The weather was fixing to heat up a bit, since we are now in the middle of July. Kim and I had planned another Monday ride, but bumped it up to Saturday after checking the upcoming weather for the week. It was pretty warm on Saturday, but nice and breezy at 9400 feet on top of Little Mountain.
We trailered out to SageCreek road, some 30-40 miles south of town, and proceeded down into valley to begin our odyssey towards the mountain top. Mountains are very different here in southern Wyoming from what we have in California. To me, they are big plateaus with bluffs on one side rather than crinkled peaks sticking up into the sky. So we may have a few switchbacks here and there, but we seldom traverse the mountainsides following the familiar points and cuts that are found on Southern California ranges.
The first side trip we made was up Cherokee trail. We wanted to see Trout creek. Sadly, Trout creek had no trout in it because it hadn't been stocked in recent drought years. But it did have flowing water, so that was nice.
On top of Little Mountain, we rode in and out of the stands of trees and found an old USFS cabin. We had also passed a couple of historic homesteads on the way out, one of which, we could not get near due to a washed out bridge and deep, brush clogged gully.
From Little Mountain, we followed a long ridge trail west, that dropped us onto a county road near the Currant Creek ranch. It was all dirt routes back to our staging area. Very warm on the way back, but we could move pretty fast on the wide roads. 72 miles altogether, and a very scenic ride.
.
We trailered out to SageCreek road, some 30-40 miles south of town, and proceeded down into valley to begin our odyssey towards the mountain top. Mountains are very different here in southern Wyoming from what we have in California. To me, they are big plateaus with bluffs on one side rather than crinkled peaks sticking up into the sky. So we may have a few switchbacks here and there, but we seldom traverse the mountainsides following the familiar points and cuts that are found on Southern California ranges.
The first side trip we made was up Cherokee trail. We wanted to see Trout creek. Sadly, Trout creek had no trout in it because it hadn't been stocked in recent drought years. But it did have flowing water, so that was nice.
On top of Little Mountain, we rode in and out of the stands of trees and found an old USFS cabin. We had also passed a couple of historic homesteads on the way out, one of which, we could not get near due to a washed out bridge and deep, brush clogged gully.
From Little Mountain, we followed a long ridge trail west, that dropped us onto a county road near the Currant Creek ranch. It was all dirt routes back to our staging area. Very warm on the way back, but we could move pretty fast on the wide roads. 72 miles altogether, and a very scenic ride.
.
