Day 12

Up at 8am and walked the dogs down to the creek and lake.  I wished I had my camera, but Mom was still sleeping in the van and I didn’t want to wake her to get it.  Eggs and toast.  It was another very cold morning.  I was wearing my snow pants and stayed fairly happy.  

Layers are in ... on the stove!

You share, right?

Saving the monies and line drying the wool socks!

It started snowing and temperature dropped in the late morning.  

Where we got water.

We pack and left at 2:30pm to head to Livingston.  Our right front tire was a bit low, so we stopped in Fishtail at the General Store.  I’m not sure what the population was in that town but I thing the only other business was the post office.  I’m sure it was less than half the size of Eminence, but boy howdy!  Was it ever a general store!  They were keeping about 8-10 people pretty busy.  They had nice produce, a lot of gluten free/organic/all natural stuff, homemade wooden toys in the gift section, a good hardware section, and a deli/cafe in the back.  They even had some home processed meat for sale.  The owner took Jeremiah to her house to get the tire filled while I shopped.  I’d gotten a package of sos pads (about the only thing that will take the soot of the outside of the pans) and a bag of marshmallows.  

A lady approached me and asked if I was finding everything.  I soundly complimented her on the selection and what a nice store, particularly the healthy stuff.  I then looked down at the items I was holding and giggled at the irony of how it probably looked to her.  Such a poser.  She stuck out her hand and introduced herself as the owner, Katie Martin.  I told her who I was and she said, “Oh are you with Jeremiah?  We just got his tire filled up!”  Super sweet lady.  She tracked me down later to recommend some amazing gluten free donuts she had in the shop, and not to get me to buy them, but so I could look them up when I got back home.  I picked up some beef and a loaf of bread and we got back on the road.  

We stopped again in Columbus and paid $20 to get our tire patched.  They pulled a half inch self-tapping screw out of it.  

I’m still a little lost as to where we actually camped … I do know we were on the West Boulder River in a creek valley surrounded by snow capped mountains, and that we exited at Big Timber to get there.  It was the most abandoned looking national park campground yet, but the scenery to get there was amazing!  I got some of my best picture son that drive in.  Hopefully some of you will be getting them as postcards!  I saw a cabin that boasted a 5,500 ft. elevation. 

This public road wound through miles of private land and lots of cattle guards.

Anyone know what this is?  There were some hitching rails nearby and it
was at the entrance to the campground.

It was bitterly cold.  We drove in listening to the NOAA weather on the amateur radio.  Low in the 20’s, gusty winds, snow.  The word hotel was whispered.  Jeremiah declared that he was going to start getting camp up before it got any darker and that if we changed our minds to let him know.  :)  None of us wanted to be the pansy to vote for it.  So we stayed.   

Mac & cheese from scratch with steamed broccoli and applesauce.  Inside the tent.  :)  We had trouble with the stove and ended up finished up the cheese sauce on the gas burner.

Once again, I stocked up on the layers,  Wool, fleece, down vest, and sweater and three layers of pants and two layers of socks.  We pulled out one of those reflective emergency blankets for the dogs.  We put them up on a got with a couple extra blankets and lots of towels to try to insulate them.  The emergency blanket went over the top.  They were surprisingly happy under there, but shivered most of the night.  Went to bed at 11pm.  Coldest night yet.

2,234 miles in.