The next trip I took was up to the area around La Barge, WY and the Bridger National Forest. There was a historical sign along the way in the first picture. It was hard to get the shot through the fence, but if you look close you can read, "Jim Bridger, Trapper, 1844."
I took some scenic shots of the area and the wildflowers. Most of the photos are from a second trip a week after the first one. The first time I went up I came to a flooded section of road and decided to turn around as I wasn't familiar with the area and it is remote. I had only passed 3 vehicles, 4 motorcycles, and 2 ATVs on both trips until I got well passed the flooded area. After turning back that first time I took another cut off road that dropped down to a state highway on the west side of the mountains. I ended up turning back on this route also. I had crossed through 6 snow drifts and could see at least 4 more before the road made a turn and this was in the first 2 miles. I once again took another cut off that came out 22 miles north of where I had entered originally. It came out at Big Piney, WY. I need to go back up and get some photos of this route as there are a bunch of historical signs, graves, etc. This is the route of the Lander Cutoff of the Oregon Trail. It saved the pioneers 7 days of travel from the normal route. They had the extra work of crossing the mountains, but there was the big bonus of lots of water and forage for their animals.
I was about 35 miles from town with 30 miles of dirt roads to go when I saw two road racer type motorcycles coming at me. I pulled over to let them by when one of them flagged me down to talk. He asked me if I could help them as they were lost. I told him that this was my first time up there, but that I would try and asked him where they had come from, and where they were trying to go. He said they had left Jackson Hole, WY and were told that this was a short cut to Kemmerer, WY. I told him that it would take them out to the highway they needed, but that I had turned around from the snow. He looked at my FJ and said that if I had turned around, it would be best for them to do the same. I had an idea of where they were from because of their accents, but I asked just to be sure. They were both from Australia!! I met them in town at the gas station and they took photos of me with the truck to show their buddies "The guy who saved us from being stuck in the snow in the wilderness." Really nice guys. The shortcut they were on would probably have been okay in a normal year, but this is the second wettest spring in something like 110 years here and the snow pack was in the range of 130-140% this year.
My camera battery died on the first trip because I read the gauge wrong and my spare wasn't charged up as I thought it was...I will go back and take that section of the route again and get photos.
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