Second Jedediah Smith Trail 1824 — 1826

Day 19: September 9th, 2010 Evanston — Green River

Map Evanston to Green River

Of course, I slept in a bit. Around a quarter to eight I get up and get myself ready for the day. I have breakfast again at the Beartown Restaurant which is just diagonally across the street. It seems like it has a new ownership. At least this is my impression. The restaurant itself is as before. Maybe I should have also chosen this restaurant yesterday evening. What the hey, I am here now for breakfast. Also here the bacon is really cut big and has a great smokey taste. The breakfast is so much that I am barely able to eat all. Then I pay. The cashier is a big soccer fan, but not me. He plans to visit Europe this year and watch a game in Madrid. Then he wants to take the train to Germany and also watch some games there. Well, if he likes it…

I pay and hit the road, first driving over to the next gas station. Of course it starts to rain and getting stormy exactly when I want to gas up! And this now when I want to fill up my spare gas can. I am busy like hell that nothing flies away and also my car door will not be blown out of the hinges. Then I must stuff everything back in again. But the biggest frustration is that I was not even able to get 16 gallons in! This would have been easily enough gas without filling up! But before I run out of gas on the Interstate again like it already happened in the past, I took the safe side and filled in my spare. Especially the wind can make things very unpredictable.

Next I drive over to Walmart. To get there I take the Interstate for just one exit. First thing is to look now for an external hard drive. Unfortunately, they have no one bigger than 500GB. So I take a Seagate hard drive, which is currently on sale. And because I am already there I use the opportunity to get some water and granola bars.

I–80, Bear River, Evanston, WY

Then I set up my camera and laptop in my car and I am ready to roll. Now it is already again past eleven! It is extremely stormy and the weather changes between drizzling and sunshine and cloudy all the time.

I–80, WY

Highway 189, WY

At Exit 18 I take Highway 189 in northern direction. At the next planned exit to my backroad is once again a gate. Because it starts to drizzle and also some light rain I decide to skip the backroads this time.

Highway 412, WY

Highway 412/Carter Cutoff Rd, WY

I continue driving to the junction of Highway 412, which lays a bit more to the north and takes me back to my originally planned route.

Highway 412/Carter Cutoff Rd, Carter, WY

Now the traffic decreases dramatically which gives me the chance to fight with torque and reduced speed against the stormy headwind.

Highway 412/Carter Cutoff Rd, WY

Highway 414, Mountain View, WY

Highway 414, WY

Finally I cross I–80 and continue on Highway 414. There is now way more traffic, at least up to Mountain View.

Highway 414, WY

Then the traffic decreases significantly.

Highway 414, Historical Marker Rendezvous Site, WY

Highway 414, WY

To my surprise I discover a historical marker linked to my trail just past Burntfork: The rendezvous site of Jedediah with Ashley, who came up from St. Louis in 1825.

Highway 414, WY

Highway 414 and 43, State Line WY and UT

Highway 43, UT

Then I continue on Highway 414 to Utah.

Highway 43, UT

Highway 44, UT

Finally I arrive at Manila. There I briefly leave the route of Jedediah behind me and follow Highway 44 into the mountains.

Highway 44, UT

I want to drive the Sheep Creek Geologic Loop, which is a forest road that runs through a geological area.

FR218/Sheep Creek Geologic Loop, UT

Bighorn Sheep, FR218/Sheep Creek Geologic Loop, UT

FR218/Sheep Creek Geologic Loop, UT

Highway 44, UT

Highway 44, Flaming Gorge, UT

Most of the forest road is paved, whereas it is in some places in a real bad condition with deep potholes. Only the last stretch down to Highway 44 has a new pavement.

Highway 44, Flaming Gorge, UT

Highway 44, UT

Highway 44, Flaming Gorge, UT

Backroad, Sheep Creek Bay, Flaming Gorge, UT

Sheep Creek Bay, Flaming Gorge, UT

Backroad, Sheep Creek Bay, Flaming Gorge, UT

Sheep Creek Bay, Flaming Gorge, UT

Highway 44, UT

Then I drive back down the mountain, like I already did last year. But this time I don’t have plenty of sunshine but clouds and in some places drizzling rain which kills my plans for video and photographing. But as compensation it really looks great if you are so close to the clouds. All in all, I was already up above 7200ft!

At the scenic overlook, which I missed last year, the storm is almost blowing me away. Because it already starts to drizzle again, I only take my camera with me. Not before I take a backroad to the lake down in the valley, wind and rain gets lighter and the sun starts to shine — while it is still raining in the mountains!

