Trail #89

Centennial Trail -#89

Top of Bear Butte Peak, starting at 5AM 6/22/2018

Let me begin by just stating how incredibly fun this adventure was. Thursday after work we headed out to the Black Hills to run the Centennial Trail. This trail is a 125-mile foot-path running south from Bear Butte Point to Wind Cave Park. It covers the beautiful Black Hills from the heart of them. Taking you up to gorgeous lookouts, across rapid creeks, through grassy valleys and about everything else you can imagine. I was constantly blown away by the pure beauty out here. 

The view from Bear Butte.

Mike C was my co-adventurer on this trip, and we had such a great time going through all the trail details on the way up. We also got in lots of chats about his thru-hike of the A.T.  I made it no secret that I would try to set the "Fastest Known Time" out on this trail before we even left. I believe I did this for a few reasons. One, it is just simply hot in ultrarunning right now. Every day you keep hearing FKT chatter & the website is all updated. It seems to feed the adventurer in me to get out on the trails and get after it. Two, It made it seem more worthy of sharing with my ultra-friends. Like if I was just going up to run some miles on a trail it wouldn't be worthy of the same attention, I don't know why I felt that way. Three, I didn't think it through like a trail junkie, I thought about it like an ultra runner. It sounded fun and challenging and I didn't think about how it would make the hours on the trail feel to me. On to the actual day though, we will come back to that.

We started out at 4:00 AM on Friday hiking up to the top of Bear Butte point, the official start of the CT trail. We got up there at 5AM and took a few photos before making our way back down. We had to be careful not to trip on the loose rocks. I fell backwards once, and in my most graceful trial running moment ever caught my body behind me by throwing my arm down fast enough. This out and back was an absolutely gorgeous sunrise hike. This would be a terrific hike for anyone in the Sturgis or Rapid City area, or anyone passing through. 

Almost to the top of Bear Butte

The next section after Bear Butte took me around the lake that sits near the bottom of it. This section was mostly rolling green hills north of Sturgis. This was the kind of stuff I love running on. I tried to capture the beauty without wasting much time. The trail stays pretty open and exposed until it reaches Ft Meade trailhead just outside Sturgis. Here are some photos from that section to Ft Meade. The second one is the top of Bear Butte.

on CT89 making my way around Bear Butte Lake

Looking back at the start of the CT

getting close to Ft Meade

A quick capture of the trail winding down the hills between Ft Meade & Bear Butte Park.

I hit Ft Meade around mile 11. This section took me into the forest. The trail got more like the CT that I was familiar with here.  I was mostly doing whatever the trail gave me here. When it was steep I would hike but I would run the flats and downs. I started to have my first thoughts about the FKT here. And here those are; I decided on this run that the whole FKT thing is not for me. I don't think I thought it through much before actually getting out here. On paper & in my head, before the trip, it all sounds like ultra fun, and I bet it could be for most. But for me, it just started to seem too egotistical. Like saying "I can do this faster than anyone else" made it more worthy of doing? That didn't make sense to me out here & I didn't like how that made me feel about the trail and my time here. I'm not taking anything away from anyone who has an FKT or is chasing them, as an ultra runner I totally get it. But as a hiker and staying true to my thought that my passion for ultra running is an extension of my passion for long distance hiking, it just didn't capture my heart the way other things in this sport have. At the same time though, it didn't take anything away from the hike/run of the CT#89. I kept doing what I was doing out there. Run when I felt like running, hike when I felt like hiking, stopping to eat or take photos and take it all in. Push my limits on sections but then take it easy on other sections. All my running and all my training is for 1 thing, to help me discover, and move well in nature. Nothing more, nothing less. And that is what I did.

I took in the views from here and headed to Alkali. I hit that trailhead around mile 15 and chatted with some people who were in town for the race that weekend. That was fun to see other people out on the trails getting ready for the race. Mike would come out at each trailhead and find me and we'd run it in together. That was great. I always knew I'd have those shared miles as I made my way through each section. I really looked forward to those when I was out trying not to get trampled by wild bison. Which could have happened once, scared the crap out of me, but I had my little 2-inch knife in my hand so that would have done a whole lot, I'm sure. So each time I saw Mike any worries I had were just put to rest. I don't worry much about wild animals, but every once in a while one of them will just get my mind going. When you are all alone out there the mind goes where it will, you just ride it out. When I'm with my friends though, the outside world is minimized, we are engaged in chatter, flying down trails, taking in views, excited about what is around every bend.  

