The spring grasses and flowers have yet to emerge on the shores of Sheridan Lake, named for the former town that was submerged when Spring Creek was dammed in 1942. This photo was taken from the point where a cell signal is available, maybe, for a very brief time.
HILL CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA
To all the moms out there, Happy Mothers Day!
We’ve been on the move, and that always means some adjustments. At the end of April we traded the windy (and soon to be hot) plains for our summer’s stomping grounds last summer: Black Hills National Forest.
Aside from the nearly 400 mile trek, we moved back into a bit of winter, with snow in today’s forecast. We were grateful that our employer from last summer, Forest Recreation Management, took us on again on short notice. The camping season isn’t scheduled to start for another 10 days. With the pandemic situation still dragging on, we’re not sure about any opening date quite yet.
We parked our camper last Sunday night in a campground loop with no neighbors, other than the other campground hosts about a quarter mile away in separate loops.
Last summer, we were camp hosts next to Pactola Lake, the largest lake in the Black Hills. One of its attractions, beside its deep waters and easy access, was the big green cell tower located up the hill from the dam.
This year, we are in a campground on the south shore of Sheridan Lake, a few miles south of Pactola.
Sheridan is the perfect place to unplug, where your phone is only good for capturing images of the scenery and your string of fish. Our manager stationed us at Sheridan because we will be leaving in early August, and this was the best fit.
Except for the unplugged part. You can check your email or make a call at the entrance, but mountains block out any cell signal, except for what we call reception point, the lake shore 60 yards from our camper.
The past few days, the deer roaming through our campground have greatly outnumbered the humans. Our camp overlooks a couple coves, where anglers boat in or try their luck from the shore.
Talk about isolating. We have learned how much we depend on our cell phone and internet connections.
Oh, we COULD have cell service, if anyone wants to send us about $5,000 for investing in satellite phone and internet. Instead, we drive into Hill City, 8 miles away, to take care of the online business, along with laundry and shopping trips. We're posting today from the Heart of the Hills Convenience Store, where the laundry room is a great place to write under the gaze of a free wildlife display. And there are slot machines in the next room!
During April in Kansas, we lived without TV reception, but then there was always Netflix accessible through your phone’s hotspot. We survived, and it looked like the farm, where we camped by a pond, could be our summer home. We had to decide between the summer heat of the plains, and the mountains where summer temperatures rarely reach 90.
Spring is just beginning to arrive up here at 5,000 feet, and we’re ready. A few more nights below freezing, and we’ll be in the comfort zone. Hill City is a friendly small town, and we are experiencing it without the crowds of tourists jamming up the roadways and sidewalks. We are still in the social distancing habit, so our time here in town is limited to a few stops.
We have a few calls to make to make to say Happy Mother’s Day to the moms in our family. We hope this finds moms and all of our readers in a safe place. Safe but connected.
Until next time, stay healthy.
We’re all in this together.
Larry and Angie
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