Once again I was on a old Wagon Trail in southwestern Wyoming, and there was no signage. And once again, I appreciated the lack of signage. Previously, crossing the ridge on mountain bike had proved too difficult -- this time, walking would have to do.
After parking the van and starting off, these guys immediately showed themselves.
Naturally there was water nearby to attract these two bull mooses. (And I refuse to leave off the 's' for plurals when referring to deer, elk, moose, sheep, etc.) It was surprising to see how black they were -- I thought mooses were dark brown.
They were wary of me and kept an eye on me. I froze, and let them walk off.
The trail in the background is not the old Wagon Trail, as I first thought. It seemed right to demand a refund from Ward Bond. Still, the real trail was steeper than any pioneer wanted. But it wasn't the steepness that was so bad -- it was the 170 years of erosion on the trail! There were only short sections that could be biked.
I went the wrong direction at a fork halfway up and had to backtrack. The groves of trees were surprisingly dense and dark, and then, after a half mile or so, I would pop out of them and be in sagebrush again.
Finally I was on top of the ridgeline.
It was only on top that the old Wagon Trail has the graceful S curves that really make you appreciate the geography, to the point of infatuation.
Ridgelines always look so flat when you are down in lowlands, looking up and perpendicularly at them. But on top, a biker or walker is always surprised how un-flat they are.
The wind sometimes picks up the last 50 feet near the top of the ridgeline. It makes you feel so charged up!
On the way back down I noticed that there was a latent image of wagon ruts about 30 feet off the current trail. Apparently the original trail had eroded or was judged to be a bad choice, so it had been allowed to recrudesce into sagebrush.
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