My Trails

Yesterday I rode the Beartooth Highway to the top of the pass. It was a beautiful day for a motorcycle ride and a beautiful road for a motorcycle ride. The road is a marvel. My admiration to the engineering and building of such an awesome stretch of highway. After winding up through miles of switchbacks and hairpin turns, it tops out at almost 11,000 feet, high above treeline in a landscape littered with rocks and tufts of tundra. I’m pretty sure the wind constantly blows and it is always cold at the top. I could see patches of snow on the shady slopes across the valley. While not as craggy or rugged, it reminded me of some of the passes we hiked through in the Sierra.

It is only a few miles to the town of Red Lodge. There is a supermarket there and good cell signal. Other than that, the town is a typical tourist haven with plenty of inns, shops, and restaurants to delight all vacationers with a pocket full of money.

The camp where I set up is in an open meadow, surrounded by mountains on two sides, and only a few feet from a roaring, mountain stream. There were only three other campers here when I arrived, but as the weekend draws near, more people pull in with there trailers.

My plans are to stay here through the weekend and then move up through Montana. I don’t dare move any more west because everything that way is on fire. I want to get up to Glacier National Park and see if I remember anything from the last time I was there 35 years ago.

Today I explored some backroads where people boondock along the Rock Creek. There were quite a few nice, secluded spots along the road, but as I drove deeper the road became filled with holes and rocks until it was not fun even on my Honda. I turned around when the road turned into a boulder field.

It is already starting to feel like Fall. Several nights have been in the 30’s and daytime highs in the 60’s. People here tell me this is not normal and the temperature usually would be in the 90’s. I have been lucky to adjust the climate by moving up in the forests, and I guess a little cool weather is better than hot. I can always turn on the furnace and put on a jacket. If it was hot, I would have to go to an RV park or suffer.

The mountain road that I’m camped on continues up to the Bridger Wilderness. I drove up the other day and was surprised to find about 50 cars parked at the trailhead. Some girls loading up backpacks told me it is a very popular trail system. These rugged mountains are home to grizzly bears so everyone is required to take bear canisters. The main trail through the mountains is part of the Continental Divide Scenic Trail, the third north/south long distance trail in the US. I would love to hike some on that trail.

Yesterday I visited the Mountain Man Museum here in Pinedale. It was quite interesting. There were many displays of rifles, traps, knives, and other trinkets used by the mountain men, but mostly it was stories of the beaver fur trade and the men who lived in the mountains trapping and surviving the harsh environment. They say that scores of men vanished to a mysterious death from the danger of the wilds. Hostile Blackfoot Indians that hated mountain men, bad tempered 600 pound bears, and brutal winters, all claimed untold trappers.

I’m doing laundry today and then will push on down that long, lonesome highway. I’m hoping it will get a little more lonesome now that kids are going back to school.

This is just a quick post to report my position. The cell signal here is poor so I may not stay very long.

It was an uneventful drive of about 200 miles into Wyoming. I found a campsite in the Bridger – Teton National Forest a few miles north of Pinedale, WY. Pinedale is about 50 miles Southeast of Jackson.

I will stay here at least through the weekend and then move further north.

The weather was better this morning so I decided to ride to Flaming Gorge Dam. I also needed drinking water and thought I could find a campground with a spigot. The highway to the dam was above 8000 feet for most of the way, so it was a chilly ride until the road dropped 2000 feet to the visitors center.

The tour of the dam was fun. The guide new all her numbers and statistics for the tourists and recited them at each stop along the way. After passing through the generator room one guy asked her how long it took for the electricity to get from the generators to a nearby town. She looked puzzled for a few moments and then said, “I’m not quite sure but it would probably take 20 minutes or so.”

On the way back I pulled into a pay campground and filled up a couple of gallon jugs with drinking water. Usually if you pay to stay at a campground, the dump is included with the fee. This dump station had a sign that said there was a $6 fee on top of the camping fee.

A while later I came to a sign announcing a historic cabin down a dirt road so I pulled off to check it out. I went maybe 5 miles and still hadn’t found the cabin. The sky was beginning to look angry so I turned around and gave up any more sightseeing. I only wish they would tell you how far some of these places are from the main road.

I just made it back before the rain came down in buckets. I probably was going a little too fast up the forest road to get here, but there is nothing worse than getting soaked minutes from home.

The weekend has brought many people out to the forest even though the weather has not been great. The camp on my left has a dog that barks constantly. I thought the animal was in distress after listening to him bark and howl for three hours, so I walked through the woods to see if he was hurt or something. Apparently, the owners had just tied him to a tree and left.

Rambo and his friends are camped to my right. It sounded like machine-gun fire for a while this afternoon. Even as it rained the gunfire went on and on. Usually there is a rule about shooting in a camping area but I don’t think many rules are enforced up here.

Minnie and I are in the Ashley National Forest, a stones throw from Flaming Gorge National Rec Area and the border of Wyoming. We only traveled about 150 mile today. I was pretty lazy this morning and didn’t get on the road until 10:30. It seem like the longer I stay in a place the longer it takes to put away all the stuff I got out.

I stopped at the Walmart in Vernal, UT to buy some groceries, and then filled with gas and propane at a Pilot nearby. The road up into the mountains was very steep and Minnie struggled to pull us to the top. Several sharp curves made us slow to 20 mph, causing a slow recovery for the next stretch. If I go back into town, I think Honda will do a lot better job than Minnie.

This is a really nice site but several tall Aspen trees will make it challenging to get a good solar charge. I plan to spend a few days here while I explore the area.