Westward Ho! Part 2

Now, the Black Hills are a beautiful place, and the road by the family cabin is a fantastic driving road. Taking the doors and roof off a Jeep makes it that much better... being able to fully take in every gorgeous valley and limestone bluff with nothing in your way. It's really a peaceful and majestic drive. Well, it would have been if the Jeep hadn't been making noises. As we left the cabin, we could hear a rubbing noise coming from the rear of the Jeep. At first I just assumed it was a stick or something wedged by the tire that could be pulled out. A brief inspection didn't find anything. We kept on going, with me reassuring David it was nothing serious since it was a rubbing noise, not a grinding noise. Naturally it got a little louder, and as David pulled over so we could inspect it again, the rubbing turned into a terrible grinding noise. David and I crawled under the Jeep, poking around and banging on things in an uneducated attempt to repair the problem. We finally decided we had done enough, and David backed out onto the road so we could continue. And you know what? The noise had stopped. Blunt force and luck were the only tools we really needed.

Just one of the many amazing sights.

We arrived without any additional issues and headed out with the "Scenic Group" aka people who didn't want to break their Jeeps. A short ways down the road, we hit the trail, and promptly became stuck. Yes, that's right. Very first day. Very first trail. Very first rock. 15 feet from the highway. Not cool. I was suddenly concerned that David's open diff Jeep and (relatively) small tires wouldn't be up the challenge. We'd have to be towed along every trail, or avoid every obstacle; a humiliating possibility. Thankfully that wasn't the case. With a little help we made it over the rock, and we decided to air down the tires and take it slow. And it worked! We became the little Jeep that could all of the sudden.

My Fear

No joke, that one rock was the only obstacle we had real difficulty with that day. And with that out of the way, the trip suddenly got a lot more fun! The first day was two fairly easy trails.  The first one was climbing the hills above Deadwood. A wildfire in 2002 meant that the hills were free from trees, making for many breathtaking sights. At one pointed we ended on a beautiful vista overlooking the town. You could see for miles, all the way to Bear Butte and beyond. This might have been my personal favorite trail from a sightseeing standpoint. The afternoon included more scenic trails and a stop at Friendship Tower.

View from the top

We had survived the first day with or dignity and our Jeep intact, but there were tougher trails ahead.

[Part 3 coming soon]

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