Second Jedediah Smith Trail 1824 — 1826

Day 18: September 8th, 2010 Logan — Evanston

Map Logan to Evanston

Today I can start my day a bit slower. However, I am not really able to sleep in. Around half past seven I get up and get myself ready for the day. Then I check out. At the reception, I ask again on which side of the road is the restaurant “Angie’s”. Yesterday, I forgot to ask. It is on the right. Now I should be able to find it. And indeed, just before 700th St it is on the right hand side. The sign can be easily missed due to all the bushes on the side of the road.

When I enter the restaurant, I am greeted relaxed and am taken over to my table. Then the menu will be handed over immediately and the coffee is also there in a blink of an eye. Wow, things are really rolling here. And also the coffee service is fantastic. You cannot drink the coffee as fast as the cup is already refilled. I have the luck that I arrive (around half past nine) when the crowds are just leaving. Otherwise, I probably would have had no chance to get a table. But now, everything is running well and I give a good tip. Also the bacon is great, four thick sliced stripes. That is really great! This is a place to remember and I will be back there for sure.

Then I rearrange my stuff in the car and set everything up. next, I drive over to the next gas station. First, I arrive at a Texaco. But even after entering my ZIP code twice, the pump does not accept my credit card. Pretty much annoyed I drive on. Have they blocked my card again?

Highway 91, UT

Highway 91, State Line UT and ID

No, it seems it was something with this pump. Everything works fine at the Chevron. So I gas up there. With plenty of sunshine, I start my day. There is not much to see from the rain last night. Only the side of the road is a bit wet. Also the temperatures are already at 60 degrees with a rising tendency.

Highway 91, ID

First, I drive back to the point at Bear River where I left the trail yesterday. Again, I drive through Franklin in Idaho.

Highway 91/S State St, Preston, ID

At Preston I turn again onto Highway 34/36.

Highway 34/36, ID

Highway 34, ID

Highway 34, Bear River, ID

Highway 34, ID

Finally, I arrive at my exit point of yesterday at Bear River. Now I am back on Jedediah’s trail.

Highway 34/S Main St, Grace, ID

Next I drive through Grace in Idaho on Highway 34.

Highway 34, ID

Highway 30/34, ID

Highway 30/34, Alexander Reservoir, ID

On Highway 34 I continue north up to Alexander. There I turn onto Highway 30/34, which follows the Bear River loop and turns to the southeast.

Highway 30, ID

Just past Soda Springs, the road turns southeast.

Highway 30, ID

Highway 30/89/N 4th St, Montpelier, ID

Highway 30, ID

Highway 30, Bear River, ID

Highway 30, ID

Highway 30, Bear River, ID

I arrive again at Montpelier and turn onto Pegram Road.

Pegram Rd, ID

Pegram Rd, Bear River, ID

Pegram Rd, Pegram, ID

Pegram Rd, ID

This small backroad follows the Bear River loop and passes Pegram.

Border Rd, ID

Highway 30, State Line ID and WY

Back on Highway 30, I cross the state line to Wyoming.

At Cokeville I turn onto the small County Road 231 like last year. But a road closure forces me to turn around. There is a road construction and no way to pass through. Therefore I must continue now on the bigger highways again.

Highway 30/89, WY

Highway 89, WY

Highway 89, State Line WY and UT

Highway 30, UT

I turn onto Highway 89 and cross the state line to Utah.

Highway 16, Sage Creek Junction, UT

Highway 16, UT

At Sage Creek Junction I am back on my originally planned route and turn onto Highway 16 in southwestern direction. This damned headwind is really killing me. I need a terrible amount of gas and make almost no progress. But there is nothing I can do.

Highway 16/N Main St, Randolph, UT

I continue on Highway 16 and drive through Randolph first…

…and then through Woodruff in Utah.

Highway 16, UT

Highway 16, State Line UT and WY

Finally, I cross once again the state line to Wyoming. From this point, the highway changes to Highway 89 again.

