Harney Peak Tune-up hike

Before our attempt on Wyoming's Darton Peak, we decided to tune-up on South Dakota's highest peak, Harney Peak.

View from Harney Peak Fire Lookout

The hike is 6 miles round trip, the same distance to our planned campsite on Darton Peak. We assumed this would give us a good approximation of the effort necessary to get to the Darton high camp. That was the plan at least - see the Darton Peak story for details how that turned out. 

The Harney hike was incredibly uneventful - an easy hike up to the fire lookout and an even easier hike back. It did, however, highlight two "concerns" for the main hike:

1. Difference hiking speed - one member's "cruising" pace was (much?) faster than the other's, which could lead to premature exhaustion. 
2. Water consumption issues - one member drank all his water before the end of the hike, whereas the other was less than half way through his. Neither condition is good - the former risks running out and the latter risks self-induced dehydration.

Since none of these issues were fatal, we left the mountain confident in our ability to tackle Darton.

As you may have guessed, Darton wasn't about to be tackled that easily.

Harney Peak Fire Lookout

... More Harney Peak & Yellowstone Pictures on Google Plus