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.

Wyoming Boondocking - Day 7: Fort Phil Kearny

Wednesday, September 02

It started off as a ride north of Buffalo on Interstate 90, to see what lay in that direction.

Unsurprisingly, not much but lightly traffic'ed superslab, and lots of ranches with cows and horses along both sides of the road.

I thought to go all the way to Bighorn, thinking perhaps there's be some revelation there as to the naming of the Bighorn National Forest perhaps.  Alas, no.

The town, such as it was, did have a close proximity to some interesting looking portions of the Bighorn Mountain Range.  I skipped on visiting the Britton Museum, just didn't have it in me today I guess.

Instead, looking for a spot to pose Fiona to get the aforementioned mountains in the background, I spotted two horses who had run up to the fence upon sighting Fiona!  I figure they are used to some vehicles stopping to give them snacks perhaps?

Regardless, I took the opportunity to not only capture the mountains but the horses.

Having no sugar cubes on me, I couldn't lead the horses away

from the fence post and utility sigh....

I tanked up at the gas station near the junction with Hwy 87 and using it, made my way back to the I-90 Slab returning towards Buffalo.

While Bighorn, the town, proved "meh"; the stop I then made to check out the remains of Fort Phil Kearny along the way to Buffalo proved a good decision.

It's not far from the highway, and while not much remains (not surprising since it was all made from wood harvested in the area), there was enough reproduction of structures to give one a pretty good feel for what the place was like in terms of space anyways.

A reproduction of the front of the fort is available to give you an idea of the protection they provided:

As is usual, there's informational plaques located about, giving you tidbits of information.  I didn't walk to all of them, here's some that I found interesting:

A drawing/painting, heavily sun-damaged, depicting the buildings

within the walls of the fort.

Then as now, one isn't going to get rich as an Enlisted Man

The fort's short lifespan I think was attributed to the establishment

of a railroad line that obviated the benefits of using the Bozeman

Trail, which this fort was tasked to protect travelers on.

Note the circled object above, the sight tube below

aids in locating it for today's viewing

Some of the signs had a pole next to them, with a sighting tube

to aid in locating the object/location being described on the plaque.

Great, it was Treaty-guaranteed Indian land, and yet such

things were ignored, resulting in conflict. 

That's I-90 using the same route the Bozeman Trail did.

They've installed small mounted figures on top of the ridge,

to give you an idea of scale and perhaps the imagery of riders

watching over the fort.  Or perhaps, Indians watching the fort?

A few minutes away, I rode Fiona to the monument near where the Fetterman Battle occurred.  

Only 3 NCOs for 76 junior enlisted?  The times were different in

the Army back then.  Command and control must have been "difficult"

in combat.

It was getting quite warm at this location so I went back to Buffalo to tank up the spare gas tanks and headed on back to the campsite.  You could feel the temperature drop as you gained altitude.  The campsite location is a bit over 3300 feet in altitude higher than Buffalo at almost 10,000 feet!

Note: I found it interesting, how many forts and installations used the name Kearny.  Apparently a common name of Irish origins.

Wyoming Boondocking - Day 6: Town of Buffalo, Longmire, Bighorn Peak and Using RVs to hog a Site

 A long day on Yagi's saddle today.  

Woke before the sunrise and got a few pics of the prelude:

It was a cold 32°F (0°C) as I shot these pre-sunrise pics,

so I hope you like them!

Once it got over 40°F (4.4°C), I geared up with almost all of my usual winter riding layers and went to check out the nearby trails:

The gorgeous peak on the left is Bighorn Peak, to the right is Darton Peak

This is the view of the mountains one sees as one enters the meadow

area that is used for dispersed camping.

Enroute to town, a shot of a Dolomite Rock formation on WY 16

The town of Buffalo is a cute little town of under 5000 residents.  Pretty touristy with an emphasis on the Netflix Series Longmire.  Martha and I liked that show and someday might even attend Longmire Days, a festival hosted by the Town of Buffalo.  The town is the model in the story for what the author called Durant, Wyoming.

Johnson County, in the book, becomes Absaroka County.....though the series is shot in New Mexico, Buffalo claims the honor of being the town.

There were several murals that catch one's eyes as you cruise main street:

I like the way the artist incorporate 3D effects on parts of the mural, making it seem the subjects were entering or leaving the mural:

In case you've not seen it on Netflix, this is the Sheriff!

The sheep and sheepdog below, are a nod to the county's origins which apparently featured a heavy Basque influence:

Making sure you understand you're in Johnson County, not

Absaroka County!

Of course, you can't host Longmire Days without a place to pick up a souvenir or two:

The souvenirs were a bit pricey so pics is all I got for memories.

One more mural as I exited the town to check out the sights along WY 16:

Dispersed camping area near town, great 4G signal but very wide open to Wyoming's windy conditions:

The post's title includes the use of RVs to squat on a campsite, thereby "holding it" for whenever you wish to camp.   I've since decided squatting isn't correct, so changing to "hogging" instead.  There's the usual 14 day limit for camping on a site but I'm thinking it's not really enforced or as Martha read somewhere, people rotate their rigs around to stay within the limit.

To me, it's a selfish move on the part of the RV owners who are doing this.  I saw so many RVs being used in this manner on several dispersed campsites that I lost count!  Here's an example of three rigs, they're obviously just parked there, not in current use!

Wyoming 16 is advertised by the state as a Scenic Highway, so far all I can say is "meh".  Perhaps I'm jaded but once you leave the vicinity of the below peaks, it's just pine forest and rolling hills.

I did take the detour off of WY 16 to check out Crazy Woman Canyon Road.  I first rode it all the way through to the east side where one is presented with Crazy Woman Mountain:

Then I made my way back west and took time to shoot some of the more interesting rock formations lining the canyon walls:

Back on WY 16, I cruised onwards towards the west and finally got to Powder River Pass and the southern end of the Bighorn Mountain Range:

It was getting late, so I turned around and rode the 22 miles or so back to the campsite.  Saw several NF campgrounds, a few dispersed camping sites and all without decent cellular signal it seems.  All the dispersed sites were dotted with squatter site hogger RVs, a disappointing and annoying site to my eyes.  Oh well, it appears to be a widespread habit in this area, and I think it's spreading in Colorado as well!

Tomorrow, I plan to ride Fiona back into town to check out the museum and then see what sights there are to see north of town in the direction of Sheridan, WY.....Stay Tuned!