Hiking to the Pawnee Buttes and Changing Campsites

 Wednesday, August 14

This morning I spent about three hours or so hiking from the Pawnee Buttes Trailhead over to the buttes themselves.  Almost 4.5 miles round trip, possibly a bit more as I made a detour on the way back to check out another rock formation.

It was cool when I started out at 8:27 but it warmed quickly once the clouds disappeared!  Still, I took it slow and managed to not break too much of a sweat.

West Pawnee Butte

East Pawnee Butte

Pawnee Buttes

The Buttes from the rock formation I 

detoured onto on the way back.

Rest of the day was spent recovering/resting from the hiking.  I am getting more and more out of shape it seems.  The rains tonight were not bad but the wind storm was quite something!  I had to once again bring in the slide out in order to minimize the rocking done by the VRRV!

The sunset was not much due to rain storms.  I zoomed in on the light after the sun set as it backlit the distant wind powered generators:

Thursday, August 15

A much calmer and sunny day today!  The winds in the morning weren't too strong and by the afternoon had settled down into the single digits.

After breakfast, I decided I'd had enough of the winds and rains endemic apparently to the spot I camped on.  I decided to try my luck at a site which seems more protected from the winds as it lies in a small shallow bowl.  

As you can see, the site has a pretty good view of the buttes.

Something happened when I returned from a ride, which emphasizes the wisdom of turning off the RV's water pump when not at camp.  I turned on the water pump upon returning and the dang hot water valve popped off and water started pouring out!

I'd just replaced the darn faucet too, I think two camping trips ago.  Damn plastic crap.

As you can see, I bound the cracked cap which holds the valve in place, cut off the hot water feed and it's holding so far.  A new and hopefully more robust faucet is inbound via Amazon.

I basically lazed about the campsite, reading books and relaxing.  Some short rides to see what sites were occupied, stuff like that, only one other camper found!

I rode out on Yagi as the sun was nearing the horizon, used a nearby wind vane for these shots:

I'll be curious to see if the place fills up as the weekend approaches.  I talked to a Forest Ranger who stopped by the camp to advise there's a fire ban in effect.  He too was surprised to find the lack of campers but he thought it might fill up for the weekend.