Sunday Night With John: Where the Buffalo Roam

It can be said rather loudly that I’m an impatient guy about somethings. When I get a head of steam going the direction I want, fine details tend to go out the window. It has lead me on a wonderful journey through life with a lot of lessons learned the hard way. After watching two years of survival shows on the Discovery Channel and a light reading of one or two articles on backpacking, I decided with the help of my long time friend, Kyle Johnson, to start backpacking.  I would love to say Kyle is the friend able to balance out my aloofness and unpreparedness but if I did that I would be lying.

Kyle and I decided to pull our first backpacking trip like you do a band aid, quick, without looking, and making sure half your arm hair comes off. We quickly settled on two places to hike, my choice: The Superior HIking Trail by Duluth, Minnesota, and  Kyle’s choice: The Badlands of South Dakota. I wanted nothing to do with the Badlands of South Dakota, and when Kyle questioned my reasoning, my reply was because it’s our first time doing anything like this, and THEY ARE CALLED THE BADLANDS. Kyle rebuked my worries with we will be just fine, you big baby. We agreed to flip a coin and whoever won the coin toss would get to pick. We could have researched the difficulty of each hike, we could have checked to see if there was place where beginners should start hiking, no, no, no not us. It’s not like we were wondering into the wilderness with little experience in survival, and no idea about wild animals. I lost the coin flip and so we are headed to the Badlands of South Dakota for our first ever backpacking trip.

Next we had to buy our gear. We made a list of things we thought we would need and double checked that with an internet site. (I’m sure it was an upstanding site with proven information) After a trip to Dick’s Sportings good, a night of packing, and a good friend attempting to talk us out of going we were all set to head to the Badlands in a couple of days. Our friends main talking point was that we didn’t even bother to buy a tent. We had explained we watched a youtube video with a guy who just used tarps, and that seemed easy enough and way cheaper than buying a backpacking tent. Our logic was sound and our methods proven, because everything you see on the internet is true, isn’t it?

We arrived to the Badlands without a map which meant a trip into the local town to find one before we venture out in the wide open west. After grabbing a map and consulting the Internet blog we printed off, we decided we would hike to a place in The Badlands called Dearhaven. We pulled into the parking lot and the first thing I see is a sign that read, “Beware of Rattlesnakes.” I immediately got back in the car and refused to leave the car for ten minutes. I hate snakes, they scared the crap out of me and I couldn’t fathom walking around in Prairie Grass knowing I could stumble upon one. Kyle talked me out of the car and we took off in the Badlands with our map, a compass, mine you, neither of us had ever taken an orienteering class. We decided we would walk out Northwest and head for Dearhaven Ridge.

After a minor detour into rocky outcrops and caverns we decided with our vast experiences we went the wrong way. We returned to a spot where we knew we were headed the right direction. We reached Deerhaven and popped over the ridge line and saw just how vast and beautiful the Badlands are. We stopped for lunch and sat on a ledge about 50 feet above the prairie grass floor.  As we were eating cheese and crackers, and granola bars, two giant wild buffalo turned the corner and enter the prairie grass below our feet. My mouth fell open being so close to majestic large animals in the wild. I snapped a couple of pictures as the beautiful beasts sauntered through the meadow paying no attention to the two small humans. We walked another four hours northwest before we soon began to get low on the horizon. We stopped and began to settle in for the night. We used the two tarps we brought and set up our youtube inspired home for the night. It was cozy and warm until around 9pm when we heard thunder coming from behind us. We had no idea if this rig was waterproof or could stand up to wind. We scrambled to find rocks which aren’t available in plenty. We hunker down for the night and it proceeds to downpour, thunder and lightening for most of the night. We wake up and our little youtube shanty tent kept us dry all night. Chalk a win up for the Internet.

We had only planned to stay for one night our our first trip, didn’t want to push our luck. We begin the walk back to our car, hoping we are reading the map right and heading the right direction. If we walked out northwest, we needed to walk back southeast. We reached Dearhaven after both of having thoughts of being lost. As we walked away from Deerhaven and toward the car we heard a noise off to the left in the prairie grass. We took four steps away from the noise and picked up our pace. I have no idea if it was  rattlesnake, and I'm extremely happy I didn’t have to find out.  We arrived at our car and jubilation overcame me as I survived one of my dumber ideas which turned it into the coolest idea I have ever had.

Sometimes in life we do just have to jump in the deep end and attempt to swim. Sometimes all the planning and preparing takes the risk out life. I’m not saying take a hike in the Badlands without taking an orienteering class, but from time to time we need to stretch ourselves, we need to take a risk and we need to do something somewhat dumb to end up with something cool.

I have taken 8 backpacking trips since my maiden voyage and reconnecting with nature is the best addition to my life besides my wife over the last 5 years. I have upgraded my gear, I research my hikes a lot better, and snakes still scare the crap out me. Through it all, I have had nights around a fire with just what I could carry on my back, a few friends who dared to hike with me, and a way to recharge my soul by going where the buffalo roam.