Stop 47 Hidden (Lost) Creek

 This was a beautiful campsite in the Western Block, Sierra Madre, of the Medicine Bow National Forest.

This was one of my favorite campgrounds of the trip.  It was typical, Wyoming high country with mixed fir and Aspen.  The Continental Divide Trail passed nearby and we encountered several through hikers.  Frances made one's day by pumping him full of Oreos.  We drove over to a town called Encampment.  This is when Tim was still trying to successfully find a way out of Ethiopia.  We had to come into Encampment to be able talk with Rebecca and later with Tim.  I enjoyed hearing Tim talk about how he was the only person on the bus who knew anything about changing a tire.  It was necessary to change the tire since there was a bullet hole in the tire that apparently was the result of a pot shot by someone along their route.  

My ride from Encampment back to the campground was a good way to work out the stress of worrying about Tim's ordeal.  I could have done without the headwind however.  The next day we hiked over up to Bridger Peak.  It was a beautiful hike with a 360 panorama.  There was still snow up near the top and wildflowers were everywhere.

We had a young buck and a couple of does visit the campsite morning and night.  They were used to begging for handouts.  Since we failed to oblige them, they finally stopped showing up.  We were entertained by a couple in the next site over who laughed, drank, fed the deer and tried to start a fire using lighter fluid and a single log the size of car tire.  

It was hard to leave.  We had stopped at a museum near Savery, WY, where Jim Baker's cabin was reassembled.  Baker was a "mountain man" in the same sense as Jim Bridger.  There was a snack stop for Divide Trail pilgrims.  This stop was before arriving in the Western, Sierra Madre, block of the Medicine Bow NF.