This offers me some nice shots! When I am ready to leave, a fisherman passes me with his two dogs. I drive the road back to the highway and follow Highway 44 to Manila.

Highway 43 and 530, State Line UT and WY

Highway 530, WY

Lucerne Valley Recreation Rd, WY

Then I take Highway 43, cross the state line to Wyoming and take the small backroad to Lucerne Valley. There is a marina at the end of this road.

Historical Marker Henrys Fork Rendezvous Site, WY

Historical Marker Linwood Bay, WY

Linwood Bay, WY

Lucerne Valley Recreation Rd, WY

Lucerne Valley Recreation Rd, State Line WY and UT

Pronghorn, Lucerne Valley Recreation Rd, UT

Green River, Lucerne Valley Marina, UT

On the way is a historical marker which explains the rendezvous of Jedediah and Ashley. There is also something to read about the city of Linwood, which is now below the dam lake. This was the only town, which was one half in Utah and the other half in Wyoming! The name was derived from the exactly straight planted trees along the road.

Then I continue over the state line to Utah and down to the marina slipway. There I take some pictures of the dammed Green River.

Green River, Lucerne Valley Recreation Rd, UT

Lucerne Valley Recreation Rd, State Line UT and WY

Lucerne Valley Recreation Rd, WY

Highway 530, WY

After this, I drive back on Lucerne Valley Recreation Road to Wyoming and Highway 530.

Highway 530, WY

The highway takes me all the way to Green River. The drive is accompanied by gale–force gusts and heavy headwind. The storm also puts so much dust in the air that everything can only be seen in a haze. The weather is currently really crazy. Never before I have seen it this stormy for such a long time! Hopefully my car will make it! There is already a suspicious squeaking sound coming from the front. I fear that the next broken part will be the air–conditioning compressor. Just to be sure, I will not turn it on and will ask my Chevrolet dealer in Wexford if the bearings can be changed.

Highway 530, WY

BUS80/BUS30/E Flaming Gorge Way, Green River, WY

Just past five I already arrive at the motel. I ask for a room at the top floor. All in all, you can enter the uplevel rooms level around here. Then, nobody can stomp on my head this night!

Also here, unloading my truck is getting really strenuous. After all, the wind still blows violent! Eventually I have packed everything together and can go to my room. First thing there, I turn on my laptop and copy the pictures of today. But before this I must install now the former backup drive as drive F that the bloody database is able to find the videos again. From now on, I will write again my plain text file. This is way more secure.

Then I copy the video taping of today and write my first emails, connect my chargers and prepare some other stuff. In the meantime, copying is also finished and I connect my new hard drive. The weird Seagate tool will not be installed and banned in a new subfolder first. Then I start copying of all my video taping so far. The backup of my pictures will be tried to store on my other old Western Digital hard drive with 250GB.

Then I drive to the Krazy Moose for dinner while my laptop is copying the videos and rips the first CD. In the restaurant I remember that I had these pork neck steaks last time. These are really plenty and somehow my diarrhea comes back and puts pressure on me again. I am wondering what I have picked up yesterday. Therefore I pay, but still take the time to ask if they also serve breakfast — they do, perfect!

Back in my room I put in the next CD to rip. Then I hurry to reach the bathroom! After being emptied I take a look at the coffee machine. But what is this, there are no cups! Therefore I go down to the breakfast room. But there are also no cups. So I ask at the reception. The guy immediately hands me over a whole bunch of cups!

Then I go back to my room. While the coffee is running, I start with my bookkeeping and take care of my CDs. My current plan is to rip everything right away and listen to them later. This works really well. While writing, also the copying is finished. Great, then I can check my video taping after I wrote my diary. I am really anxious to see how the manual and automatic focus worked out this time — and if the other hard drive also hangs sometime on playback!

Oh well, I must also still copy the pictures. Slowly I am getting my backups sorted out…

It takes me until half past eleven before I have finished checking my video taping. And there is still pressure from my diarrhea. It seems like I will not be in bed before midnight…

The next day is in preparation…

Sights
Sheep Creek Geologic Loop
Flaming Gorge

General
Breakfast: Beartown Restaurant, Evanston
Dinner: Krazy Moose, Green River
Motel: Super 8, Green River
Distance: 205 miles

Go back to day 18

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Proceed to third Jedediah Smith Trail