550 miles
14mpg
Frye Lake Campground: $0

First, beauty.

For those of you who voted in Day 4’s poll, you may be surprised to hear we are camped in an “idyllic BLM paradise near the treeline”.

Tim left Deer Park on his bike at 6:15 to climb Powder River Pass (38 miles, and 5,000 feet above our campground). By 9:30, after I puttered, cleaned, shopped, and closed out camp, I met him at the top. This “chase car” is towing a shower.

Then,  we headed to Larden, WY as a starting point to Shoshone National Forest.

Rt. 131 leads up the mountains in switchbacks that reminded me of Verbier Switzerland. Or Goldfinger.

But, in this case the buxom sharpshooter took the form of an aluminum shard attached to a long screw in my rear trailer tire – the “beast”.

Luckily, I was going slow on the switchbacks, one mile from to top, when we heard rhythmic jangle, like a little piece of metal caught in a tread. Well,it was. Normally, I would leave it screwed in, but it was attached to a 3-inch shard of aluminum.

Lying in the hot road on the switchback red road, I found a drill bit that fit the screw head and gingerly unscrewed it as a little air escaped. There was no way I would get down the mountain, so I pressed on, going slowly, and monitoring the tire in the rear-view mirror on each left turn. While it didn’t lose much pressure, I thought it best to try to find camping as soon as possible, and not risk the dirt road.

And we found this.

Free. Frye Lake. Dispersed camping (one pit toilet).

Tim caught a fish on his first cast.

This is why we drove four long days. This:

Tomorrow, I will focus on dealing with the “beast”. For now, I’m just going to enjoy the view.