Day 83 - Thursday, August 19
We boon-docked in the desert last night. Nothing for miles and miles. Shortly after we pulled in, the clouds closed in on us and we were hit by cold, sheeting rain through the night. I love hearing the rain on the RV roof while I’m laying in bed.
I woke at 2am to see about heading out early but with the rain it was better to wait it out. By 6am it was still raining but not as hard and we decided to go. While it was chilly with the wind, rain and temps in the 40’s, it is also the perfect running weather if you are dressed properly as I was. As a result, it was easy miles as I never really got tired until the end of the day.
We travelled through Muddy Gap which was an intersection and a service station, up into the clouds at an elevation of 6,700’ and then across a plateau that passed Split Rock - another famous waypoint for pioneers and ultimately Jeffrey City, a town that used to have a population of 6,000 when the uranium business was in town. Since it left, there are 50 people living in this ghost town.
While I was running along highway 287, a tandem bike passed me with a man and woman smiling and waiving to me. I ran into them at the only game in town in Jeffrey City and learned they are married, sold their house and decided to tandem bike from Mystic Connecticut to Yellowstone and beyond. They were kind enough to tell me the story on film which you can find below.
Since I started late - 6am, I also finished late - 5pm. Chris made a great turf & turf as he calls it. New batch of chili with cheese, onions, guacamole, chicken rice and filet mignonette that Nikki gave us back in Nebraska which tasted great. Leaves about 30 minutes of free time to lay down the post before lights out at 7pm.
All for today - thank you all for the support.
Cheers,
David.
Western Tiger Salamander
Next thing I saw was Lucky dragging the deer entrails with him behind me!
King Antelope of the mountain
About to come out of the clouds onto another plateau
Split Rock Historical Marker on route 220 - originally called the Emigrant Road, the Oregon Trail was the main route of westward expansion from 1812 to 1869. An estimated 500,000 people journeyed past here in search of new lands and new lives in the West.
Photo from 1870 of Split Rock. Some emigrants on the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails - all one road at this point—found this landmark in the Rattlesnake Range a useful navigational tool as they made their way west up the Sweetwater. “[Y]esterday,” Joseph Middleton wrote in 1849, “from the time we started we steered to this cliff with a steadiness that was astonishing, never deviating from it more than the needle does from the north pole, excepting once for a short time—I think this cleft or rent or chasm is very conspicuously seen from the Devil’s Gate, which I think is 11 miles from here; and I think it is still at least 6 or 8 miles ahead. …”
Rising some 1,000 feet above the sagebrush prairie, Split Rock aimed westbound emigrants directly at South Pass, still more than 75 miles away. The relatively gentle landscape offered them a short, but much needed, respite in their long journey.
Emigrants were struck by the rock’s beauty, too. “The picture was worthy the pencil of an artist,” William Carter wrote late in 1857. “Our camp was near what is called the Split in the Rock, a remarkable cleft in the top of the mountain which can be seen at a great distance in either direction.”
Split Rock Station is located a short distance west of Split Rock between Cranner Rock and the south bank of the Sweetwater River in what is now a hay meadow. In the early 1860s, the site served as a Pony Express station, stage station and telegraph station.
Diarist Henry Herr reported that, in 1862, 50 soldiers from the 6th Ohio Regiment were encamped here to protect the emigrants. A crude log structure and pole corral that were part of the station are now part of a private ranch homesite.
Catholic Church in Jeffrey City - pop. 50. Used to be 6,000 before the uranium mine shut down
The gang at the only bar, restaurant, store or anything in town
Turf & Turf - Filet Mignon provided by Nikki