Wed Oct 7 

I drove in a separate vehicle, 'cuz I had other business out-of-state besides hunting (HERESY !!).  Left home on the 4th, Monday, after three hours sleep, jump-started the car, put in two hours at work, then hit the road, south to Paso Robles, across to Bakersfield, over the Tehachapi, then across the desert (Boron, Barstow, Baker), thru Lost Wages, and onward.

 

After spending the night of Oct. 05 in St. George, Utah (extreme southwest corner of Utah) with daughter Becca and husband Lance, I went to Cedar City for my business for most of the day, and spent the night in the bush a few hours north of there (near Scipio, if you have a map.  Those exits that just lead to some ranch road are mighty handy.  Found a side road, and off to the side of the side road found a handy tree to set my tent up behind.) 

 

Rolled out of bed October 07 at 0530 and headed north again on I-15.  Got to Nehi, Utah, (Mike, actually, it is Lehi, Utah - David) where there is a Cabela's store, and dozed in the front seat for 45 mins until they opened.  Spent an hour-and-a-half shopping for needed things, and headed north.  Near Salt Lake City, spent an hour-and-a-half navigating city streets and shopping for more stuff, then headed north-east.  Got to Evanston, Wyo, and stopped at WalMart for an hour-and-a-half shopping.  Then headed east.  Got to Rawlins, and thought I was almost there.  HA !!  Don't you believe it !!  No, it was north a few hours more to Casper (almost ran out of gas), starting to snow, then north a few hours, still more, to Wright.  Pulled in to Kat's Cafe about 10:15 and took a nap waiting for Bill and David to show up.  That was a long day in the saddle! 

PS:  We did not go shopping that night, as reported elsewhere--we went straight to camp and to bed, shivering.  It was cold!

Thurs Oct 8

The next morning we rousted around camp, collecting wood (stood it up off the ground so it could dry and shoiuldn't collect much snow), dug a fire pit and latrine (no, not side-by-side !), (although that's an idea: warm your tush as you stir the mush and start to push), set up the other tent and packed more stuff from the cars, across the dry creek, to camp.  Later, sighted-in our weepons, went to town for food, fuel and license, as previously noted, and met with the ranch folks. That night we had those big slabs of grilled steak--yum !  The smoke from the fire pit blew straight into the tent, infusing everything.  I almost thought I was at the Ranch with David's specialty: smoking smolder-wood.