow enough driving that it was raining when we got there and onto pavement. We hoofed it along to Napoleon, and needed gas when we got to that town. There was considerable lightening going on when I got to the pump at the tiny general store, and I thought maybe they would make us wait 'till the storm was past before pumping the gas, but they were fine with it. 

Of course, just as I got started, the skies opened up and in 10 seconds I was looking like a drowned rat-and a bald one at that! Once that was done, we moved out of the way and kept watch the radar. After a bit, we saw that the CG was just getting showers and the back line & clear weather was already approaching it. BUT, in between us and there, our road had deep red to purple storms showing on both sides of it, and a healthy line of the same had popped up and was coming at Napoleon. Decision time-we went for it, and really had no problem getting back, until we saw what kind of shape we were in the next morning. The 10 miles of gravel, which was wet with some sloppy spots on the way back but not bad driving in spite of torrential rain coming down, was actually a loose slurry of gravely cement, that had covered, and gotten into, everywhere and everything. The Tracker, being dragged along behind, looked like it was made of mud, the tow hitch was packed with it, as were the electrical connections between it and the camper. 

So the next morning, I took the car to the boat ramp and just drove the it into the river, got out with a 5 gallon bucket and threw bucket load after bucket load of water over it, scrubbing the heavy stuff with a sponge to get it off, including the windows. We spent the rest of the day getting things repacked, cleaned up etc. and grumbling about the fact that some goon in a giant 5th wheel had come in to the empty campground with 30+ sites to pick from, and sets himself up right across from us-I was livid & even Kath, who usually rolls with the punches, was unhappy. Left the next day, Friday, instead of spending the weekend as we had planned.

From Indian Memorial to Hazelton RA

From Indian Memorial to Hazelton RA

From Indian Memorial to Hazelton RA

From Indian Memorial to Hazelton RA

Hazelton CG

Hazelton CG

Mr. Happy cooking chicken at Hazelton CG

Went into Bismarck, spent half the day running the errands we didn't get to 2 days before, and struck off for Wolf Creek R.A., up on Lake Sakakawea, via...you guessed it-1804 road. It is a spectacular ride, and, even if a little bumpy in spots, beats the interstate! Wolf Creek R.A. was also an ACOE run R.A., similar to Hazelton, $5 a night, and we we ended up with a single site on a point looking out at the lake and at a 6 mile wide island about a half mile offshore from us. The dam that creates Lake Sakakawea, Garrison Dam, is about 6 miles from there & we hoped to try & get a tour of it. We discovered that they only do tours on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, so that was Saturday afternoon for us. Fascinating-the scale of everything there is massive, yet every part of the operation is spotlessly clean, in spite of being built in the 1950's. It took them 7 years to complete, and puts out enough power to run 300,000 homes. The lake is also massive-178 miles long, and the main channel is over 170 feet deep. It impounds so much water, and has such an excess capacity, that they have only had to open the spillway once since it opened-just what runs through the power plant alone is enough to maintain the lake level.

Camp spot at Wolf Point RA

Camp spot at Wolf Point RA

All that driving just wears her out!

The next day, Sunday, we did a historical ride around the block, checking out some L & C sites. First, we backtracked down Rt. 83 to Washburn, to the L & C interpretive center and the reconstructed Fort Mandan. The center was an L & C museum, which would be a rehash of the many we'd already been to, so we passed on that & it's $7.50 admittance fee. Unfortunately, the fort was also part of it, so we probably should have paid it but didn't, settling for taking pics of the 12' tall metal statues of L & C at “council” with a Sioux chief, and another of the girls with a sculpture of Captain Lewis's dog, Seaman.

Ate lunch there and drove west on Rt. 200A to the Fort Clark Historic Site. This area had mowed pathways to many placards on open prairie, describing what was at each site-you had to use your imagination, as there were no remnants or reconstructions. Our last stop was the Knife River Indian Villages N.H.S. This was great! Very interesting museum on how these tribes lived, and a reconstructed earth lodge, fully set up as it would have been back then. It is similar to the lodges that L & C over-wintered in that first year with the Mandans.

