Lander, Wyoming - journal

This is a sweet little cowboy town.  Quilting and rifles and taxidermy in the fashionable clothing stores.  Lovely little MiddleFork Restaurant across from the friendly bookstore.  I walked about the town before stopping for a coffee here in MiddleFork.  I've decided to have eggs benedict even though I had an express breakie at the Super8 this morning.  With the stream running through this restaurant it's a cool sanctuary from the hot sun on the street. It's only 10:30 am and it's going to be a scorcher. I've enjoyed riding through cow country remembering this is the land of stage coaches, cowboys and Indians, trapping and hunting.  There's even a one shot Antelope outfitter down the street.  I love the tumble weed and craggy layered hills chiselled out of the earth by ancient rivers and land movements.  Lots of pick up trucks on the road.  In the music store next door there were ukulele guitars and lots of fine Christian music books.  I liked seeing the Amy Grant.  I've been making time on this ride doing doing hundreds of miles a day.  Today, with my destination of Denver in range, I decided I'd ease up a little.  Subsequently I've stopped to take a picture of a little church on the way down from Dubois. Now I'm stopping here for breakfast.  I was missing Gilbert on the ride, thinking how he might well have done okay with it.  The heat isn't so bad going at 70 mph.  A dog tied outside the restaurant barked happily when his owners joined him.  Brought the little one to mind.
I was thinking about friendship on the ride down here.  Someone in the last couple of days asked if I was riding alone. When I answered, "Yes." They'd responded with a quizzical expression.
I've always had friends and done a lot with them.  Mostly though married or with a girlfriend, she has been my companion. My father was like that.  Some men have a family and a range of friends they do other things with. I've hunted and travelled some with men but like being alone too.  Guy spoke about feeling lonely after his divorce and a breakup with a girlfriend.  Much of our emotional life revolves around women.
On the road I see a lot of couples, two guys riding together, a guy and a girl on separate bikes, the occasional couple alone and the loner like me. There are a few groups 2 or 3 bikes and usually there's a girl.  I've only see a few "gangs', a half dozen bikes and they're mostly mixed.  I remember reading Jordan's book about being gay and how he said 'gay men have such difficulty being among straight men'. He hadn't realized how sensitive and deep they were but that they had a defensiveness about letting anyone 'in'.  I was surprised in a men's group how many men struggled with their sexuality, their relationships, their feelings of guilt and shame, their fears about fatherhood and being sons.  It was clear that we all share in the human dilemmas.
I enjoyed riding with Donny down to Anacortes.  Another time riding with Dr. Cho and his friend was fine.  But only a few of my friends ride motorcycle, sail or hunt for that matter. Then my schedule is always so complicated. Theirs are more often 'fixed' in a way.  It's hard enough for me with my work to keep a commitment to family plans.  I have had holidays disrupted so often.  Even on this trip I'm getting calls.  My colleague stopped taking holidays, he told me, last month, simply because the work on his return was so much greater and overwhelming.  Now he'll take a few days off but mostly is life is his work. My other clinician friends tend to use their getaways for relaxation time with a woman friend.
I'm a loner in that sense.  I'm riding along missing my dog.  I didn't shave this morning.  Quick shower and hurried getting ready, to a quick breakfast and now I'm a couple of hours down the road enjoying this break. When I'm with others I always seem to be 'waiting' or going slower or taking it easier.  Alone I drove yesterday through hellish heat, horrid downpours with rain that bit my face, then cold high altitude riding with the road covered in mist at times.  I tried to find accommodation but the lodges were full and I almost camped but that would have required going off road some and my fear was the campground would be full.  In the end I was "rescued' near midnight by the Super 8.  When this has happened when women were along they've 'blamed' me and been angry with me, as if I caused the rain, the cold, or the accommodation being full.  Other guys gets somewhat irascible or hopefully have the black humour that such miserable conditions deserve. But even they, like myself, can be ornery. Alone I figure I don't inflict myself on others and I'm freed for a space from their negativity. I deal with so much fear and negativity in my work.  Countless times I feared going off a canyon edge taking a wet corner a little too fast though I'd slowed down. I could worry or just try harder next time to get the angles and speed right with the ever changing and often dangerous road conditions.  The 'bullet has to have my name on it' though I don't want to encourage death.  The trials of adventure and expedition are part of the overall excitement that heighten prayer life and make one feel truly alive. I suppose smart people really would just lie on the beach and stay in 5 star hotels.  I learned from a woman last week that her idea of 'travel' was taking bus tours and going shopping in malls.  I have to remember that when I think of travel it's been bicycling a cross europe, hitchhiking across Canada, driving and camping north america, sailing solo to Hawaii in winter and now motorcycling across the cowboy territories of the US eventually ending up at Sturgis I hope.  It's a different sort of travel.  Most people like the 'idea' of my kind of travel but they don't do it .
I could see bringing my RV to Lander. There's lots of massage and physical therapists in the town making me think that a lot of retired folk with arthritis or rheumatism come her for the hot and dry.  I wonder what the winters are like. Probably similar to midwest Canada but more south I'd think they'd be shorter and more enjoyable as a result. Lots of snowmobile trails signs on the way down to Dubois from Yellowstone.
I wonder if I'll stay in Vancouver if I ever retire.  The cost of housing and the risk of theft is so high I wouldn't want to be living there among all the drug dealers on a fixed pension.  I'd like to retire where 'theft' is considered wrong and not a 'necessary' or 'clever' occupation. I'd like to be among peoples who shared my morality rather than considering my generosity and truthfulness stupid. I guess at some level, when I look at older age and vulnerability I don't want to be in a place where I'm not allowed a gun and must be among criminals who have guns and don't respect the laws.  But then I think of Canada fondly, my home and native land.
Lander looks like a sweet country town. Reminds me of the places I worked as a physician and psychiatrist in the country. Probably lots of gossip but all the pleasures and beauty of small town living.  I did like the man that said Denver was just too busy.  Says a lot about cities in general

