Kevin – Wednesday. There’s SO much to say about today – please bear with me. Our route was southwest out of Ft Bridger, up onto Bigelow Bench, then back down off the Bench into Muddy Creek. A good chunk of that land is part of a wind farm and they’ve posted “No Trespassing” signs all over the place. We can follow county roads in the area, but access to the actual trail is limited across the Bench. Frump.
In fact, the next couple of days will have similar difficulties. The land is all chopped up with a large number of owners – much like the Black Hills between Ft Laramie and Casper. We didn’t get onto all those properties either. Maybe another day? There are a few specific locations I’d really like to photograph.
Denny starts but misunderstood the first turn and headed the wrong direction. I was working on my bike and didn’t see her make that turn. When I was ready, I hopped in the car and proceeded to where I expected her to meet me. Hummmm…. Where’s Waldo?
And, of course, I’d turned off my phone ringer which I eventually realized and yep, she’d been trying to call me. In the olden days, they’d leave written notes attached to conspicuous poles or trees. The expectation was that the following groups/persons would find those notes. Such communications were one-way. What if the following group missed the note? We have the luxury of immediate, two-way conversations – if we are smart enough to listen (which obviously, sometimes I don’t).
We get straightened out (repentance?) and follow a ridge road – well, kind of a mesa road I suppose. From its height above the valley, you get a marvelous ‘birds eye’ view back to Ft Bridger. The pioneer route was down there going from right to left in this photo.
And, by turning around looking south, the Uintah Range seems just a few miles away – which they are.
This vantage point is truly one of my favorites for the entire trip. It may not be quite as ‘clean’ of human structures and stuff, but if you can mentally ‘erase’ or overlook modern stuff, you can see the Bridger Valley in its former pristine state.
Speaking of which, in the afternoon we toured parts of Fort Bridger, a Wyoming State Park. Josh Camp, Superintendent, spent some time with us talking about the sites’ history and plans for the park.
Fort Bridger is well worth the entrance fee and you could spend a few hours productively. There is a very good museum and our friend Mike Anderson has been involved in helping with displays. Excellent work on the recent excavations of Fort Scott used during the ‘Utah War.’
Biking conditions were tough today. Denny thinks it’s the hardest day we’ve had. Lots of loose gravel- quite deep in some spots. Peddling up hill in that is a “challenge” putting it mildly. There were three big hills climbing about 400+ feet on our route today. The wind was requiring us to expend more effort, and the sun heated things up earlier than we expected. Kevin had a tough assignment - keeping his bike under control on the long downhill from Bigelow Bench (think wind farm) to Muddy Creek! He had both his feet dragging on the ground trying to keep himself upright in the gravel. The heat got to both of us today so when we reached town, the big “Old Fashioned - Rootbeer Floats” sign was calling to us loud and clear.
We fielded a call from Tresha Kramer, who is helping orchestrate & finalize things at This is the Place Heritage State Park for the 24th of July event. We hope you can come! Details are in the flyer posted here. Park entrance fees apply.
Just after dinner, a big wind storm. Trees down right beside us. Trailer rocking like a boat on the ocean. Biggest thrill yet. Now we’ve experienced a storm in the mountains.
Tough time planning tomorrow’s route amidst the storm – kept me from finishing the blog tonight.