Whitetail deer have had the run of the campgrounds next to Sheridan Lake all winter. They'll move to more secluded areas once hundreds of campers descend on the recreational areas in the Black Hills this month.
SHERIDAN LAKE CAMPGROUND, BLACK HILLS NATIONAL FOREST, SOUTH DAKOTA
For the past couple weeks, we have had the most secluded, peaceful quarantine site you could imagine.
On May 1, we set up in Site 79, the camp host site, while sites 70 through 95 in our Chipper Loop remain empty with the gates locked. Our loop is one of five in the campground with a total of 129 sites.
We are part of a team of camp hosts who will work to accommodate campers, as well as issuing day passes to boaters and beach visitors, from now until past Labor Day.
The campground opens on Wednesday. To what kind of camping crowd, we aren’t quite sure, thanks to all the adjustments going on for the Covid-19 pandemic. Although we worked last summer up the road at Pactola Lake, we arrived after the season began, so opening up will be a new experience.
We are grateful to have seasoned coworkers. There shouldn’t be anything we can’t handle, even with the extra requirements of masks and gloves and constant sanitation while we work directly with guests. There is only so much cleaning our crew can do throughout the day, so we’ll be encouraging guests to make sure their group is taking precautions of their own when sharing facilities with hundreds of other guests.
We can only speculate what the season will be like with all the dramatic changes under way in the economy and travel.
Some of the questions: Will we see visitors from Europe and Asia that we met last year?
With national forests and state parks closed in surrounding states, will diehard campers flock to the Black Hills or will they find other places near their homes?
Will visitors from across the region shy away from their usual haunts – the bars, cabins, restaurants and casinos – that they usually visit from May through September in the hills?
And the question on everyone’s mind in the hills: What will happen to the Sturgis motorcycle rally in early August?
Time will tell how much, and for how long, the pandemic will affect the tourism of the Black Hills, which has a major impact on the region’s economy.
Chores bring change
Until next Wednesday, we will be cleaning up the campground sites, mainly the firepits.
We’ll be raking away the winter’s deposit of pine needles from the around pits to reduce the risk of spreading fire, and we’ll be looking for “microtrash,” the amazing amount of bottle tops, cigarette buts, plastic strips and who-knows-what that end up on the ground at campsites.
Before the traffic picks up on the road through the campground, we hope to soak up the peace of the forest. As a photographer, I am amazed by the changing hues through the day of the lake surface, the sky and the trees.
We enjoy a fair amount of silence in the campground, even though Sheridan is next to the heavily traveled corridor of U.S. 385. For at least part of every day the trees are still, until a passing gust of wind comes through. It’s strange to hear the wind coming and moving the trees 100 yards away before you feel the wind.
The silence is broken by the chatter of red winged blackbirds and the dark eyed juncos, and the calls and drumming of the red bellied woodpeckers.
The osprey will continue their shrieks as they scan the lake for their food source, and the local heron will silently swoop above the cove or maybe surprise me by landing on top of a pine tree.
For a few more days we’ll see our own little herd of whitetail deer, about 10 of them, as they appear a couple hours before sunset in the campground. By June they’ll be in more secluded areas as hundreds of people invade their territory.
Yesterday on a hike past the campground edge, I found that we are about 100 yards away from the Historic Flume Trail as it skirts Sheridan Lake. The flume – basically a long wooden elevated waterway, diverted water from Spring Creek downhill to Rockerville, where it blasted away hillsides, uncovering a million dollars worth of gold, according to the historical markers.
The path of the flume structure provides a great hiking trail along Sheridan Lake and beyond. I can’t wait to venture on the Flume Trail beyond the lake area.
The weather, if you believe the forecast, is about to turn from rainy and cool to more summerlike in the next few days. That means we can probably expect some late afternoon thunderheads.
Time is precious
One of the things we learned as camp hosts last year is to get out of the campground at almost every opportunity. Our work schedule isn’t arduous, but we still need to be available in our loop for late arriving guests. There are so many sights to see in the area that we’ll have to have a plan. We learned last year that if you don’t make time for adventure, the summer will be over in a flash.
Our first two weeks have flown by, mostly because we have been adjusting to the absence of cell service in the campground. The loss of that luxury has meant too many trips to Hill City.
Then there’s the everyday stuff – getting the pickup’s oil changed, checking our post office box, doing laundry, shopping when needed, all while trying to keep our distance.
As much as we’d like to dream about a vacation in the hills, it’s time to get to work and pay the bills, while we make time to enjoy the mountains in our spare time.
We hope you enjoy the blog posts and the photos (click to advance the slideshow), and if you get a chance, give us a like and a share on social media, and subscribe so you’ll receive an email for each new post.
We also hope you can manage to stay connected while you do your part to help us move through this tough stretch.
Make sure you get outside when you can. Summer will fly by.
Until next time, stay safe.
Larry Peirce
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