Information Deficit Syndrome

- This post is dedicated to all my library friends at FLO and beyond, wish you were here to help and enjoy!

Forget information overload, the information age has spawned a newer, more insidious problem. Information Deficit Syndrome (IDS).

Here we are deep in the beautiful ponderosa pine and aspen forests of the Black Hills National Forest, our campsite, high up Little Spearfish Canyon is tucked into a bend in the river, Firs, pines and aspen surround us and climb the canyon walls. It's sunny, 60+ degrees, blues sky and large puffy clouds overhead....

Mystery Stone Door

...and I can't get any data connection, can't even text. There wasn't any service in the Badlands either (but there was a camp store with wi-fi within a 1/2 mile walk). It's not the texting, or phone calls or even the posting that I miss. It's the inability to find out stuff, that's really annoying. That’s IDS.

For instance, there's this stone doorway in the canyon wall just 1 miles south. The doorway opens to a single cemented-vaulted room approximately 12'x14'. Outside the door, running parallel to the canyon wall is a rock path? or foundation? There are also signs of a well, and maybe some other concrete structure. If there was data service, I could probably find out what all this was. A mine? There are lots of those here, in fact the whole area used to be (and a majority might still be) owned by The Homestead Mining Company. Or was it some kind of real homestead? The site is at a wide bend in the river and there is plenty of level ground for crops or livestock. Not knowing is driving me crazy.

Oh, and the hiking trails. The very helpful guy at the information center in Rapid City gave us a map

Image from a website I wish I'd had access to.

of the hiking trails in the Black Hills. Four of them are labeled as being on the same road as the campsite. And there are trailheads off the road, but the trail names don't exactly match those on the map. For that matter, the map only indicates where the trails are, not were they go. IF there was cell service, I could look up the trails, and probably find a trail map.

Then there is the "Dances With Wolves" winter scene site. That's on this road too. But I only vaguely remember the Winter scene. IF I had a data connection I could watch that.

And what are all these pretty purple wildflowers? And why are some of the pines total brown, standing deadwood?

Well, S.D. has just informed me that the pines are being infected by a pine borer. So that's some information. But how bad is this infection? Are some trees resistant or are they in serious trouble?

Not knowing is one thing, not being able to find out - that's something else entirely. I was a librarian after all.  Maybe you can take the librarian out of the library, but you can take the need for information out of the librarian. Either that, or IDS is a new concern for our generation.

-- And what is a spearfish anyway?

Rain, Wind and Clay

The Badlands National Park in South Dakota is visited by over 871,000 people per year. The majority spend an average of 5 hours, driving the scenic loop, hiking the short side trails and strolling through the visitor center.

A small minority stay a night or two in the National Park Campground, many in monstrous campers, and hike the longer trails up into the canyons. An even luckier minority do so during and after a torrential thunderstorm. S.D. and I now consider ourselves among those lucky few.

Arriving Friday morning, and lucky we did as the one campground filled to capacity by early evening, we set up camp and explored the visitor center and side trails, planning to hike the longer hikes on Saturday.

The Visitor Center had a great exhibit on the geology and paleontology of the area. There was a lot of attention given to the roll that rain erosion plays in the formation of the spires, pinnacles and canyons. Every rain storm washing away significant amounts of the sand, clay and other sedimentary rocks layed down over the previous 67 million years. The clay is especially prevalent and, they warned, makes hiking after rain, extremely difficult and slippery.

That night, we woke up around 2 am, just as the rain started and the wind tried to flatten our tent on top of us. We spent the next hour, inside the tent, holding up the sides. S.D. on the South East corner, me on the South West. There was one moment when pushing out against the wind with both hands and my head that I suggested we might have to abandon ship and seek refuge in Bruce (the van). Other campers were taking that options and we could see head lights as some just up and drove away. But we held fast and eventually the storm blew over.

The next morning, after picking up the pieces, stringing some clothes lines to dry off some bedding, we drove down to the trailhead, where again the signs warned that hiking after rain could be extremely difficult. Sure, we noted, the rain last night was hard, but it's been dry now for over 6 hours, the trail should be fine.

The first half mile of the trail rises straight up. I think the entire trail was nothing but clay. Wet,
slippery, clay. Luckily the clay trail was in a little trough so you could also use your hands and establish three points of contact before moving your foot up a step. And with each step your foot also got a little heavier, since it picked up a fair amount of clay. At one point I just stopped, scrapped the dirt/clay off my hand and rolled a perfect red clay bead.

At the summit the trail took a four mile loop around the flat top of the mesa and we figured the walk would be easier. It was, but...it was still really slippery. The ground was still holding water, as clay soils do, and with every step there was a slide. Some little, some not so little. The hike also took us through a few sloughs along the mesa. Here the clay soil held all the water and formed pools. After attempting to circumnavigate around a few of these, we eventually had to give up and just plow through the middle. It was slightly surreal, hiking in a desert, 80 degrees heat, in water up to our knees.

Throughout the hike S.D. would remind me of the exhibit in the visitor center and remark on how much the water did change the landscape, just one rain fall had moved a significant amount of the Badlands, and it was obvious everywhere.

Back at the campsite, as we tried to save our boots from becoming pottery, the wind picked up again. Not that it ever had really died, and I was reminded of the some movie. A western, the beleaguered homesteading wife wringing her hands by the cabin door and crying about the wind. The wind. It's always blowing and after only two days, I could see her point.

We broke camp (see, I'm even picking up the lingo) early the next morning, just as a few rain drops fell, and the wind lifted the western corner of the tent, warning us of another impending storm.

The park is a beautiful but difficult place, that's probably why it is a park, but as we drove out of the park towards Rapid City it was beautiful.  A reminder that the great State of South Dakota is a varying place and is worth a visit.  As we continue our exploration of our new state of residence, it is becoming plain that South Dakota wouldn't be a bad place to stay a while.  Something we didn't expect.

Little Tent on the Prairie

National Grasslands

Prairie Sandpiper

Tonight, Thursday night, is our 6th day on the road.  We're camping  in the middle of miles of grass and range land that are part of the in the Fort Pierre National Grasslands. Nothing but sky and rolling range land as far as we can see. The National Grasslands are, like the National Forests, managed by the USDA for the use and enjoyment of all. One of those uses is the right of anyone to camp within the Grassland, where ever they want. We were a little skeptical of this so we'd gone to the Grasslands Office in Fort Pierre to double check. Sure enough, the Ranger assured us. He then helped us understand the vagaries of the road system, cautioned us against camping near any of the prairie dog towns, since there were usually rattle snakes there and it was also prairie dog hunting season. He then pointed out some great site possibilities. Right now, we along with some cows about 5 miles to the North East, are truly enjoying this area. It's like being in a huge green ocean with no other boats around for miles.

Prior to setting up camp, we'd already had a long and eventful day. Early this morning we woke up in Sioux Falls, visited the headquarters of Dakota Post, our new "home" and mail forwarding agent, acquired our new South Dakota drivers licenses, and registered to vote. All before 9:00am.

55 minutes and 67 miles later (the speed limit in South Dakota is 80 mph), we exited I-90 to see the world famous Corn Palace. When that turned out to be a building sided in murals made of corn we jumped back in the car and made our first ever visit to Cabelas. After declining to check our guns at the door we shopped around for large pack towels, a water container and some socks amid all the ammo and fishing hook displays. Checking out, I felt a little out of place not having purchased something that would kill something else but was happy that we had also found a great set of high-sided dinner plates.

And then it was back on the road to see if what we'd read about being able to camp anywhere in the Grasslands was true. It was, and here we are!