Thursday 9-11-25 Camping, Hiking & Visiting Centennial

 

Camping in Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest

 

We started our fourth week today. We woke up with the temperature of 39 degrees. 

I crawled out of bed at 7:15 am. Larry was already up and had the heater going. I got dressed and made pancakes. Afterwards we got ready to go for a hike.

We were ready by 8:15 am. We started by walking to site #11 where we picked up the Camp Trail. We hiked this trail to where it intersects Corner Mountain Loop. We went to the left and continued hiking Camp Trail to the main road. While hiking camp trail loop we went up and down hills and at times the hills were very steep. There was one place we had to climb over three fallen trees that were across the trail. The trail was through a beautiful forest. We saw the aspens changing colors. When we got to the main road we walked it for .25 mile to the Libby Recreation Area. This area had Barber Lake and picnic area. The lake was dried up but there was a beautiful creek called Libby Creek nearby for fishing. The picnic tables were in great condition. We walked around the picnic area because there was suppose to be a hiking trail. We saw a road and an old cross-country ski trail, which was over grown so you couldn't hike it. We figured the trail was the service road, it's suppose to be two miles one way. There is a vault toilet there. The forest website says, that Barber Lake doesn't hold a lot of water and you can fish in Libby Creek. After resting for awhile we headed back. We walked the road back to the camp trail and hiked it back. This section was challenging because we had to go downhill and at places it was steep. We exit the trail at the campground where you check in. It's weird because the trails from the campground aren't labeled as trail. You just have to know their there. We had a super hike. By the end of the hike we had hiked 2.75 miles for two hours.

 

Camp Loop Trail

 

Libby Creek

 

Libby Recreation Area

We rested about an hour and then I made lunch. 

 

After lunch we took the motorcycle off it's carrier. We rode up the mountain a couple of miles to a trailhead parking area. Tomorrow we plan to hike the trail if weather permits. We'll have to ride the motorcycle to do so. After checking it out we drove to Centennial. Centennial is a small town of 293 people. It's three miles from the campground and has a Historical Museum. It was suppose to be open from 12 to 4 but the gates were locked. We were there at 12:15. It wasn't a complete bust because we stopped at Country Junction and shared a couple scoops of ice cream (Huckleberry and Snowy Range). Snow Range is a vanilla ice cream with hunks of chocolate and toffee and caramel. It was very good. Country Junction is a country store with souvenirs, gifts, clothing, jewelry, baked goods, homemade ice cream and more. While I paid for the ice cream Larry walked around the store. It's very well kept up. The lady, who helped us said her boss has owned this place for 33 years. We sat outside at a table and ate our ice cream. Next to us a lady had her two kids eating ice cream. She was wondering about the Snowy Range ice cream so Larry showed her what it looked like and told her what was in it. Her son had chocolate an her daughter had strawberry. Centennial is a small town but it has a post office, a historic hotel and cafe, coffee shop and other places to eat. On the way back to the campground we stopped by the National Forest Visitor Center but it was closed until tomorrow. We picked up some information, that was outside. We had a wonderful ride. Larry didn't drive as far as he wanted because the weather didn't look too good. We driving in the campground when it started to sprinkle. It didn't last long.

 

 

 

Ice cream we shared

 

 

 

Ice Cream selection

 

 

 

Country Junction

 

 

Centennial Wyoming

 

 

We spent the rest of the day reading.

 

 

 Enjoying a good book

 

About dinnertime the wind came up and the temperature went down a little. This only lasted about 15 minutes. We didn't get any rain. We were going to barbecue pork sausage patties but instead I made taco meat out of the pork sausage. 

 

After dinner we went for a short hike on the Camp Trail Loop for about an hour for 1.75 miles. It was a nice hike. When we got back I swept out the Minnie. I finished just in time because it started to sprinkle but it didn't last. We had sprinkling for a few minutes all day but it never amounted to anything. 

 

By the end of the day I had done 13,500 steps.