Pinedale, Wyoming
Written by admin on August 23, 2008 – 3:36 pm -Sunday, August 17, 2008
Because of my layover from the “cold” front that came through, I’m finally on the road, again. I left Rawlins for Grandma’s Café (further up on Hwy 287). I’m riding Blackie along the hwy. The CDT book for Wyoming says to go off of the Mineral X road from Hwy 287 or as an alternate, to take Hwy 28 off of 287 which is further north. What the book didn’t tell you is that the cattle guard on the Mineral X road has no “pass through” gate for horses and it is a BLM fence and cattle guard!! It was 40 degrees when we got up this morning . The day is clear and nice. I stopped for lunch a little after 12:00 with the crew along 287 and a local Hwy Patrol stopped by. Lt Tom indicated that there was no stopping or pulling over to the side on this hwy unless it was an emergency. He was very courteous and we didn’t see any signs, but we would be off in about 15 minutes. He left us his card and we gave him ours and said it wouldn’t happen again. I then got to Grandma’s Café, where big trucks where hauling in and out various parts of oil/gas rigs. We then spent the night there. I did 22 miles and 7 hours.
Monday, August 18, 2008
We got up and had breakfast at Grandma’s Café. She opens at about 5:30 for the locals. The only café within about 30 miles, any direction. It was one older lady running the café by herself. She did it all, the cooking, waitress, cleaning, etc. I then left at about 7:45 for Baroil Road, or county road 73, which was west of Lamont (just ½ mile down the road). I then turned off onto CR 22. Paul went the long way around and went to Johnson City to take a dirt road south to meet us at the junction of CR 22 and CR 23 while Kathy followed me with the dogs and the camper. I’m riding Soldier and we let the dogs out for awhile. Jazz saw some antelope and took out after them and Cotton followed. I called Jazz back, but Cotton continued. Luckily the land was flat and slightly rolling and I could eventually see Cotton cross the road, behind me. She just kept on going, so I had to ride cross country to intercept her and get her back. Boy!! Was she tired!! Then, the next couple of miles, she found every sage bush she could to lay under to get out of the sun (which wasn’t very many big ones!). I then loaded them back in the pickup and continued on. A little later, I saw 2 wild horses (mare and colt) along the road….upahead. Kathy had driven ahead and had stopped just right across from them. Finally, Soldier saw them and called out. They saw him and came running towards him. They got within about 20 yards from us and when I turned Soldier towards them, they trotted away. I had forgotten that Soldier was rounded up out of Wyoming and this could have been his old “stomping” grounds!!. We saw about a dozen more wild horses along the road that day (not to mention antelope every where!). We were by a creek, so I took him over to get a drink. Soldier doesn’t really drink much, I think he is use to getting his liquid from the grass. As we turned to leave the creek, about 6 grouse flew out from directly in front of us. It didn’t spook Soldier, but it was quite a sight. After lunch (whith the camper) I got so tired, I almost fell off the horse. It is quite boring and hot and you can see for miles in all directions. I caught up with Kathy and she rode for awhile, while I took a break and caught up with her in the camper. I then got to talk to Paul on the radios (which was almost 8 miles away) and he said he had an accident while coming down the road. He took a wrong turn, headed up towards the mountains and knew he had to turn around. When he did, he took out the plumbing beneath the trailer that connects the “black water” and “grey water” to the outlet. I guess if he didn’t have any bad luck, he wouldn’t have any luck at all. I said I’d look at it when we got there. While he was waiting there for us (Hwy 22 and 23), he saw another bicycle rider and as he got there he saw it was Tim. Tim was the one we visited with after we left Chama, New Mexico. He was taking his time, but this last cold spell did him in. He was just going to go to South Pass and then call it “quits”. You never know!!! The day has been hot and “windy”! I traveled 28 miles and 9 hours. When I met with Paul, sure enough, he had knocked out some plumbing, but he rescued it and figured he could put it all back together, in the meantime, he saw some wire hanging from beneath his trailer and when I looked at it, it was his brake wires for his wheels. One side was broken, so I fixed it, tied up the wire to his axle and he has at least 3 tires breaking. The 4th pulled a wire from inside the wheel. We then camped there for the night.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
I left early and traveled down Hwy 28 riding Pepe. It was, again, long and boring and nothing but miles for miles around. Pepe does pretty good with his little shuffle trot. When I open the If it wasn’t for the 8 inch sages all over, you would think it was desert, which we found out later that the area we covered was called the “Red Desert”. Kathy is writing about it in her post. I then turned on on CR 2317 which is part of the CDT and continued. The only issue is “water”. There hasn’t been any streams, or pot holes to drink out of and we’ve run out of water for the horses from the pickup and horsetrailer. I rode for over 34 miles before I met the “crew” again. It had ben 11 hours for the day. Another long day. We brought the horse trailer and camper on the road. The roughest part was going over about 10 miles of “wash board” on the road. It didn’t do much good for our trailers. We then headed for South Pass City.