Since I have my new dashcam installed, and figured out how to utilize it, I thought a ride was in order. Instead of a short ride near town, I decided to do an overnighter to my favorite nearby campground, Five Springs Falls. This site in about 20 miles east of Lovell, Wyoming.
I hit the road about 2pm. My plan was to ride to Dayton, WY via Pryor, St. Xavier, and Lodge Grass and then across the Big Horn mountains via Hwy 14 but I got away too late so I headed direct to Lovell. This is a ride I have done MANY times so I just settled in, rode the slab to Laurel, Hwy 212 to Rockvale, and the Hwy 310 south through Fromberg and Bridger. Then the long ride toward Wyoming. I stopped for a few photos while still in Montana.
Just before Frannie, WY, I stopped for a photo at the Montana Limestone mine. It’s a big operation.
In Lovell, I stopped to top up my gas tank. My bike takes 87 octane and it’s always easy to find, in fact, on my recent ride through the Midwest, sometimes it was the only grade available. In Lovell, they had 85. I couldn’t think of the last time I saw that. I shot a photo, looking back through the town.
At the east end of town I veer left to take Hwy 14A toward the Big Horn mountains. There was a sign there that indicated that the highway was closed 20 miles ahead? High? My navigation app tells me that the turn off for the campground is 20 miles ahead so I figure that it’s where 14A heads across the mountains where it is closed. I went ahead and rode on.
I arrived at the turn off for the campground and hadn’t encountered any indication of closure ahead. I stopped for a few photos and a history lesson about the road.
The road up is 3 miles and very narrow and curvy. I hope that my dash cam caught that part of the ride.
The campground is BLM and fairly well developed. There are two sites, the lower one in a canyon along a creek below the falls and the upper one, higher up in the mountains. The sites are nice, with picnic tables, fire rings, and graveled ground with timber borders. With my Interagency Pass I get half price so a site is $3.50 for the night.
I wanted to camp in the upper area so rode up to the top and saw that about half of the sites were already taken. No problem, the last one up the hill, site #17, is open as everything is first come first served. The site is a short walk-in. I walked back down the hill and registered then unloaded the bike and set up my tent.
Now I write this blog entry and plan to take a hike before it gets dark.
The hike was great. The road to this campsite is the “Old Hwy 14A” and just beyond my site the road ends at a gate. On the other side of the gate the road continues as a trail that winds up through the mountain. I followed it for about 20 minutes and instead of continuing on the old road bed it turned. A sign pointed out the direction.
After a bit it started downhill through a heavily wooded area and at times I wasn’t sure which way the trail went. As it was getting late, I turned around and walked back.
I fired up the stove and boiled water for my dinner, lasagne. Then it was a bit of reading before I fell asleep.
It was about a 120 mile day.
No comments:
Post a Comment