Second Day at Stockade Lake Campground

Sunday, May 18.


Today we made a new friend Alvis from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and he led us on a hike looking at the monocline, a structural feature in the rocks that took them from horizontal layering, to vertical, then back to horizontal. I got super nerdy and used my hand lens to look at a couple rocks, and of course this did not go unnoticed by my comrades, who took pictures and lightly teased me about it. We came to rest at a streamside rock after two miles, and Dr. Lisenbee (Alvis) let us rest and bask in the sun like mermaids.

Some people took naps, some explored, and I splashed around in the freezing cold water and took selfies. After about 20-30 minutes of this, Alvis rounded us youngins up to head back, and might I add that this geezer whooped our butts on this hike; I couldn't keep up! He also told us that the rock we had been lounging on was 2.5 billion years old, the oldest rock in the area, and I couldn't help but feel guilty for treating it like any other millions of years old rocks. Sorry!



After the hike we were all pretty exhausted, but what better way to pep a group of college students up than to go see Mt. Rushmore. No that wasn't sarcasm; I quite enjoyed taking ridiculous and probably inappropriate pictures with the presidents...

Poor George probably thought I was picking on him.















I had a blast, but the whole day there was one thing I just couldn't get off my mind....... Shower. I wanted to shower more than I ever had in my whole life. Okay, that's a little dramatic but seriously, I couldn't wait to make the hike up to the bathrooms and take a hot shower. Dr. Suresh had taken one that morning and said it felt great; Dr. Ranson sort of laughed at us, reminding us that it had only been 3.5 days... Only???

When we got back to camp, the new dinner group got started on their burgers, while Kelsey, Elly, and I grabbed our stuff and raced up to the bathrooms trying to beat the setting sun. Let me tell you something, I will never underappreciate a hot shower again. Seriously, it made me realize how much I can take for granted sometimes. A hot shower, running water, a bathroom less than 20 ft from my bed, a razor, my hair dryer, and so much more are things to be thankful for.

Feeling refreshed and like a clean princess, I headed back to camp to inhale my burger and wash it down with a cold beer by the campfire. What. A. Great. Day.

The clouds were looking gnarly, but luckily it only sprinkled for a little bit.

Kelsey trying to live up to our expectations of Furman athletes by planking outside of the Mt. Rushmore monument (she plays furman women's basketball). Not exactly sure what Tyler is doing or why he resembles a grandmother wearing a bonnet.

Aren't we purdy???

These blogs are starting to get easier to write, so hopefully I can keep up with the days!