Saturday- day off

I woke up at 6:30 with the train going by my tent. It wasn't too bad, because I had plans for Saturday. My bossman/friend Greg, told me of a hike to do about 1.5 hour drive away. I woke up and slowly got dressed then just jumped in the car and headed out. The road took me north through Worland then onto less travelled roads and finally to a town of Hyatville, pop.105. This town had 3 roads going out of it and I spent 20 minutes on the two wrong ones, before I found my road.
The road I wanted, was not what I wanted at all. It was 20 miles of switchbacks, and washboard gravel, with the occasional horse or giant rock in the way. I was going 35 but couldn't go faster if I wanted to, because my car didn't like the grade. I finally made it to the Big Horn Wilderness/National Forest and contined on the forest service road. I passed a camp site with a large pick-up a trailer and 3 four-wheelers nearby. The shirtless man gawked at the Honda Accord coming down the road and passing his temporary home. I continued on until the road was a clay trap with ruts in the middle and mud built up on the sides. I went a little further, and finally scraped bottom. With a little tricky wheel play, I was able to turn around on the two-tracks and make my way to a different forest service road going North (my ultimate destination was a campground up there). Again, I went about 4 miles and then found a wash out that my car did not like. I turned around (100miles into my day) and decided to search for a plan B. On my way back down, I met 3 other pickups on the road with campers and ATVs. All three drivers took long hard looks at me cruising down the gravel in my four door import.
I saw a trail head on the way in for Paint Rock Canyon, I decided, hey, Plan B. Except, I did not fill any water bottles and there was no water at the trail head. I decided to go find a park to fill water bottles. I went to Hyatville, no park. So on to plan -c, drive to Ten Sleep. It was on my way back and I could see some new country. Possibly at the library I could find a map of the Wilderness. I get to Ten Sleep (the drive is gorgeous by the way, geology abounds here) and found a city park with a free pioneer museum. I view the museum, but forget to fill my water bottles. I then drive through town and find the library: no maps. No problem, I guess I will go back to Thermopolis and view the local faire, and see if I had been missing something. Just as I turn on my left blinker, I view a sign that says "fresh bagels made daily", so I switch the blinker to right and turned in to park.
I found a coffee shop that was straight out of Portland. Even the patrons looked more like me than anyone else I had found in Wyoming. It turns out that Ten sleep is a big rock climbers mecca and they were in full force with laptops in hand and columbia, REi and other sports clothing on (I was also donning columbia and REI). I walk up and ask if they have soy, the lady replies yes. I tell her that I am shocked to find this type of shop in central Wyoming and she told me her daughter started it a month ago. She had been raised the daughter of sheep ranchers, but happened to Seattle and brought some Pac Northwest to the middle. I was pleased, and ordered a vegetarian breakfast sandwich (hummus, egg, cabbage, carrot on rosemary garlic toast) and a soy chai. Then the daughter says she is out of soy. BUT NO WORRIES! She asked if I would mind if she crushed up some hemp seed and put that milk in. She had never steamed it before, but I was fair game. Dee-lish. I then took my laptop in and was at peace surrounded by my type of people. There was even a teenage playing folk/accoustic tunes on the guitar.
On to plan D, I looked up trails online and found one south of Thermopolis that sounded interesting. The river goes through the limestone under layer in a cave and then pops out of the ground later. Plus, Sacajawea's grave was about an hour away. After I tipped my server, I got into the car and drove. I drove for 3 hours south. When I got to the Sinks (the river sinks into the ground), I found that my trail was just a boardwalk along the highway. No-dice. I ran to the visitor's center and asked for advice on a 2-3 hour trailwalk. She told me that the 1.5 mile trail to the Poco Agie waterfalls was great. Plan E. I ran up the trail stopping only to try and take 10 second delayed photos of me hiking. I placed the camera on rocks, hung it from trees, etc. ALSO, I still hadn't filled up my WATER yet, and was getting thirsty. I took two mouthfulls of water out of a stream near the trail (I know, I know...bad me) and went to the falls. FANTASTIC WATER! I ran back down the trail and it took about 1.2 hours. Now I was thirsty. I drove to the nearest campground and finally found a potable water pump. I sucked down a Nalgene and a half, before I filled two bottles for the drive.
I then drove and saw the two Sinks and Rises along the road, very cool. Now, on to Sacajawea. I found the sign for her grave on the highway and turned off the main road. I drove through the town and found myself on gravel again driving into a canyon. Luckily just as I thought it was hopeless I turned and saw a statue in a cemetary on a hill about a mile off the road. There was no sign to it out here, but luckily I had looked up images of the grave in Ten sleep. The graveyard was neat with a very nice statue and plaques talking about her life .
I then found a short cut on my map to cut a half an hour (yea right). Unluckily, the tribal roads were not labeled, so as I started out of town to the East (the correct way) about 13 miles onto the road, it turned south and eventually dumped me off in Lander near the sinks. This would not be too bad, except the road was under construction and it took me over an hour to get around this "shortcut" (backtracking would have been 30 minutes). I did see a huge gathering with lots of teepees and vehicles and it turns out there was a sun dance going on. I would have paid the admission except that I wanted to get home, so I could hike Paint canyon tomorrow.

So back on the road, as I approached Thermopolis (witnessing a great sun set framed by mountains and thunderstorms) I figured I could pay for a dinner out. I have been eating pasta, and soups out of my car for the last week. I stop into two restaurants at around 9pm and both said they were done serving. Plan - Y (or whatever hell letter I was on) I went back to camp to eat cheese and crackers and drink my beer. Of course it has all been in my car all day, so the beer was warm, the cheese (unopened) was mimicking Slimer from the ghostbusters, so I optrd for peanut butter and honey sandwich (my lunch the past 5 days). I do drink a warm beer, which had great taste, truly, and then ate some dried apples for dessert.

Overall, I drove over 400 miles and was on the road about 10-11 hours. I left at 7 am and got into camp at 9:15.
The campground I stay at has an owner that built a bandstand and sings everynight. Lately a mandolin player and tonight a harmonica player, who is staying in the camp, decided to play with him. It was nice to have more instrumentation, although Ron has a pretty full voice and plays well.
I wet down a hankerchef and wiped some dust off my limbs and am now typing this, debating whether to hike tomorrow, or tour Thermopolis after a big breakfast at a restaurant. When the train wakes me up tomorrow, I guess I will decide then. Good night.