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAT!! I left out of South Pass City (after spending the night there) and intercepted the CDT on Hwy 28. South Pass City is an interesting historical location and Kathy has a lot about it on her post. The route now not only follows the CDT (for a ways), but eventually becomes part of the “Oregon Trail”, the “Morman Trail”, the “Pioneer Trail”, the “California Trail”, and the “Pony Express” trail. I’ll have pictures of the Oregon Trail markers, later. I’m riding Blackie, but he seems a little slower today than before and is still favoring his left rear foot. We were able to fill up both the trailer and pickup barrels with water for our next segment. I will follow this trail/road to Buckskin crossing, where I’ll meet up with the crew. They took the long way around on 191 to Boulder and then south to meet me on the Big Sandy-Elkhorn Road (Hwy 118). I’ll be following CR 132 or better known as the “Lander Cutoff Road”. I took a lot of the Oregon Trail paths along the road. I met up with them at Buckskin crossing after about 38 miles and 12 hours later. Buckskin crossing has a lot of history and I think Kathy is writing about it, also. It deals with John Freemont, Jim Bridger, and other mountain man explorers. I met two bikers from Belgium. We had a good chat. They left from Canada and were trying to follow the trail. The said they were going to avoid the “Red Desert”, because of the lack of water and were going to by-pass it on the highway. We gave them some water and candy bars. They thanked us and peddled on. It was a good place to camp, along the creek and in the middle of “history”!!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
I rode Soldier on into Boulder and then to Pinedale. The crew had gone forward and found a place to stay at the local rodeo grounds. There was no electricity, but we had water and stalls for the horses. I had a close call when I was about into Pinedale. I was riding along Hwy 191 and the sides were fairly wide, but all of a sudden, Soldier bolted sideways and jumped into the middle of the highway. The highway is well traveled and there had been a lot of trucks on it. There was no controlling him because something had really scarred him. It was unusual for Soldier because nothing has bothered him since we started. He was even the one that would cross bridges without question. Anyway, luckily there was a pickup hauling a horse trailer coming and the driver was quick enough to see what was happening and slowed down while the other lane was empty. It could have been a disaster, had traffic been different. That one scarred me more than anything on the trip and I’ve decided to try to stay away from main highways from now on. Hwy 191 and Hwy 287 are the main roads in this part of Wyoming and well traveled because they both end up in Yellowstone. I put in 22 miles for the day and 7 hours. Later, that evening, there was a sign stating a “Pitchfork Fondue” cookout would be at the rodeo grounds. It seems they set up only on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday for their Pitchfork Fondue Cookout. I decided to go, but Kathy and Paul said they would eat at the trailer. We were parked only about 100 yards from it. I met Darrel (the owner) and Nancy (one of their helpers). Darrel told me all about the process, which is taking your order on your steak, then sticking it on the end of a pitchfork and putting it into boiling oil to cook it. In the meantime, you get your plate and fill it with salad, roles and homemade potato chips to sit at one of the tables. Later, Darrel brings you the steak, pulls it off the pitchfork and puts it on your plate. You also have your choice of drinks and later brownie or lemon bar with coffee. Nancy brought me over to a table and introduced me to her mother and her 2 aunts, who were dining there. I asked to join them and we had a good conversation the rest of the evening. The Pitchfork Fondue has been feathered on the Travel Channel’s “Taste of America” for 3 years. You can read about it by going to www.pitchforkfondue.com We then learned about the upcoming rodeos this weekend.
Friday, August 22, 2008
I got to sleep in, but we got to do our shopping and sightseeing. We went to the “Mountainman Museum”. It was very educational in regards to the mountainmen of the region and era. It told about the history of the fur traders and roundezvous in the area. It seems there were only a total of 16 rondezvous from 1825 to 1841 and over 10 of them were in the Pinedale area. I’m sure Kathy as more to say about the museum visit. We also learned of a memorial rodeo tonight to earn money for a scholarship for a local high school graduate. It was a jackpot roping event and was suppose to start at 6:30, but finally got started at 8:30. There were over 500 contestants and it lasted till 6:30 the next morning. Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep that night. It was a heading/heeling event only.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
After the rodeo crowd left (6:30) I was able to get a few more hours of sleep. Afterward, we went to town to get some more hay and feed for the horses. Both were pretty expensive. The hay was $12 a bale and the feed was $15 a bag. We’ve been feeding the horses 3 times a day. Hay in the morning and evening, with some feed during the day. It seems to be able to keep them up, O.K. We’ll be packing soon and heading for my next trip which will be from Hwy 352 up road 620 to forrest road 30040. It is actually just a trail, but it is in the lower part of the mountains and ends up north of Jackson, towards Yellowstone. I’ve had too many locals and forrest service people tell me about the current problem with grizzlies and lions in the upper elevation that I had planned to take. They all remind me to carry a weapon when I ride, just in case. One rancher (who lives in Cora, just off of road 352) by the name of Tom Davenport, even wanted me to have hollow points for the ammunition. It will only be one night out before I meet the crew, again, and hopefully no animal will spook or make my horses get away. I’d hate to have to walk out without my animals! I’d even hate it worse to have to even have the opportunity to shoot any animal!! My horses aren’t gun proof! Well, that’s a catchup and my next report will maybe be Yellowstone, or beyond. Beyond is Montana!!
Posted in Continental Divide Trail |Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
