Needles Highway & Sylvan Lake, South Dakota: Mountain Lion Country

This morning we spent time in the little town of Custer, SD (Population 1860), enjoying a meal and all of the small shops that line main street, which is Mt Rushmore Road. Took Mary Lynn to the Furs, Antlers, and Hides shop today.


I know, I know, last night I referred to the store as the "Furs, Antlers, and Bones" store, even after MLA told me to substitute the word Hides for the word Bones in the shop's name.

Convinced I was right, I kept the store name in the blog as "Furs, Antlers, and Bones". Today I even tried to bribe the owner with $20 to change the name from Hides to Bones however he refused. Even when I pointed out his shop's name was redundant he still refused to change the name so I have to admit I was wrong; the name of the shop we saw yesterday and entered this am is "Furs, Antlers, and Hides". MLA was correct (this time).


Interesting assortment of goods carried by this shop, including mounted heads from various animals in the area, and some not in the area: Elk, Bison, Deer, Antelope, Bear, Rabbit, Wolves, Mountain Lions, etc. It seem everyone has to have at least one stuffed/mounted animal head on there wall out here. Not cheap either. The Bison were between $2000 and $3500; Elk between $1750 & $3000, etc.


The only mounted/stuffed head in the store that I could afford and had space for in the RV was a rattlesnake head, for only $5. I thought the rattlesnake head (you could get the skin, rattle attached, for only a few dollars more) would have looked good hanging on the wall over our dining table but the boss put a stop to that way of thinking right away.

MLA told me in no uncertain terms she was not going to eat her meals with a snake head poised ready to strike. I thought it might encourage us to spend less time at the table. She said it would encourage her to spend less time with me so I immediately saw the wisdom of her thinking.


After exploring town we road the motorcycle out Needles Highway, part of which is in Custer State Park. There are so many great roads around here and the motorcycle is the perfect way to enjoy the roads and the weather.

We did see one of those Mercedes Benz Smart Cars while taking pictures of the tunnel near the Eye of the Needle. Turns out the owners of the Smart Car (license tag: Smart e) are fellow RVers. The have a small garage in their motorhome where they park this car. It is only 8 feet long so you can park it in the width of their RV. Too cool.


The other day, the ranger at the top of Mt Coolidge asked us to close the gate at the bottom of the mountain when we left. She said it was about a mile walk and she wouldn't do it after dark since there were mountain lions around. She seemed very serious about not walking after dark.


So tonight, after dinner, I walked the trash down to a bear proof container at the office, about 1/3 of a mile away. It was pitch black out. As I walked past an especially dark part of the forest I heard a lot of movement in the woods and some kind of animal noise that sounded like a snarl. Not being an expert on animal snarls I couldn't tell what kind of animal was in the woods, but just to be safe I decided to whistle the rest of the way to the store. Don't ask me why I thought whistling was a effective mountain lion deterrent; it just seemed appropriate at the time. You let me know what action you take when you hear a large snarl in the woods.


Not to mention I was ready to smack anything that moved with the bag of garbage I was carrying. Of course I couldn't help thinking I should have bought the Glad trash bags at the store. I mean, could I really expect the cheap store brands to hold up during a mountain lion attack. What had I been thinking? Now I was going to die because I wanted to save 2.1 cents/bag on trash bags.


At the office I bought a bag of ice and asked the owners if they ever had a problem with mountain lions. They said the mountain lions were no problem at all, and promptly handed me a pamphlet titled "Staying Safe In Lion Country". Not very reassuring. Especially considering they had a huge pile of the pamphlets right beside the desk.


Anyway, when you read the pamphlet ( yes I read it cover to cover) it tells you the odds of being killed by a mountain lion (also known as cougars, pumas, panthers, and catamounts) is .1 per year in North America. That's one death every ten years from a lion attack. Turns out that annual death rate is pretty low compared to 3 per year for black widow spiders, 12 for rattlesnakes, 20 for domestic dogs (Dobbie I've got my eye of you!), 40 for bee stings and 80 for lightning. Pretty low odds indeed.


However when I asked to see the pamphlet for lightning, they don't have one. Nor for bee stings, or domestic dogs, or rattlesnakes, or black widow spiders. Sounds just a little suspicious that they just happened to have a huge pile of the "Staying Safe In Lion Country" pamphlets right at hand when the risk is so low. Hmmm.


Coming to you from a well lit up RV with all the doors & windows locked.... See Ya!