Harney Peak
South Dakota
May 2015
We cross a footbridge to get to Trail #9, the Harney Peak Trail. #9 starts out innocently enough. No, not innocent at all, with its rutted mud puddles every half dozen paces. Too much, way too much. I’m surprised that this popular trail doesn’t have better drainage.
It’s a matter of how the trail is built. At home there is a park where the trails are beautiful, all the time, even after a downpour. There is another park where the trails offer boot sucking mud even if it’s been dry for weeks. You get to choose how you want your footpath to respond to the weather.
While I’m all in favor of keeping hiking damage to a minimum, there is a limit to what we can do. When the trail is as nearly continuously muddy as this Harney Peak Trail is, it becomes difficult to walk. While it is absolutely the hikers’ responsibility to hike gently, this is the first time I am prompted to ask the trailkeepers to do their job. They too have an obligation to keep the trail hike-able. If you’re not going to maintain your footpath, don’t call it a hiking trail, call it a mud run.
Bravely, with mud akimbo, we trudge on.
