Centennial Trail - S. Box Elder Creek to Dalton Lake
What you need to know:
Length - the map says 6.1 Miles but beware, we had the distance at 9.0 miles
Water - none until you hit dalton lake, except in the beginning there is box elder creek.
Water crossings - the s. box elder creek crossing is bridged
Camping - dalton lake has a campground otherwise, Black Hills National Forest Camping rules apply. Setting up your own campsite away from developed fee sites is allowed on most of the Forest for a maximum of 14 days in any 60-day period. However, around developed reservoirs and campgrounds, camping is allowed only in designated areas. General rule: Camp 100 feet away from any road, stream, or trail and 1/2 mile away from developed sites.
Trail condition - this trail is a popular atv trail from beginning to end. because of this, it is easy to follow but very rocky and can be hard on the feet and muddy when wet.
Notes - because of the variation in distance and the trail conditions, this was one of the harder sections of the trail for us to hike.
Beginning of the trail. Nemo is one mile away, but you do get closer later if you want to visit the town, but you have to bush wack, or walk the road.
Met some subjects on horseback near Nemo.
Good place to resupply our water - Box Elder Creek.
More uphill climbing.
Pretty wildflowers.
Time for a break.
Town of Nemo, but no path to get there.
Still a far way to go.
Crossing Nemo Rd.
Fell into this muddy pit in the middle of the road when my poles didn’t quite hold me up. Not very pleasant from there onward.
Tired and muddy. Nice place to take a break.
Trying to stay positive but hard. Dave and I backpacked the previous section and this section for a total of 15 miles in one hike. Not only was the trail following an atv road the whole time, it was also muddy and rocky and we had to keep stopping for hundreds of atvs, motorcycles, and horses to go by. Not what I call a nice relaxing walk in the woods.
Another very muddy section that was hard to get by.
Almost missed this sign to finally get off the atv road and go on a small trail down to Dalton Campground.
One mile to go - thank God.
I can see the end finally.
The end - we made it - worst part of the Centennial Trail so far.