August 24 - September 2, 2024 - Lafe and Faith's Odyssey

The Maah Daah Hey Trail

The next day, August 24th, we got up, finished packing up our van, cleared the remainder of our stuff from the house, and bid my parents farewell. We hit the road south and west towards our next destination in western North Dakota: the Maah Daah Hey Trail (MDHT). The MDHT winds 144 miles through spectacular scenery in the Little Missouri Badlands across land protected by the Little Missouri National Grassland and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. In 2023, I had made a trip up to Theodore Roosevelt NP and seen signs for the trail; I did some research and decided that I wanted to do the trail someday. So, we decided to seize the opportunity we had this summer and attempt the trek. We traveled from northern Minnesota out of of the woods and lakes back into the great wide plains and nearly all the way across North Dakota to Medora, the only real town in the Little Missouri Badlands. We stopped at Walmart and Scheels to pick up water jugs and freeze-dried meals that we would need along our hike. The badlands are fairly void of water, so the Maah Daah Hey Trail Association (MDHTA) worked with the Forest Service to place water boxes at regular intervals along the trail. The water boxes are three-foot bear-proof steel cube(ish) boxes that anyone can use to put water jugs in to resupply with during their hike. In addition to water boxes, there are campgrounds along the trail that have manual water pumps that we planned to utilize. We got to Medora in the evening and spent the next several hours driving to three water boxes, two of which we put water jugs in and the third we put water jugs and food for the second half of the hike. After making it to the third water box, we immediately passed out along the side of the road as it was now 1 AM.

The sun woke us too quickly, and we headed up to the Theodore Roosevelt NP north unit visitor center where we were planning on leaving our vehicle for the duration of our hike. The trail starts well south of Medora and goes all the way north to the aforementioned north unit, so we were planning on leaving our van at the north unit, getting a ride to the southern terminus, then hiking back to our van to avoid the costly shuttles from Medora to either end of the trail (would have cost $500!). I figured there would be enough people in the area that we could get an Uber and so scheduled one for 930 AM the night before. Well, after we had gotten our backcountry permit and packed our bags it was very close to 930 but I had no notifications to indicate that a ride was approaching. Curious, I opened the app and saw in small text “No drivers available”. Ah, lovely. So, I tried using Lyft: no joy. After a brief discussion, we decided that we would stick our thumbs out along the highway as we walked the mile from the visitor center to the northern terminus and either get a ride down to the south end or hike the trail from north to south and make the shuttle a future Lafe and Faith problem. Shortly after starting our walk, a Tacoma pulled over on the road ahead of us and offered us a ride.

Me: “Where are you headed?”
Driver: “Medora, you?”
Me: “Perfect! That’s where we’re headed.”

Without further ado, we hopped into the truck with a young man not much older than ourselves and began heading south. We got to talking and Bryce, the driver, informed us that he was an engineer on an assignment at a power plant just north of where we were. His girlfriend told him that he needed to explore Medora while he was in the area, so his plan was to drive around there and down some gravel roads to sightsee. This was again perfect, as our ultimate destination was the Burning Coal Vein Trailhead well south of Medora down some windy gravel roads. Once we told him this, he was happy to take us all the way there. We had a great time talking to him on the 90-minute drive past all the badlands that we would have to walk ourselves back up in the coming days. He dropped us off and bid us farewell as we thanked God for blessing us with what can only be described as a providentially-provided ride to the southern terminus. We shouldered our heavy packs and began hiking north back towards our van.

The trail is 144 miles long without any forays off of the trail for water or into town, so we were planning on 150 miles of walking. We’ve both backpacked before, but this was our first time on a long distance trail and one of our first times in a water-scarce environment. Our equation went something like:

Extra water weight + several days of food + relatively flat terrain < sustainable limit ~= 15 miles/day

So, we took that and figured we could do the trail in about 10 days.

After Bryce dropped us off, we set our sights on the 15 mile goal but figured we could make it up in subsequent days as we had lost the coolest and best hiking hours of the day. As we began hiking, we soon encountered numerous adorable little horny toads/horned lizards and began counting them. Faith wagered we’d see some number in the 80s, and I figured we would see 118 by the end of the trail. The first day otherwise went uneventfully: we only saw one other hiker (clearly not a through-hiker) and made it just past mile 11 before we called it quits for the day. The sun was setting and rain was predicted for the night, so we found a nice spot and settled in. The rain was ephemeral and thankfully didn’t turn the clay soil into mud for the next morning.

As the sun started to rise, our tent got bright and we got ready for the day. Faith was trying new boots and had rapidly figured out that they were causing substantial discomfort via numerous blisters and consequently ditched the boots in favor of the sandals she had brought for the river crossings ahead. This was exactly what had happened when we were hiking in the Cascades, so we figured it would work out alright. We clocked 18 miles on Day 2, making up for most of the previous day’s lack, saw a pair of horseback riders, and had our first water fill up at one of the water boxes that we stocked a couple days prior. The trail was good and well-marked aside from one wash-out that required jumping over a narrow but deep cut that water had previously flowed through. Rain was again predicted for the evening, so we found a fairly protected place to pitch our tent and let a few brief thunderstorms pass overhead before falling asleep for the night.