BC Winter Hunting & Lillooet

I was up at 3 am and on the road by 4. That's a very keen hunter. A&W is open 24 hours but don't serve breakfast till 6 am. A Papa Burger combo at 4 am with coffee is a little heavy on the stomach. The sea to sky highway to Whistler was at first fogged in the valleys. Then by Whistler it began to sleet. I took a right at Pemberton and headed up the Duffy Lake Road. It was just getting light. I was glad to use a recreational site outhouse. After that I tried out my new chains finding they fit just fine. But I didn't need them for the main road. It was slippery but with the Ford Ranger 4x4 did just fine. I saw the rump of one deer in my headlights. Don't even know if it was a buck.

I left the truck on the Duffy Lake Road and hiked up the Duffy Lake Forest Service Road. The wind was in my face and the snow had all but stopped. I stayed on the packed snowe of the road which had about an inch of fresh snow over a crust which when I went through my foot went down another foot. Off the road I was hip deep in snow and regretted I'd not brought my snow shoes. I'd passed a place where guys were going cross country and alpine skiing. Interestingly it had a whole lot of avalanche warning signs but didn't seem to deter to these young fit guys.

Quite aways along from that is where I went in and it was a slow slog up the hill. I heard one grouse fly up in the woods, saw lots of rabbit tracks, some deer tracks and a few ground squirrels. I decided to turn around at 3 1/2 miles considering if I shot anything I'd have to haul it a very long ways as I'd gone beyond where I'd be able to get my truck in. Fallen trees were blocking the road from about 2 1/2 miles, not that I couldn't have cleared them with the chain saw I have along. Admittedly I was tired. Sore legs and feet. Great country. There should have been a deer or at least some partridge but I was really just happy for the hike.

As I began the descent, I heard a loud bumblebee engine. Ahead of me on the my now backtrail a young guy appeared on a snowmobile. The snowmobile was lightning blue, his snowmobile suit was psychedelic purple and he had huge yellow goggles. He was followed by a couple of other guys in similiar costumes. Dressed in camo against the green of alpine forest I watched this trio go by thinking that Elton John must have had a fling with Michael Jackson and this was the adult spawn on the way to do a concert for the Sasquatch at the top of the mountain somewhere near their mother ship. It was hallucinatory, watching them wave and pass by at high speed. They sure looked like they were having a party. Quiet returned and I hiked the 3 1/2 miles down, marching really. I tend to 'stalk' up and march down. Not so many stops and really glad to get back to truck. One to find it and two to see it's safe and three to get a drink of orange juice.

I saw another doe just before Seton Dam on the way to Lillooet. I got out and got here picture looking around for the buck I'd hoped was accompanying her. If there was one he stayed in hiding.

I stopped in Lillooet. The Mile O Motel here looked to inviting with Internet and Satellite TV in the centre of town. I had planned to have a nap and do the night hunt but slept too soundly to get up early enough to get out. Truth be told I was happy with just walking about this terrific little town and checking out the shops. Great shops. I love all the country merchandise that doesn't appear in city, rodeo books and a variety of chaps, smokers, hunting and fishing gear. It was fun to browse. I loved that the St. Andrew's United and St. Mary's Anglican shared a church. I bought take out Chinese at Sally's and it was terrific.

I really enjoyed the pleasant clean spacious rooms and pleasant decor at Mile O. $60 for the night and long hot showers. It's going to be hard to get up in the morning to get down to hunt the Nahatlatch River System. I'm hoping there will be less snow there. Despite having chains, 4x4 and a back up winch as well as come along I've not enjoyed driving up the mountains on the icy roads. Lots of rocks and debris so I have to pay full attention to driving and can't enjoy looking about for game. I'm hoping on the flatter Nahatlatch I'll find more of that and maybe surprise a partridge or two even if the deer aren't obliging with my desire to eat them. There's black bear around too. The mountains are beautiful this time of the year and hiking has been awesome.