The Road to New Friends

Now in Wyoming, the road out of Yellowstone took us back into Montana where we stopped at the first town, Cooke City, the power was out in the entire town so we couldn’t get food or gas. We continued on, the road veered back into Wyoming and there were lots of camping opportunities. The first campground we pulled into was really nice but the only open spots were right next to the campground host so we decided to move on and try to find a place we could let the dog run around. At around 9,000’ elevation we came across a campground surrounding a glacial lake with lots of open spots. We picked a site at the top of the campground, away from most of the other sites so we could let Juno run. There was a trailhead and a lake, we thought we could swim in the morning, go for a bike ride around the lake and head to our first farm the next day. We met a really nice older couple who had driven over the nearly 11,000’ Beartooth Pass from nearby Red Lodge, Montana. We visited for an hour or so, tried to answer the, “What are you going to do with your anthropology degree?” question, and talked of travel, organic farming, photography, Enron, construction and life. They told us they had tried three campgrounds since leaving their home and this was the first that had any open spots because of the Fourth of July holiday weekend. I guess we got lucky. They had two beagles, neither of which got along with Juno but the neighbors, Jack and Lavonne, didn’t seem to mind her running free.

In the morning Jessica made breakfast while I explored the trail on my bike to find that there was a roaring glacial river about a quarter mile down the trail you had to cross to continue so the bike ride was quickly crossed off the list of activities. I then took Juno to the boat launch, took off my flip-flops and walked in. Before I got my ankles wet my toes were numb. This was easily the coldest lake I’ve ever been in. Cross that activity off. I got back to camp to a nice breakfast and had to break the bad news about the trail and the lake. Neither of these downers dampened our spirits and we decided to stay another night because of the sheer beauty of the location and the possibility of not being able to find another place to camp. We could also use a day off after going and going and going for nearly two weeks. We played lots of cards, I mercilessly beat Jessica at cribbage and Uno all day. Our camp neighbors, Jack and Lavonne, visited some more and invited us to come to their house Saturday after we left camp to shower and share a meal.

Saturday morning Jack gave us directions and a map to their house in Red Lodge and said to take our time going over Beartooth Pass and stop in whenever we wanted. I assured him that the van wouldn’t have a problem taking its time climbing to nearly the height of the peak of Mt. Hood, and we would see them later in the day. Sure enough, the thin air, loaded van and steep climb kept the van at a steady 25 mph for most of the climb despite my best efforts to push it faster, it kept to its pace and made it over the pass intact. The Beartooth Highway is one of the most stunning roads I’ve ever been on and near the top there are plenty of places to pull off and take in the 360-degree view of mountains in every direction. The descent wasn’t much faster with all of the switchbacks but we made it down in one piece. We nearly made it into Red Lodge’s Fourth of July parade as we went through town. I was hoping for something like the recent Subaru commercial but we were about a half hour early. We still felt like we were a little on display as people were already lining the quaint, old and usually quiet downtown streets. After stocking back up at the local grocery store we found Jack and Lavonne’s geodesic dome house a mile or so out of town. It was kind of hard to miss, being the only geodesic dome house around. Lavonne welcomed us in, gave us the tour of the house the two of them built by themselves on their weekends from 1994 to 2003. Jack, it turns out, is pretty handy with a saw, hammer and chisel and Lavonne is pretty handy too, in her own right. Their house was truly one of a kind, Jack had carved everything in their house, nearly every piece of molding, column, banister, exposed beam or rafter, stair riser, everything, everywhere. Its no wonder it took them nine years to finish it. Coming from a custom cabinet shop, I was very impressed to say the least.

The carvings and other details weren’t the best part of the house though, they had a sauna out back. After the tour they asked if we would like to use the sauna before we showered. “Sure.” We said in unison, why not get the full-meal-deal. They said it would be about a half hour for it to warm up so we talked more while we waited. I impressed them with my juggling skills, Jack showed me his woodworking shop, Lavonne showed Jessica her art studio, Juno chased Lucy and Dorothy the Beagles around until Dorothy snapped and Juno left them alone… for a while. The sauna was ready and Lavonne gave us each a ‘sauna’ towel. “We really don’t need to use two towels,” I said, trying not to inconvenience them any further with more laundry. “Well, you don’t want to shower with all that sweat on your towel, its fine.” Lavonne assured us. Boy are we glad we had two towels, we got in the sauna and the thermometer was reading 150 degrees and the first thing I did having never really been in a sauna is pour two or three ladles of water on the rocks. I understand the term, “Feels like a sauna in here” now, because man did it ever feel like a sauna in here. Instantly we were drenched in sweat and there was no end in sight, I’ve never sweated that much in my life and I was only in there for fifteen minutes. We decided against showering together but neither one of us wanted to stay in the sauna much longer. Since I shower faster than Jessica we decided I should go first and Jessica would spend a little more time in and out of the sauna. I got her a Dr. Pepper from the van and finally got to shower and shave, the first shower in three days and the first shave for nearly a week. I went back out to the sauna hoping to find Jessica still alive, she was, probably a few pounds lighter too. She came inside and showered and we were treated to a wonderful late lunch and after exchanging addresses Lavonne sent us on our way with some Diet Coke, my favorite.

After leaving Jack and Lavonne’s we thought we should head for Mitzel Farm in Leiter, Wyoming, our first organic farm stop. We didn’t realize it was after 4 pm when we left so we had to scour the maps once again to find somewhere to camp. We didn’t really need to eat again for the day so we thought we could make it to the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming where several camping opportunities dotted our map. We traveled down to Cody, home of the Buffalo Bill museum, which was closed by the time we got there, and then east to the Bighorns. We had another big climb in the van at a steady 30 mph and as the sun started to fade we found one of the camp dots from the map. This was about the roughest campsite we had visited so far but there was plenty of firewood available and lots of empty spots. We pulled in next to a young couple with a dog, popped the camper top and went to meet the neighbors in the twilight. They were both pharmacists, in their late 20’s, from nearby Indian reservations, one from the Crow and the other from the Cheyenne. We had lots of good conversation about the problems facing the Native populations, the problems on the reservations and how being a white person you’re perceived in the reservation, even when you’re there to help them. Jessica recently had a course in Native North Americans and another in Culture, Illness and Healing so she had lots of educated questions to which they were more than happy to try and shed light on and offer their personal experiences dealing with the tribes as an outsider. They were also very helpful in advising Jessica on her medications, of which she is taking over twenty pills a day.

When it was too dark to find our way back we finally stumbled through the thigh deep grass back to the van and called it a night. With few trees around we were woken early by the Wyoming sun and knowing we were only hours from our first farm we were too excited to stay around much longer. We left before our neighbors were up and headed out over our last major mountain pass in the West.

So far on this trip I really feel like there are some great people out there. Living in Centralia I found this to be true with how welcoming and inviting people were but in the big cities I feel like people are a little more reserved and skeptical, thinking others are out to take advantage of them. That's not to say that I haven't met a ton of great people in Portland or Eugene or Seattle, most of my best friends and nearly all of my family lives in or around these cities but I don't feel like the general public is quite as friendly as the small town folks. I hope some of the people we’ve met will keep in contact and when they visit Oregon return the favor or at least I’ll take a traveler or two in if no one ever makes it out to wherever I end up.