Casper to Cody

Sometimes things happen that you never see coming.  What happened to us today was  unplanned, difficult to duplicate and unforgettable.  I'll explain all this in a bit.

Following our somewhat stressful departure from Denver on Sunday, we discovered that we left the Spot in KC's truck.  On top of that, KC decided that he wanted to lighten his load and ship some gear home that he thought he could do without.  Finally, KC learned that we'd left a truck window down at the storage facility parking lot. With a relatively modest plan for today, we could easily afford a delayed start.  So, the morning began with a Spot replacement shopping trip, a truck key shipment to Denver and a gear shipment to his home.

By 10'ish we pulled out of Casper and after passing about a dozen trucks and RV's we settled into a 75MPH pace through more high desert with more gusting wind and more hazy skies, thanks to the California wild fires.  We rode about 100 miles on Highway 20/26 (which I'm pretty sure we rode our bicycles on in 2007...Casper was a rest day for us).  We broke the tedium with occasional conversations through our Bluetooth intercoms and lots of iPhone music.

We hit Shoshoni, WY at 11:45AM, filled our gas tanks (remembering yesterday's close call) and had a (not so) delicious truck stop lunch. Actually the setting was nice...we ate our lunch at a shaded picnic table where I was able to spread out my maps.  Two of the station employees were taking a break near us and offered us some help on gauging the distances ahead.  I enjoyed this oasis immensely and it was with some reluctance that I helmeted back up and nudged War Pig onto the highway.

Highway 20 turned northward along Boysen State Park and Boysen Reservoir, then through the very scenic Wind River Canyon.  The Wind River appears to be a gem of a trout stream, I'm guessing its a tail water flowing from the reservoir we'd just passed. I made a pledge to return someday to teach those trout who's boss.  The scenery was very pretty, though the smokey haze really did spoil many of the photo op's.

Following the scenic canyon stretch, we headed towards Thermopolis, WY.  The temperatures rose steadily and we hauled ass through the high desert.

Now, here's the part we never saw coming.

About 8 miles south of Cody we passed a sign announcing The Monster Lake Ranch.  I'd heard of Monster Lake...it is a well known fly fishing destination.  I announced to KC that we were making a U turn to capture a quick picture and as I was snapping a shot of the sign, a truck pulling a stock trailer pulled in the driveway and along side KC. 

Through the intercom I could hear KC chatting with the driver who was very cordial.  After a brief chat, the driver pulled up to me with his window down and his hand extended.  He introduced himself as Dan Eddelman and insisted that we follow him in for a tour. 

For the next three hours Dan, who owns the 10,000 acre ranch, held court and drove us (me, KC and his dog) around the ranch in his Gator.   It is a stunning property with two huge lakes (one was 180 acres and the other even larger) with rainbows up to ten pounds, fantastic sandstone formations and breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains.

The ranch, a work in progress for Dan for several years now, operates as a guest ranch (big game hunting, bird hunting, duck hunting, trout fishing, cowboy camps, photography workshops and more) and as a working cattle and horse ranch.  In addition to this ranch Dan, who was a rodeo'er as a younger man, also owns a ranch near Billing, MT and another in Texas where the bulk of his quarter horse training is done.  Dan escorted KC and I to a corral that kept a quarter horse that had earned over $1,000,000 in races.

Dan invited us to spend the night, but we'd already paid for rooms in Cody, so that didn't work for us.

At one point Dan stopped the Gator and began scooping horse feed from a container.  He whistled and called and almost immediately a herd of horses began galloping towards us .  Dan spread the feed in a pattern on the ground and the horses quickly figured it out.

From the horses we continued driving the Gator until we spotted some white structures at the base of a hill.  You can see the camp tucked into the left hand side of the hill in the photo to the right.  It was what Dan calls the "cowboy camp".  It turned out to be a wonderful camp site including a two room high walled tent configured as a master suite.  Sweet.

A couple of miles later we came on the teepees...looking as genuine as anything I've ever seen.  I felt like I had stumbled onto a movie set or, better still, had stepped back in history. 

As we drove slowly back to the ranch headquarters, Dan explained that his plan was to sell off a few building lots.  He mentioned that he was thinking around a million.  He then stopped and turned to me and asked, "What do you say?"  Without needing any time to ponder his offer, I blurted out, "Too rich for my blood.  Ask the guy in the back seat."

There are few things in this world more precious to me than a beautiful piece of land in as wild a setting as has ever been.  Today we were treated to this in a very special package called Monster Lake Ranch.  If you EVER have a chance to see it...jump on it!

The ride from Monster Lake Ranch to Cody took all of 10 minutes and we rode directly to our hotel.  The hotel was huge and was booked solid...no surprise given the number of tour buses in town.   Cody is a surprisingly large scale tourist destination and it was hoppin'. While immersed in the check in process a tour bus pulled in and they got a body count and worked out how the luggage would be handled.  My God I am so glad we are physically able to do what we're doing and not have to rely on people to move me around.  We're very fortunate and it makes me very happy. 

Our rooms were in the fifth building in the back.  We parked next to large group of Germans touring together on rented Harleys.  Must have been twenty of them, many riding two up.  They not only rented the bikes, but they must have emptied the Tee shirt shop as well.  EVERY one of them was wearing a slightly different and obviously new Harley T shirt.  Men, women and tour guide/van driver.

And people say American tourists dress funny.

I commented to one of the Germans about the irony of a group of Germans riding American bikes and parked next to two American men riding German bikes.   He laughed, apparently understanding enough English to get my "joke".  The following morning the Germans riding American bikes were the ones left dealing with a non-starting bike.

Just sayin.