22
Aug
inReach message from Robert Danger Byrd
Rick and I decided to start Harney Peak a bit later so we could enjoy the scenery going up. Should be midway up mountain at sunrise. Leaving trailhead now.
Rick and I decided to start Harney Peak a bit later so we could enjoy the scenery going up. Should be midway up mountain at sunrise. Leaving trailhead now.
Rick flew in to join me on Harney Peak which we are climbing tomorrow. We are making an early start with the goal of a sunrise summit. Harney is a beautiful climb, and we will miss the ascent as it will be dark, but being at the summit during sunrise offers some spectacular photographic opportunities.
For the last few days we have been relaxing in the Black Hills of South Dakota. One of the best things about the highpointing is that it has taken us to wonderful places that we would never have gone otherwise. The Black Hills area is just such a place, and if you are looking for a great place to take your family, visit the Black Hills and tell them Danger sent you. It won’t get you any extra perks, but it sounds really cool.
On August 17th, 2015 I stood on White Butte the highest point in North Dakota. It was #1 of the 4 state highpoints of our 2015 North Central Trip and was the northern most highpoint of that trip. It was #30 out of the 50 states for me.
You will find the entire Trip Report here.
White Butte Statistics:
Summit Date:Monday August 17th, 2015
State: North Dakota
Elevation: 3,507′
Distance: 1.5 Miles
White Butte Links:
Photo Gallery
Posts
Trip Report
You will find, status, photo galleries and trip reports for all of my adventures on the Highpoints Page.
Below are some of my favorite photos from the climb, and you can find the entire White Butte Photo Gallery here.
Back at trailhead & my waiting Jeep.
It was a nice hike & more beautiful than expected. The rainstorm sunrise was perfect & coyotes were a pleasant surprise.
Standing on the 3,506′ Summit of White Butte watching sunrise through distant rainstorm while smoking a Cuban cigar & listening to the coyotes howling
Still dark & I’m following what appears to be a cow path. I can’t imagine what interest bovine would have in state highpoints, but its heading in the right direction.
After fumbling about following Google maps through some pastures, I found the tractor road to the trailhead and drove jeep as far as possible.
No trail signs, but GPS says I’m close so I’m just going to head in that direction on foot.
Yesterday we stayed in in Chamberlain South Dakota and it was a fairly uneventful day. Today was much more interesting as we made the 368 mile drive to North Dakota.
We drove through miles and miles of beautiful farmland with rolling hills covered with various crops as far as the eye could see.
We had been seeing billboards for Wall Drug for the last 2 days, and after being on the road for hours having seen little more than crops and cows, we were ready for a stop so we dropped in the see what all the fuss was about.
Turns out Wall Drug is a great entrepreneurial story that dates back to 1931 when Ted Hustead & his wife bought a drugstore in the tiny town of Wall. After a few years with poor results, he was about to close the doors, when he had the idea to put signs on the road offering “Free Ice water”. As soon as the signs were up he had a store full of customers, and its been so ever since. Today 22,000 people a day stop in to Wall Drug and it has something for everyone.
Jack-A-Lopes
Shopping
Piano Playing Gorillas
Ladies of Ill Repute
Gunfights!
Chapels
We also drove through Sturgis which was a ghost town after the big rally earlier this month.
We are now relaxing in a very secluded and peaceful spot which is the northernmost point of the trip for our motor coach and Susan . In the morning, I’ll take the Jeep and continue North to the highest point in North Dakota which will be state highpoint #30 for me.
We just crossed from Kansas into Nebraska. Nothing else has broken, and FedEx dropped off the parts I needed to repair the hitch early this morning, so I was able to replace the broken part, and reclaim my hardworking screwdriver.
As for the alternator, were are still doing fine without it, so I’ll replace it when we get back home. I already planned an upgrade, so I’m ordering a 200 Amp PowerMax Large Case alternator that is more powerful than the factory one and has a computerized programmable external regulator, that will allow me to tweak the charging profile to support AGM batteries which I plan to move to.
Since Susan has gotten more comfortable driving, traveling in the coach has become much more enjoyable. At present I am lounging on the sofa eating organic animal crackers while Susan drives. Life is good.
Yesterday morning, after 30 minutes of driving I realized I was headed South instead of North. It was of course Susan’s fault as she is supposed to be my navigator, but she was otherwise occupied. So an hour after starting out, we passed the Pilot truck stop we have stayed at overnight.
The house charging system is having no trouble charging the chassis batteries, so the lack of an alternator is a minor inconvenience. I have been keeping an eye on the chassis battery voltage and manually charging them by connecting the two banks together when the voltage gets below 12 volts. I can now do this from the dash from a temporary switch I have installed.
So last night I tried to make a very tight turn and realized it was not going to happen. The jeep needed to be detached in order to backup, but the telescoping towbar was in a bind and I could not get it to release. I grabbed a rubber hammer, and whacked the release trigger which worked great, but the second which was now under even more stress snapped off.
This morning I took the locking assembly apart, studied and realized that all it needs is a screwdriver and duct tape to keep it locked. Really, I’m not kidding, see for yourself.
So unless I break anything else, we should be in Wichita Kansas this evening.
So we got as far as Huntsville and I noticed the voltage on the chassis batteries was dropping. After some troubleshooting I learned that the alternator is only putting out 3 volts.
There are a total of 6 batteries, 4 for the house and 2 for the chassis. There is a nifty emergency link feature that allows you to connect the chassis and house batteries via a relay (see the silver canister pictured with the yellow test lead jumper). I have used this feature many times when one or the other set of batteries needed some help and it works well.
Since the house batteries are charged via the inverter, and the upgraded Outlaw inverter has more than enough reserve to charge them all, I jumpered the relay to permantly link the batteries. It’s pulling 13.5 Amps through the relay to charge the chassis batteries, and the relay is getting warm but is holding and the chassis batteries are already much healthier.
I’ll check it it in a couple of hours, and if the relay holds, this should keep us on the road.
By the time you read this, Susan and I will be on the road driving clear across the country all the way to North Dakota. Good Lord willing, we will complete the highest points in Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota & South Dakota where we will spend some extra time visiting Mt Rushmore and other local interesting places of which there are many. My old friend and Rick Overholt and his girlfriend Kathy Glynn will fly into South Dakota and join us for South Dakota. Rick enjoyed it so much the first time, he wanted to climb it again.
We will be traveling in our 1999 motor coach we call “BigByrd” and have been remodeling since we bought it in 2012 and its now ready for prime time. We have taken a number of trips already in it, but this will be the longest one yet.
Perfect weather here & Talkeetna so yes, the planes are flying. I’ll call this adventure concluded & will post a trip report later
After 19 hours and 10,000+ feet we are finally back at base camp. So now the question is, will planes fly? Or will we be stuck here?
Starting the final grind up HeartBreak Hill. It’s only a 700′ elevation gain but at the end of a day like this, it’s aptly named.
Breaking at 7.8k Camp. Next stop Base Camp which is about 6 miles further. This is a death march, I might be the one who passes out.
Breaking at 11k Camp & digging up cache. Forget waterboarding, have a man fight a heavy sled down 3k of steep icy slopes & he’ll talk
Were leaving 14k now & will continue moving throughout night. Should be at Base Camp by morning. Snow now, 95-20 in last few hrs
We have setup some tents & are napping for the long downhill grind. Down is hard for me as I only trained for up, also chews up feet
We’ve taking the Death March option. After a brief rest, we are down climbing all the way to base camp, or until someone passes out.
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