Author Archives: scottluria

Pine Bluffs to Cheyenne, Wyoming Friday, August 13, 2021 There’s no getting around it, Wyoming is a weird state. The only state ending in “ing”, which makes it a gerund, I guess, sounds like a verb; the ending is unusual for place names in general (although Lansing, Flushing, Reading, and Corning come to mind). OneContinue reading “Reflections on a gerund state”

Kimball, Nebraska to Pine Bluffs, Wyoming Thursday, August 12, 2021. I ended my last post with a Homer Simpsonesque “D’oh!” Here I had just talked myself into resignation, skipping the Nebraska highpoint because I couldn’t get an escort through the buffalo range. I spun it as a life growth event, learning to gracefully accept realityContinue reading “I just couldn’t not do it”

Scottsbluff to Kimball, Nebraska Wednesday, August 11, 2021 Today was a day of compromises and missed opportunities. For quite a while now, I have been uncertain of being able to visit the Nebraska highpoint. I’ve already been there by car, with Brian and Eric in 2004, but I hoped to get there under my ownContinue reading “Reality 101”

Alliance to Scottsbluff, Nebraska Tuesday, August 10, 2021 Another fairly featureless day, but at least this one had an intriguing destination. Scotts Bluff, a butte which rises dramatically 800 feet above the prairie, was a landmark for earlier travelers on the Oregon Trail. It also rises above the eponymous town, which pushes the two wordsContinue reading “Calling my Bluff”

Chadron to Alliance, Nebraska Monday, August 9, 2021 OK, this is the first time this has happened in the 115 days of this trip. I really have nothing to report. 54 miles across the featureless Nebraska Panhandle prairie, there was 1000 foot climb out of the White River Valley, and then just gently rolling, withContinue reading “I got nothing”

Hot Springs, South Dakota to Chadron, Nebraska Sunday, August 8, 2021 Decision made, it was time to get going. Another scorcher today. I left as early as I could, left the last trace of the Black Hills behind and re-entered the rolling prairie. I passed a sign that symbolized my difficult choice. and found comfort,Continue reading “40 pounds and five large”

Custer to Hot Springs, South Dakota Saturday, August 7, 2021 Today couldn’t have been easier, 34 miles down the Mickelson rail trail and good roads, almost all downhill, and with a tailwind. So why didn’t I feel better? For weeks I have been talking about, and apprehensive about, visiting the site of the Wounded KneeContinue reading “Wind Cave, Wounded Knee, and wounded pride”

Sylvan Lake Lodge to Custer, South Dakota Friday, August 6, 2021 The backside of Mount Rushmore, seen yesterday from the top of Black Elk Peak, was all I cared to see of that monument. I’ve seen it twice before, there are always huge crowds, and as much as I admire those four men, one couldContinue reading “Faces in stone”

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 wasContinue reading “Black Elk Peaks”

Carstens Cottages to Sylvan Lake Lodge, South Dakota Wednesday, August 4, 2021 So today I started at almost 6000 feet, and finished at 6300. Why did I have to climb over 2000 feet? The elevation profile tells the tale. On two occasions I dropped about 1000 feet only to have to climb it again. IContinue reading “Where’s a zip-line when you need it?”