Outdoors

Continued from Trip report Week 2: here

Say hello to my little friend.

On the last day we were camped in Ennis we had a really cold night in the trailer. It was 26º F. The trailer doesn’t have insulation and we didn’t have a heater. But we had comfy below 0º sleep bags. Thank God!

The next morning we decided to stop and get a heater. We wanted to get a Mr. Heater – Buddy but all the local stores had was the small version: Little Buddy. The small one is fine and works well, but we don’t love how “tippy” it is in a small trailer with nylon sleeping bags. Per the heater instructions we kept 9 square inches of ventilation. (Actually we kept a lot more ventilation than that.)

Even with that ventilation we were just too paranoid to run it all night. We cranked the heat up, got into our bags and went to bed, turning it on again in the cold mornings. It worked out pretty well, but were not sure its the permanent solution for us.

I realized on that one chilly night, once you get too cold it becomes really hard to get warmed up again. My teeth were chattering and I was actually shaking uncontrollably. We were having a late dinner and hung out by the campfire a little too long. Within a few minutes, the temperature dropped about 15º and we left our trailer door open so it was cold inside. I let myself just get way too cold. I used Derek’s body heat to warm me up. You know like in the movies when someone almost gets hypothermia, they use another person’s body heat to warm up. It worked! That next day we bought the heater.

When we arrived at Alpine, Wyoming it was rainy and cold so we decided to stay at a campground just outside of Alpine. We ordered out dinner and breakfast at a local Mexican restaurant La Cabaña Del Tequila (choose the green sauce) and heat up the trailer with the heater. It was cozy.

Boondocking in the Caribou Targhee National Forest on the Greys River.

The next day we made our way to Caribou Targhee National Forest and camped along the Greys River about 35 miles in from Alpine. We found a great spot with a deep pool within the river that we could swim in. After we set up camp we fished up and down the river and the water was VERY cold. As soon as my legs were in the stream, they went numb. Needless to say, I didn’t end up swimming in our “swimming” hole.

A Careless Hunter.

After setting up our site and we were preparing to go fishing right there. A white truck stopped on the road, which was up a small cliff about 30 feet above us. He probably didn’t see us camping down here and we couldn’t see him, we just heard him. It sounded like a man got out and then all of sudden a rifle goes off – twice! The shots echoed in the canyon and we heard the first bullet whiz by over our heads. Then you could hear a dog retrieving what was killed and the shooter said, “Good boy.” To his dog. I think he shot some sort of small game. I know I yelled, “What the hell!” really loudly. The man looked down at us and he didn’t know we were even there. He waved to us in an ashamed manner looking down and got in his truck and drove away. We were mad for about two hours after that saying “What if…?” this happened “What if this happened?” then…

The Precious Bucket.

Our anger quickly changed to hilarious fear.

So you know those orange buckets you can get from home depot? We tied a rope to one in order to scoop water out of the river (the bank was about 5 feet above the swimming hole) to clean our dishes.

Derek accidentally let go of one end of the rope and we saw one of our most valued camping tools swirling around in our river pool back eddy. It seemed with one slight move of the current it would carry itself down the river at a fast pace and be gone forever.

If any of you know me very well, you know I love Wonder Woman. I had to channel my inner Wonder Woman and while running to the river downstream I quickly stripped down to my undies, slid down this muddy riverbank, and jumped into the river to catch our precious bucket. Instantly my legs went numb. I was yelling out, “Ooooh it’s cold. Maybe an assortment of swear words was added to that too. It’s all a blur. Derek was laughing so hard and couldn’t believe I had just done that. The bucket came hurtling down the fast current towards me, spinning and submerged in water. It was really heavy. I grabbed the handle quickly and it kind of tugged me towards the river at first. Using all my strength I held on to it as long as I could and yelled, “I GOT IT!” It was such a large victory for something so silly. That day, I dodged bullets and rescued a bucket. I am a real superhero. lol.

The Cut Slam.

We were on a mission. One of the main reasons we were there was to access the rivers that hold the fish you need to catch in order to complete our Wyoming CUTT SLAM. It’s a pretty neat program funded by the Wyoming Department of Fish & Game intended to educate anglers on the species of Cutthroat trout that exist within Wyoming. If you catch all 4 species and document it, they will send you a certificate and a medal! In the area we were camped, we could fish for 3 of the 4 species: Bonneville (Bear River), Snake river, and Colorado River Cutthroat Trout.

On a VERY rough dirt, gravel, and rock road and up and over the Tri-Basin Divide (a mountain pass) to access the first river. We drove around 98 miles. Derek caught a Bonneville and boy, I was trying my hardest too. I think Derek caught the ONLY Bonneville that lived there.

I was trying to be as sneaky and technical as possible and not spook the fishing pools before I approached them. This crystal clear alpine headwater was barely 4″ across most places and we had to hike through tough thick willows that wanted to trip us at every step.

It was a tough day for me, but Derek had a great catch. We expected a tiny 4-8″ fish, but Derek’s was 12-14″. That’s a trophy fish up at that elevation.

After some frustrating fishing and hiking for an entire afternoon, it started getting dark. It was time to get back to camp. We never saw another fish that day – not even from spooking one. Unfortunately, I missed my chance this year. Needless to say, we didn’t have time for the Colorado River Cutthroat that day, but it was a great day of adventure! We’ll be back next year to finish up both of our Cutt Slams!

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The Two Unforgettable Animal Encounters.

Do you remember the line in the movie Jurassic Park, from Nedry (Newman from Seinfeld), when he’s being stalked by a Dilophosururis and it makes a chortling sound and pops out from behind a tree? Then Nedry says, “Well, yeah, yeah, that’s nice, gotta go.”? We had a couple of those moments while there.

The second night we were parking the Jeep at our campsite. It was dark and as the headlights hit the mountainside across the river we heard some shrieking in the woods. It sounded like a woman screaming. Super loud.

We were walking to the trailer at that moment and just froze. It was a very weird sound. The kind of scary that makes your hair on the back of your neck stand on end. “Well, yeah, yeah, that’s nice gotta go.” Turns out it was a female fox. To hear an example of what we heard. I found it here.

The next encounter happened on the third night. In the total darkness, we were brushing our teeth and we decided to spit into the river, by our pool area. All of a sudden we heard a big splash like a huge rock was thrown into the river next to us. Derek looked at me and said, “Did you do that?” I said, “No, where did that rock come from?” My first thought was sometimes Bigfoot throws rocks at people to get them to leave the area. “Well, yeah, yeah, that’s nice gotta go.”

Derek saw something swimming away by seeing the wake it made in the water. It was a beaver! It smacked his tail really hard on the water as a warning and swam away. I found a video of what it sounded and looked like if it was light outside – here.

This place was beautiful. Can’t wait to get back.

Next stop: Jackson Hole, Wyoming.