Tuesday 9-30-25 Hiking, Camping, Reading & Waiting

 

Shoshone National Forest

 

Tonight at midnight the Federal Government will probably shut down. This means almost all of the campgrounds we use will closed. The National Parks will also probably close. Larry spent a great deal of the day decided where to go next. We have been spending a lot of time in the National Forests in Wyoming. We're about 30 miles from Yellowstone National Park. We're not planning to stay in Yellowstone but we wanted to drive through it to another National Forest. The host came by at 3:30 and said that we could spend the night here but had to leave in the morning. Because the campground will be closing at noon.

We woke up to the temperatures in the 40's. We have power so our electric heater was running. When I crawled out of bed at 7:15 it wasn't hot but it wasn't cold. It was very comfortable. I made blueberry mini waffles for breakfast. This is the first time I made waffles on this trip. I forgot we had the waffle maker until Larry reminded me last night. The waffle maker requires power and since we have it I can make them. They came out good.

After breakfast we got ready to go on a hike. We started the hike from the Minnie. We walked the campground to the bridge that goes over the Shoshone River. Across the bridge we picked up an old forest service road that is now a hiking trail. It goes a long way. We hiked it until we got to 1.5 miles. Then we turned around and went back to the Minnie. The road was very good to hike. We had to watch for horse and bear droppings. When we arrived at the campground we were told, that there was a grizzly bear hanging around site #8 eating berries. So Larry wore his bear spray just to be on the safe side. We didn't see the bear. The fall colors were gorgeous along the river and through the valley. I think the trees were cottonwoods, that had the brightest colors. The river was flowing very nicely. At the beginning of the hike we met a gentleman and his Britney. He said this was their second walk today. We met up with the gentleman when we were hiking back. He was riding his bicycle with three other gentlemen. They were riding pretty fast on the road. It wasn't the smoothest road but they were having fun. The road took us up and down hills. By the time we got back to the Minnie we had hiked 3.1 miles for 1.5 hours. We had a great hike. 

 

 

 

Shoshone National Forest

 

 

The fall colors along the Shoshone River

By the time we got home it was 9:45 so we relaxed with a book before lunch. For lunch we had soup.

After lunch we went on a walk around the campground. We took the umbrella because it was sprinkling. Larry walked with me for a half hour, which was a mile. We walked both loops and to the river. We looked for the eagles but we couldn't find them. Larry went inside the Minnie and I walked for another half hour. I walked the two loops twice. I ended up doing 2.44 miles.

Larry finished his book last night so today he started a new book. I lost count on how many books he has read during the trip. I continued reading Vienna Blood by Frank Tallis. This was the second book in the series and was very good. Frank is a great writer he keeps you guessing. You think you know who done it and then he puts a twist in the book. Then you don't know who done it. Then I started another book, which was Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki. 

 

Awesome day of reading

 

A front came in at 4:30 with wind and rain. The rain stopped after a half hour. Then we walked around the two loops in the campground for a half hour for 1 mile. We spend the evening indoors reading. Larry continued to do research on where to go. I ended up doing 17,000 steps.