Aug 1, 2015 Eastern Wyoming

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Sunny and windy start to the day.  52 degrees this morning as we head back toward Greybull where we stop for coffee and doughnuts. We ask at a gas station if there is a bakery in town and get a strange look and comments that maybe there is a small one a few towns over.  So we go back to Blair's grocery store where we shopped yesterday. 

 We are back to desert land except for those that irrigate.  Some cattle and sheep, some green farmland contrasts with the rocky mountains and brush covered desert.  We are heading back to the Bighorns and turn east at a town called TenSleep. It was 10 sleeps (nights) between southern and northern Paute villages.  Now on the Cloud Peak Skyway toward Buffalo.

More trees as we climb back into the mountains.  

We stop at TenSleep Fish Hatchery and see tanks of trout, mostly rainbow and cut-throat, of varying sizes. They produce about 1.2 million eggs a year, some of which are sent to other hatcheries for rearing.

We continue on the Fish Hatchery road which turns into a dirt road that meanders through the mountains till it rejoins 16.  Quite a few boondockers along this road.

Quick stop at Meadowlark Lake which has a monument to the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) which built the dam at this lake, as well as many bridges, cabins, watchtowers, walls, etc. throughout the country between the early 1930’s and 1942.

James T. Sabin Lookout is our next stop, up a dirt road and then a trail through a rocky forest to the top of a mountain. 

View from the tower showing the road we came on.

Talk with a older couple there who are traveling with a kayak and a dog from Midland, TX and are heading east – as in all the way to Maine!

We are drinking like crazy today and our skin and lips are parched. When I take fresh bread out of the package, it is already drying before I finish making sandwiches! 

We go over Powder River Pass at 9,666’ and begin a slow decent.   Today is also a very warm day, so we opt to stop early and camp for the night at a high elevation rather than go back to the desert/prairie.  Lost Cabin is a national forest campground where we find a site among tall pines. 

We haven’t had a fire for a few days so Greg collects and cuts some wood for this evening.  Beth gets caught up on the blog, though we’ll have to wait for wi-fi to publish anything. We wander through the woods and Greg finds a few interesting rocks.

We invite the single woman in the next campsite to join us.  Her name is Royce and she is from Maryland, on her way to Seattle where her daughter is due to give birth in a few weeks.  She has a rig similar to ours (Leisure Way) and though this is her "maiden voyage" she seems quite confident and comfortable.  An ex-teacher and school administrator, she has some interesting tales. We exchange stories and have a pleasant evening sharing her raspberry merlot.