The next day started out cool and windy, and we took the opportunity to quickly fill up our water bottles at a nearby campground before heading up the trail. Our plan was to make it close to Sully Creek State Park just south of Medora and do our first crossing of the Little Missouri River the next morning. However, as we got going, we realized we were going to be very close to the state park that night. So, we decided to push and made it to the park just before dark. Our arrival would have been earlier if not for a detour that added at least a mile to the trail that we didn’t notice until we were nearly back on the main track. We were happy to find out that the Sully Creek has showers, so we rinsed off some sweat and dirt before crossing the very shallow river and pitching our tent on the opposite bank. We had clocked 20 miles on Day 3 and were rather beat. The distance took a real toll on our feet as we both had some serious blisters and pain by the end of the day.

Day 4 started out pretty dismal: cloudy, windy, cold, and with a lack of energy on our part. We were in a lot of pain as we wandered the next few miles into town on foot as our attempts to get a hitch just a couple miles were unsuccessful. We got a hearty lunch from a saloon in town and followed it up with some excellent ice cream. Most importantly, we acquired what soon became the hero of the trail: Tylenol! It is a miracle what a simple painkiller can do for one’s mood and ability to keep going. Had we not gotten Tylenol, we probably would have quit. Yet, with some of the screaming from our feet and joints deafened, we mustered the courage to walk (again, unfortunately no hitchhiking) back to the trail and keep heading north. The south unit of Theodore Roosevelt NP lies directly north of Medora, so we soon entered the park and almost immediately came face-to-face with the first bison of the trip. He was a big fella, and he wasn’t going to move from his spot in the middle of our trail, so we made our way up and across a steep hillside to get around him. Stupid animal. We repeated this exercise with another individual then an entire herd of bison before crossing the rest of the park without incident. We camped in a lovely spot just outside the park as night fell after 17 miles finished.

The sun rose on Day 5, and we got moving pretty quickly. Similar to the prior day, the temperature was cool, the sky overcast, and the wind strong, which made it genuinely cold. We trekked north to a campground just off the trail to fill up our waters and encountered a dozen mountain bikers getting ready to take the trail south to Medora. We wished each other luck and kept moving north to finish the rest of the chilly day just after picking up the resupply bag we had left at roughly the midpoint of the trail. Our bags got a lot heavier, but at least we had more options for snacks and meals. 16 more miles done!

Day 6 could not have been more different from Day 5: it was very hot, cloudless, and completely still. We made sure to get up early to get miles in before it got too hot. As the sun rose and eventually started down towards the horizon again, we took breaks between hiking a couple miles and cooling off in the meager shade we could find. As evening came, we made it to the last major water crossings of the trail at the Little Missouri River and an adjacent tributary. The water was again shallow, but the banks were obscenely muddy. We managed to wash off some of the mud, but we decided to leave most of it to dry overnight. We pitched our tent a little ways off the bank of the creek and went to sleep having done another 17 miles.

We awoke on Day 7 to a dew-covered tent and damp socks and shoes that we had hung up to dry. Apparently it’s rather humid along the banks of a creek in a river valley, who’d have thought? We put on some slightly moist clothes and trudged up and out of the floodplain towards the campground water resupply for the day. We stopped there for lunch and to take a nap to wait out the afternoon heat and let our gear dry. Evening brought a lovely breeze and encouragement to get a few more miles in. We completed the day with another 18 miles down.

Day 8 was again very hot with no clouds or breeze, but we were pretty well tired of hiking, so we did our best to kick ourselves into high gear and crank out as many miles as we could. We took ample short breaks to cool down in the afternoon and hiked well into the evening, stopping just before entering the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt NP. We managed to get a new record of 22 miles done, and it sure felt like it. Normally, it is very difficult for me to sleep in a tent, but I fell asleep without issue that night.

In our eagerness to be done, we got up as soon as it started to get light on Day 9. The forecasted temperature was over 90 with no breeze or cloud cover, so we were eager to get the last few miles done before the heat hampered progress. We made it back to the van just after noon having done another 12 miles on the trail. It was a glorious moment, and we followed it up with well-earned showers and ice cream back in Medora. We got a postcard to commemorate the adventure, grabbed some sandwiches, and started driving south and away from the badlands. We stopped for the night in the beautiful Slim Buttes around Reva in northwestern South Dakota and almost immediately fell asleep on our first real mattress in a while.

The Maah Daah Hey trail passes through some beautiful terrain that we were happy to experience, but it was challenging. We are glad we did it but also glad it’s over. I don’t think we would do it again, but it was a worthwhile accomplishment and good test to see if we would want to through-hike the Pacific Crest Trail some day. The answer: no through-hike, that’s too much time on the trail. I can’t recommend the MDHT to most people, but the area is gorgeous and well worth visiting for a few days.