I decided to skip another camp today and head for South Dakota. We did 424 miles and made it into camp at 5:45, right in the zone of when i try to arrive, 5-6, with two hours of usable daylight. We are in the same camp and site we stayed in last year, almost to the day.
Just after i fed Donner his dinner, as i was setting up the tent, wouldn't you know an RV pulls in next to us in an empty camp with three rambunctious dogs. Needless to say, i did not set up the tent in record time tonight. But i got through all the chores just within my two-hour hope, and just as useable daylight disappeared.
I am still not over the shakedown period. I figure in the two-hour set-up-camp routine i must go through hundreds of individual tasks. By the end of a trip, i usually accomplish everything without trip-ups. By trip-ups i mean clumsiness, mistakes, duplicating actions unnecessarily, rule violations, and misplacing things, not to mention unnecessary procrastinations. I figure tonight i tripped up maybe 10 or 15 times.
I am, however, over the transition to sleeping on the ground. Last night i had a solid nine hours of sleep with no interruptions. St Ambien helped accomplish that.
In camp, the three most dangerous things are not bears (they are fourth) but walking around the camp in the dark with my headlamp on, going up and down the Defender's ladders to the roof rack (which i have done perhaps 1000 times already over 10 trips), and tripping over Donner's leashes. So far, only once did it almost prove fatal, in 2013 in Alberta when i tripped over a rusty raised metal fire-pit in the dark when my headlamp was aimed too high. When i fell, i missed heading my head on the top of a big wooden post by about an inch, but sliced a three-inch gash in my right shin. I was alone in the camp, miles away from the nearest small town, my cell phone had just been accidentally washed in the laundry, and i had two dogs with me, Leben in a wheelchair. Since my leg was bleeding profusely, i pulled out a surgical suture kit from my first aid kit, but could not get enough skin to sew up the wound, so i took other first-aid measures. Needless to say, i survived. I did not get to see a doctor till i got to the Yukon, and he gave me a clean bill of health. You can imagine how i walk around the camp in the dark now. Similar precautions are taken for the ladder and leashes dangers. So far, so good.
Tomorrow, we head for the Badlands, an easy (relative to yesterday and today) 317 mike drive due west. Readers of my blog last year will recall the bear spray incident that kept me put for two days. Ouch.
The problem this year will not be with bear spray, but the weather. An historic blizzard is expected to hit the Rockies and Yellowstone just as i expect to get there. Oops, poor planning. i may think i am prepared, but i am not a fool. I just may stay put somewhere just before the Rockies and wait it out, although it is expected to last for days. I have 8 days of food and water and an 800-page book to keep me company.
It is past my bedtime. Signing off.
Ed and Donner, from the road, South Dakota.
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