Kind of looks like the inside of our camper right about now!

From the earth lodge, we followed a short trail through prairie & woods to the Knife River-beautiful country! After that, we found a back road that followed the river west into more farm country to Hazen, then north back to Rt 1806, and east back over Garrison dam and the CG. Great time!

We were there from Friday the 20th to Monday the 23rd, when we left for Theodore Roosevelt N.P's north unit, where we still are today, Sunday the 29th. We leave tomorrow for the south unit.

June 11th Missouri River Paddle

We finally got to paddle a section of the river-WOO-HOO!!!! Ignore the road line on the map above-the circles at the start (left side) and end (right side) show where we started and ended. You can change the view to satellite and zoom in to check the river out if you want.

We did this 22 mile section of the river on Wednesday, June 11th. The day before, we moved the kayaks up to the boat ramp and locked them to a sign post, then packed the camper up and drove it and the car to the takeout point, left the car and returned to the campground. As we were leaving for Fort Pierre (locals pronounce it "pier") the day after the paddle, it worked out great.

We were up at 4:30 and on the river at 6, as strong winds were predicted (and are the norm in the Dakotas), and we wanted to have plenty of time, having never kayaked on a river this size. By 6:55 we had covered the 4 & 1/4 miles to the Yankton/Rt. 81 bridge, and in another mile, left civilization mostly behind. Where we started, the river was maybe 600 feet wide, but now was the size of a good-sized lake-you could barely make out the shoreline looking downstream at the far side. For all you New Hampshirites-Lake Sunapee wide-it was an overwhelming sight! Throw in islands of varying sizes and numerous channels, and it was difficult to know just where you were at times. And in the middle of all that are sandbars where you least expect them, and snags everywhere-most visible, some only noticeable because of the eddy they're causing on the river's surface. We DID know that the river in the area of the take out was narrow, and will have just turned a sharp left and will be flowing due east, so that was easy to find.

The river itself had a 4 & 1/2 mph current, so paddling early on was usually very easy. We ate lunch early, and by 11:30 or so, that wind had appeared, blowing straight at us, and making keeping the boats pointing downstream a full time job! It worked itself up to about a 20 mph headwind, blowing directly into us and the current, making for quite a chop that was going in multiple directions. The last couple of hours were steady, hard paddling, and we finished up at the takeout around 1:30-just right, as were we getting a bit tired with fighting the winds. Saw some bald eagles, possibly cormorants, numerous other birds, but no wildlife. There is a link below to a 9 minute video of the trip (good shot of Kirk paddling right at me and going sideways!) and a bunch of pictures below that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cJvkW0abOo

A Ride Around the Block in South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska

While fleeing from Decatur to Yankton, we passed a lot of area we had intended to check out if we'd had a normal driving day, and probably would have spent a night or two along the way doing that before getting to Yankton. So, we did a ride around the block to make up for it on Saturday, June 7th.

We left the campground around 9 o'clock and headed over the bridge to Yankton to pick up Rt 50 east. We drove out Rt 50 to CR-454 and drove south on it 7 miles to the river. We wanted to check out a takeout point on the Missouri, Myron Grove Landing, for a paddle we're planning for Wednesday the 11th, from the campground to there, about 22 miles. We'll run the car down the afternoon before, come back to the campground with the camper for the night and leave early the next morning. Some pics at the take out point:

From there we back tracked about a mile, then continued east on back roads to Vermillion. After finding some lunch-to-go, we drove up Rt 19 north to Spirit Mound, which is a pointy rise in the land that Lewis & Clark saw from the river, 9 miles away. The local natives told them that the place was inhabited by “little people” (or “Deavels”, “about 18 inches tall with large heads”, as L & C's describe them in their journal), who shot anyone with arrows if they trespassed on the sacred mound. L & C took 11 men and Seaman (Lewis's dog) and hiked the 9 miles northeast to the mound. It was a tough enough hike that they had to send Seaman back to the boat, being late August, very hot, and Seaman being a big, shaggy Newfoundland. The boat was being watched by 2 more troops of the expedition. They saw a lot of firsts from the top of the mound. Since this was their first trip away from the river since they'd entered the plains, they took in a view of the surrounding prairie, hundreds of buffalo, some badger or coyote dens, numerous species of birds, and found a lot of various kinds of ripe fruit back down on the plains around the mound.

