Black Elk Peaks

Sylvan Lake Lodge, South Dakota. Thursday August 5, 2021

The plural is intentional, a play on Black Elk Speaks, the definitive work on the Oglala medicine man. Until 2016, South Dakota’s highpoint was named Harney Peak, which I climbed in 1977. The name was a great insult to the Lakota people, General William Harney was known to them as “Woman Killer” for his habit of attacking defenseless women and children, so galling to have his name on the apex of their sacred Black Hills.

So I’ve climbed Harney Peak, but not Black Elk Peak. A silly distinction, perhaps, but it brings up the issue of what to do with all the big highpoints I’ve already climbed, but from a parking lot I drove to. As stated before, I’m too old to redo the really tough ones, have already decided to just bike to my prior parking space and call it good. Sea-to-summitting in two stages, acceptable to these “rules” that matter only to me.

Black Elk is in the gray zone, pretty hard but doable even in my decrepitude. I have reclimbed the northeast peaks, even the semi-tough ones like Washington, Marcy, and Katahdin. This one would be the highest so far. I was on the fence right up until I checked in to the Sylvan Lake Lodge last night. When the clerk said I could keep the room for two nights, that clinched it.

On July 22, 1977 my girlfriend and I drove nonstop from Boston to the Black Hills, on the 25th I bagged Harney with enough time to see Devils Tower and make it all the way to Yellowstone. Ah, to be young and strong, the whole shebang took three days. This time it took me 110 days to get here, and I knew the seven mile, 1200 foot vertical climb hike would burn up most of the day. Furthermore, an acquaintance I’d made outside of Pierre, Randy Brich, who has been giving me great advice about all things Black Hills, suggested I take a longer trail up and the short one down. What the hell, I’ve got all day.

Randy was right, the longer trail was much more interesting than I recall the short trail being.

The views were nonstop, many difficult to capture in a photo. It took me by a number of spectacular features, including Cathedral Spires and Little Devils Tower.

I didn’t have time for the side trails that lead to these, but on one occasion when blindingly following a family ahead of me, I came upon this crevice, and realized that I had gotten about halfway up Little Devils Tower.

I was tempted to proceed to the top, but no, this hike will be long enough as it is. The mistake had already added another mile.

The actual summit of South Dakota is covered by an old observation tower, and they have not changed the plaque on the wall, or on a Highpointers Club bench on the way up

I remember from 1977 that there were scads of ladybugs at the top, and there still were quite a few. Ironic, because Harney, you recall, was a lady killer.

This does not increase my highpoint count, I am still at 37, but now there are 18 that I have done from sea level.

In the hazy distance you could see the backside of Mount Rushmore, and can get an idea of what the mountain must’ve looked like before they carved it up.

You can also see how bogus that classic Hitchcock movie, North by Northwest, was. I’ve already mentioned it for the Indiana crop duster scene. In the climax, Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint are being chased through the woods and happen upon the top of Mount Rushmore. You can see here that they would’ve had to have made a major rock climb to get to the top of the heads from the back.

The “short way down” still seemed interminable at the end of this day. However when I got back to the lake I had enough energy to walk around the perimeter, adding another mile. It was generally pretty easy except for a cluster of rocks at the dam on one end.

Randy had told me that a famous rock climber, John Gill, had pioneered the climb up the boulders there, and to look for paint marks indicating the route. The paint was gone, but there was a little chair at the top of the cliff, for anyone who cared to climb up there.

The biggest hike of the trip so far, and quite a bit longer that the hike in 1977, but totally worth it.

Distance 11 miles, 4,889 total. Time 8 hours with stops. Elevation gain 2,042 feet

©️ 2021 Scott Luria