Wyoming Boondocking - Day 8: Tiehack Reservoir and views of Bighorn Peak

The Labor Day weekend is upon us and the dispersed camping area I'm in is starting to fill up!

The site hogs whose rigs have been here, unoccupied since before I got here on Monday?  Still unoccupied.

Regardless.

This morning, I headed out on Yagi for a short ride to nearby Tiehack Reservoir, located just past the Tiehack Campground.  What's a Tiehack you ask?  It's based on the occupation of yore: Tie Hacker.  Men who would "hack" railroad ties out of the forest for use on the growing railroads of the day.

Nearby town of Buffalo is where all the ties would end up, for shipment by train elsewhere.

Anyways, the reservoir is not a large one and the water level seems to be down.  However, you can walk all the way across the dam, unlike most dams in the US which are fenced off these days or you can't stop in the middle for pics.

Taken from near middle of the dam, looking down 

at the spillway

Note the small bridge in the middle, you walk

over a metal grating right over the spillway

The water level is way down it seems, both based

on water level high marks on the shore and the fact

these floats are up in the air!

I also climbed the hill next to the dam to get this angle on the structure:

Not much else around, I could spy what seemed to be a hiking trail supposedly around the reservoir but I passed on that.

Rode Yagi back to the entrance to the reservoir and campground, stopping at the junction with Highway 16 for this shot of Bighorn Peak using the telephoto lens to bring things in closer.

Bucolic Scene

One more telephoto shot near my campsite

The rest of the day was spent reading in the warm sunshine even though it didn't rise above the mid 60s in temperature.  It was a bit cool in the shade since we're almost at 10,000 feet at this dispersed camping area.

I watched rigs and trucks come and go, seemingly desperate to find a spot to set up camp.  The selfish swine who had hogged up five sites since before I'd arrived and had yet to show up to use them?  They still hadn't shown up to occupy their rigs as I type this evening.  I'd never associated Wyoming and overcrowded conditions, I now know better....at least in terms of site hogs causing "resource impacts" as stated by the public affairs hack from the US Forest Service whom I'd pinged about conditions.

Yep, I broke a personal rule of never going camping during a holiday weekend!  I completely forgot about the Labor Day weekend when I headed out and now I get to boondock with people not only within sight of me but one is now set up within 50 feet of me.  Sigh.  

Snow is expected on Monday according to the weather forecast, so am betting most of the weekender campers will be gone by midday Sunday, will just have to grin and bear it.  

The thought of owning some land now, where I can go camping in solitude is starting to look pretty good to me again.