They were thirsty when they left, so they made a 3 mile detour northeast to the Vermillion River, and followed it back to the Missouri, and back to their boat. A mere 25 miles as the crow flies, and half of that river miles, which can be a WAY longer and more difficult path, all in one day! I've said it to K many times since the St. Louis museum-they had to have been some very, very tough men and woman.

We, on the other hand, got there in 15 minutes-it was an exhausting drive! Had lunch and grabbed the girls and hiked the mile up to the top. It was a cool, cloudy day. We met a couple of women at the start, one of whom was a local South Dakotan. She gave us a bunch of tips on what to see and where to go on the rest of our drive north through South Dakota, when we told her what we were doing. A fun conversation with them. Great hike up there and back too!  

Spirit Mound

Spirit Mound

Up the back to the top

View from the top

View from the top

A "Deavel" we saw at the top!

From there we backtracked down Rt 19 straight south through town to Burbank road, and took that to Elk Point, a funky little place that was still thriving (so many small towns are not) and continued on into the big city (Sioux City) and the Sargent Floyd memorial. Sargent Floyd was the only expedition member to die on the trek, of what they think today was appendicitis. L & C expressed a lot of sorrow at his loss in their journals, as he sounded like, in their words, a great companion and very talented man. They buried him on a bluff overlooking, but back away from the Missouri. In all, he wound up being exhumed 4 times over the years, and now lies on a bluff above the river again, BUT with Interstate 29 right underneath him, poor fellow, in between him and the river. No restfulness there, for sure!

From there, we were trying to pick our way through the city and across the river and return home through Nebraska, but got waylaid by a road rage incident. We were following a Toyota Prius when a black, low-rider Honda with an obnoxious muffler roared past us, whipped in front of the Prius and jammed on his brakes-that was just the start-the driving got really rough with him flipping the Prius driver off, weaving in and out, jamming on his brakes, swearing out the window, so we dropped way back. K was driving and I got out the cell phone and fired it up, in case there was an accident. 

Just before our turnoff, we passed the Prius and saw it was a very young woman driving, so K pulled over behind some construction cones and stopped & we called 911-this guy clearly wasn't going to let it go. They eventually pulled into a Day's Inn motel parking lot, cross lots from us at a major intersection about a quarter mile away, so we were able to watch them. We stayed with 911 (at the dispatcher's request) until the cops showed up, which took about 20 minutes-we left when we saw the police car pull up behind them. By then, it appeared that they knew each other and the whole thing may have been a lovers quarrel, but it was clear this boy had a temper & she could have been in serious trouble.

Finally, we got into Nebraska, and retraced the route we had taken when we left Decatur. One thing we passed that night was this windmill museum on the south side of the road (one camera has both a shutter and a focus malfunction, so some pics are a little off):

We've seen hundreds of windmills in our travels, but none like most of these! Most of the rare ones were made of wood, and wouldn't still be standing without a lot of maintenance on the part of the rancher/farmer-time they don't have to spare for something like that, so we've only seen steel windmills still standing. Even a few of these, that were moving in the wind, needed maintenance from all the squeaks and squeals going on around us!

For any windmill nerds, Long Pants, here's a link to a short video:

http://youtu.be/ngGC6fgHYm0

We continued up Rt 12 as far as the turnoff for Wynot (love that name!)
After all, Why Not?

where we left pavement for the back roads, and followed them to St Helena and on back home. All in all, a great day!

Mad Cows-their in white coats!