The adventure got a whole lot more interesting after around mile 30. About 1 mile into my 12-mile section big thunderclouds moved in. This was some of the loudest thunder I had ever heard in my life. I was in a dense forest that climbed to the top of two of the highest peaks of the trail. There were absolutely no signs of shelter on this section so far. I decided to just try my luck and keep going as it was just some thunder and a little lightning. I ran as it started to thunder and lightning harder and harder.  Then the rain started, then the hail, and boy did it hail. What seemed like forever little pieces of ice kept pelting my head and arms. I was looking for shelter around every bend. After about 30 minutes of it, I saw to North bound hikers coming:

"Any shelter ahead?" I asked?

 "Nope," they said. "How about for us" 

"Nope"

We were both about 6 miles in with 6 miles to go. I started running as fast as my legs would take me. 

This was definatley the biggest storm I had ever ran through, or even been outside through. I loved it when I saw Mike running up the trail towards me. It would have been so easy for him to sit in the van and wait for me at the trailhead but he didnt, he got out, in the storm and ran towards me. Why? Because that is who Mike is. 

We ran it in together, moving well in nature and what it was giving us. Almost laughing at how silly it was that it was still hailing and raining this much. 

When we made the van all I wanted to do was sit and relax. It was shelter, it was warm, it was sane. 

But that FKT thing? wait is that still a thing. No, not really, but I knew I needed to get out and get moving again even if I didnt care about that FKT anymore. This next setion to Box Elder campground was 8.5 more miles and my legs had about 42 on them already. If I sat too long they were going to get tight. I changed shrits and grabbed my rain jacket and hiked out of Dalton up the trail in the rain. I started trying to run in what had about the same exact texture as butter. This butter like mud lasted until about 1 mile left of this secion. Every time I tried to run I'd either faceplant or have some wierd dance like thing happen with my legs as I tried to gain my balance. So I just hiked, pretty much all of it until the runnable section. In the pictures below you can see the amount of water there was. That is the trail, not a creek. 

 

One thing that kept me going through this next secion was that I knew there was a little cafe near Box Elder. A gal that we talked to at the trail head around mile 27 said that it was open yesterday so she assumed it would be today. I would hit that next trail head at about mile 50 and hour 10 of the day. The perfect time for a sit and some food, and that is exactly what we did. When i got to the trailhead we grabbed all of our chargers and headed over to the cafe. With watches & phones plugged in, we chatted and pigged out. I believe this was the 1st time I mentioned to Mike that I was no longer looking at it like a FKT attempt and was more just trying to enjoy miles and have some fun in the hills. We ate and paid the check and got back to the trail head. I headed out here feeling good and the trail allowed for some running. I met a gal on this section that I would run/hike with for the few hours as we chatted about all kinds of things in life. This is trail magic to me, the unplanned moments where something like that happens. I get how setting coolers out for thru hikers or cooking up some burgers is trail magic, and very much appriciated by all thru hikers alike, but there is also trail magic like this. the kind this is not planned by either party but is a total blessing through a struggle part of the day. I wasn't necessarily on the struggle bus but I was coming up over 60 miles at this section so I was definatly feeling it. Plus all that rain and mud made for some gnarly chaffing. 

My day1 ended at that trailhead, we called it a day and headed to get some service and some rest and get back out in the morning. I ate some ice cream here, pigged out on salty foods, cleaned up and tried to drink up. My body felt good though, I mean it felt like it had worked all day but I was never red lining it so it felt ok. Sleep was what I needed most. I had only been getting around 4-5 hours each night this week and getting up at 3:30 to start Friday I knew my body needed it. I also found out that night that my Suunto watch had lost the entire run that I did that first day. No data! I have a call into Suunto now but this was just a big wind out of my sail. A 60 mile training run w/out a data file, what!! 

We made it back to the trail the next morning and headed out early. I didnt take very many pictures on day 2 but I will try and explain it the best I can. The first miles were beautiful as can be. We went up a big climb and overlooked a few different lakes. Those views were gorgeous. The trail crossed a very fast moving trout fishing creek a few times (with bridges). It got very overgrown in spots and shoulder high vegitation made it hard to always keep track of where it was. I continued to deal with mud as well, but not as bad here as day 1. Day 2 was not the big day that I thought it would be, but that was ok. I got some more miles in and I also left some miles for another weekend. I believe I have around 40 miles of the trail left to cover some weekend that my mom, Kiera or whoever wants to can come out and mess around with me in the Blackhills. And we can cover those miles however we see fit. 

I enjoy running in the mountains about as much as anything in the world. Being able to escape the real world with the people I  am fortunate enough to have in my life is such a blessing. I can't wait to get back out there and do more things like this. So happy that my body rolled through the miles as well as it did, I ended the trip happy that I could ask as much out of it as I did and roll off that many miles without any pain or struggles. 

 until next time... Happy Trails!

Jeff