On this highway, I continue up to Evanston. Because it is just past three in the afternoon I decide to already drive some portion of my tomorrows trip and drive back to Evanston on the Interstate.

Highway 150, WY

Also here I make good progress on Highway 150 and finally turn onto County Road 173.

CR173, WY

Now I am back on my gravel roads.

CR173, Guild and Dean Reservoir, WY

CR173, Piedmont, WY

At Piedmont I pass some decayed houses and three kilns. The latter are just being renovated for tourism.

CR173/Piedmont Rd, WY

CR141/Leroy Rd, WY

Finally I arrive at the Interstate and am still good in time. So I also risk to drive the second portion. However, it seems to get now extremely tight with my gas left in the tank. But well, we will see. Maybe there is a small gas station along the road.

CR141/Leroy Rd, WY

On County Road 141 I continue my traveling, only a bit rougher than on the other road. Then I cross the railroad tracks and from there are a lot of deep washouts in the road. This is a road I don’t want to drive when it’s raining!

Suddenly, I am again in front of a gate. I am not sure whether I would be allowed to open it for passing through or not. Because there are also some dark clouds showing up from behind I decide, to better drive back the road.

However, now I will not have enough gas left in the tank. Therefore I have no other choice than to fill up from my gas cans. To get them out of my stuffed truck is really a drama. Eventually, I am able to get them out. And tomorrow I have to go through all of this again when gassing up, really great!

CR141/Leroy Rd, WY

Then I drive back. Because the inclines are not long I don’t need the low range. When driving the other direction, my big fan was able to deal with the temperatures. On my way back I need none of my fans.

I–80, WY

Then I am back on the Interstate and due to the heavy headwind I am really glad that I have filled up my gas tank. Additionally, there are some inclines, which are really tough. There I would have been definitely running out of gas!

Finally I arrive at Evanston. This time I even receive a room on first floor. But this is now a two bed room. That’s probably why I always received a room upstairs before. Downstairs are all the two bed rooms. I grab one of the new motel guides before I check where I will go for dinner tonight. In the phone book I find Spencer’s Wyoming Grill, which looks promising. This one is at the other end of town. But I want to try a new place today.

Unfortunately, they don’t have the classic sirloin. Therefore I take a Special, which is a 10oz Rib–Eye (which is 12oz in reality) and scalloped with cheese, mushrooms and onions. The food is pretty good and particularly plenty. Only my server is a bit slow. Especially on my check, I wait for an eternity. Eventually I am able to pay and drive back to my motel.

Somehow I am not able to get back on the Interstate. So I drive across the city. At a quarter past eight I am back and check my video taping first. There I have a lot of problems, because the playback permanently hangs. It is a real drama. Eventually I made it and want to copy the files to my backup hard drive. But now my worst fear comes true: Most of the big files cannot be read back anymore.

Lucky me, I have not yet deleted the files from my flash card. So I am at least able to copy them again. But all my entries are stored in a database and not together with the files. There I have only the chance to connect my backup hard drive as drive F and hope, that the program is not too intelligent.

All in all, I definitely must buy a new hard drive tomorrow. Now it is slowly getting tight with customs. Because of all the issues with my hard drive, I have lost a lot of time and it is already midnight when I start to copy my pictures and write my diary. I am wondering when I will be able to catch up with sleep. Every time when I think that I am able to catch up, something is happening…

I really hope that all the other films on my backup hard drive are okay, because I already had issues with the other hard drive from the beginning when watching the videos and I never was able to release the hard drive via Windows. Maybe all this is linked together, we will see. Okay, no, I am also not able to release my backup hard drive once the program has copied files on it with this bloody Panasonic program.

Now I must quickly adjust my trip for tomorrow before I am eventually able to go to bed. It is already again half past twelve!

The next day is in preparation…

Sights
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General
Breakfast: Angie’s, Logan
Dinner: Spencer’s Wyoming Grill, Evanston
Motel: Motel 6, Evanston
Distance: 287 miles

Go back to day 17

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