Day 1 - Sully Creek Campground to Cottonwood campground. We started the day around noon with a 7 mile day starting at Sully Creek Campground just south of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Right away we found ourselves at the first crossing of the Little Missouri River in less than one mile. Up to our waist line in water we thought - hmmmm... this does seem a bit higher than we were told was "normal." For the next 5 miles we passed through beautiful wide open scenery as we wound our way up and down hills and through grass fields. At about mile 5 we passed through a gate that served as our official "entrance" to the National Park. From here, the trail conditions we less maintained and sign spotting was a little sparse. So sparse in fact, we never found mile marker 7 which was our key to crossing the Little Missouri River to our campsite at Cottonwood Campground for the night. After a bit of trail blazing and river fording, we finally made it!
Instead of "re-trail blazing" across the river and finding the trail again, we opted to back track 2 miles to the last road crossing and do a 12 mile day up to Wannagan Campsite. While still in the park we came upon an unexpected creak crossing. Though only roughly 10 feet across, this particular creek was nothing but mud, and the kind that you just keep sinking down and down in. It took us a while to hatch out a strategy and get across, but not without the loss of two sandals. Not long afterwards we saw four buffalo from a distance. As our trail continued to wind up and down and around hills, we eventually ended up on top of a huge plateau for three miles. Not long afterwards we officially exited the park and headed onward for three more miles to our final destination - Wannagan Campsite.
The nice thing about backpacking is that you are always in the right place to start off your day hiking in the morning:) we departed from Wannagan Campground for another beautiful hot day of rolling grasslands. Now out of the park, we were hiking in the "Little Missouri National Grasslands." In this sketch Chris was really just sitting behind a large tuft of grass, though looking at it afterwards, he thought he looked a bit awkward as you can't really see what he is doing. I'll leave that one up to the imagination.
Ok, let's stop looking at all the pretty scenery - I've been hiking in it and sketching it for three days now, and look at the reality of the situation - MUD AND WEEDS! Yes, everywhere. Mostly the mud was dry and cracked up with weeds growing out of it. Often we would see animal footprints (Buffalo? Elkhorn?), but mostly it just crunched beneath our feet as we trekked on. After our lost-sandal-creek experience we were nonetheless thankful that it was in fact DRY.
The day we met a river we could not pass. We knew that at about halfway through the trail we would be crossing the Little Missouri River again. At the crossings on day 1 she was higher than we expected. After checking with the National Park headquarters, who claimed it impassable, and meeting a ranger at a campsite who claimed it possible, with too many questions we decided to hop out at the last road before the river - the dirt road 708. Interestingly enough, dirt road 708, which was supposed to cross the river as well, had also caved in and the only way to get to the other side now was to drive all the way down to Medora. Which we did, and got a hotel room for the night.
With the river washed out and our route diverted, we decided to drive up to the end of the trail and work our way back down from the CCC Campground instead. Once done with the trail on this day we managed to finish about an hour earlier than anticipated. Thus, we sat and waited, and waited, and waited for our ride to pick us up. One of the reasons we finished so quickly was because we didn't stop for a sketch break. Instead, this meant that people were at the mercy of being sketched:)
With many miles on our feet, serious blisters already developed, leg skin irritation issues, and numerous feet issues, we stopped hiking here. A crime? Yes, but it also gave us the chance to see much of the area we would not have seen otherwise.
