TR: Whiskey, Rattlesnakes and Dirt! A Wyoming Westy at play

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Context: You guys don't know me too well, but I read here frequently. I am a C. Ped and I work with winter athletes- mainly skiers. I am working on some industry projects and got some rare solo time away from the family. I do all of thew work on it myself.

Sooo... Enjoy this (hopefully) relaxing thread.

Spring is a low time for me. Coming off of a great ski year is always difficult, and man this is one to remember... I know guys still skiing nearly every day. Our weather, while punctuated by a few days of good weather, has been a Rocky Mountain crappy spring. All rain and snow.

Mrs. Skiing-in-Jackson got tired of me moping about the house and kicked me out on the road. Last Off-Season I went to Moab. This year I wanted to stay in Wyoming.

Points East were the course. Here are the Tetons. I love the Tetons, they are the awesome.



North of Shoshoni. I wanted to find a spot where I could take a break from driving and this was it! I just drove out into the desert and stopped here:



Just North of Thermopolis is the home of Wyoming Whiskey in Kirby. I called and asked them for a tour. Wow. I asked if I could snap a few pics and they said it was cool. Some people from town and a guy I used to work on the river together with are partners.



There were these copper boxes with constant streams of clear liquid flowing inside. Brass locks were placed there by the Feds as the whiskey is not taxable at this point and is not ready to be consumed. I guess it is a procedural point as one could snag a sip anywhere in the process, but rules are rules. I was informed today that Congress in 1964 passed a law decreeing what "bourbon" is and strict laws follow it's distilling, manufacture and aging.

I'm glad to see our government is doing something to protect the average man.

Watching the pure whiskey flow by was memorizing. You can see the stream in the pic. One is @ 120 proof and the second distilling brings it to 130 proof. The color comes from the charred barrels. Although I graduated college from ECU in NC, I never drank a lot of bourbon, I stuck to rum and Natural Light.



The 100% copper distilling tower was 40 feet tall and was manufactured buy Vendome of Kentucky. Just hearing the interesting history of this company was amazing.

Mash cooking. It looked like the stuff that almost digested the main guy in Waterworld.




Barrels of Wyoming Whiskey aging, with the Feds in charge of distribution, I got no taste! Whatever. I'm sure it would have been just tasty.

 

I was hoping to take my freshly tuned up, primed up Vanagon out on the road. It was bleeding for some road time. I wanted to find some cool roads to explore. Confidence level was high.

I drove a bunch of roads I shouldn't have in the red circles. Outta control!



I knew there were petroglyphs in the area and wanted to see them. I was taking a break from the dusty roads and a white hybrid mini BLM SUV rolled up. They asked me if i was there to see the petroglyphs and I said, "Oh Yeah"! I was informed the site- about 3 miles down this rough dirt road was closed due to vandals. They got me through the locked gate then split to do their own thing, I told them I'd meet them at the parking lot in a little bit. I guess they trusted me.

Talk about being in the right place at the right time! Things usually work out just fine.

What's a Spring trip without petroglyphs?



And this crazy alien guy carrying a laser hammer:



You can see the graffiti scrawled across this drawing here. Somebody needs to be castrated.




This was an especially interesting one:



^^^Wait a minute... WTF!!! I'm sure this guy was real popular around camp. Must have been eating those elk antlers again. This guy is my hero.

 

Part 3:

I drove right up to this thing. Lest we forget where life as we know it comes from:



I almost ran over this guy. He was relaxing in the warm Spring sun. I'm lucky the Man doesn't come rolling over me when I'm relaxing. He was maybe six feet long- and in the middle of the road. At this point I was way out there and didn't grab his tail (like I almost did). Driving to the hospital with a rattlesnake bite would have sucked:



They weren't fooling.



These guys below refused to get out of the road. I came to a complete stop once and they stayed out front of me. So I gave em a run for their money. I this picture I'm going about thirty and they are moving along so sweat. I slowed down again to give them a chance to duck into the sage, but no, they wanted to race and took off ahead. I eventually reached about 45 mph behind them then they moved off into the sagebrush. I've had them run out in front of me- and pass- at 60+. The American Pronghorn is a graceful and speedy animal.




This is really a pic of my sweet Redline Monocog. Set up 32 x 20 w/ 2.3 tires. Sooo much fun to ride...anywhere. This was a fork in the road where I made some lunch. It is great to have a bike to stop anywhere and take a break from the driving. Also, I treat my bike like a dingy as it may have to transport me to safety in the event of a catastrophic mechanical failure. Which has happened in the past.



Ahhh...Roadside repairs:

Hmmm, where do I start... my mechanical nirvana didn't last too long.

Once the engine got really hot (me thought) it was running rough, not usually the case and I found this broken vacuum line. I carry an impressive array of tools and repir parts. They are in my Bus if I drive to Wilson or anywhere. F*CK! I had no fittings to replace this, as there was a reduction in hose diameter. I improvised a ball point pen to fashion a new vacuum tube.



Fix broken vacuum line, adjust timing (2x), Bus still running like sh!t- replace fuel filter, bus still running sub par, check fuel lines and drive home pseudo tail between legs figuring out fuel issue. I had a old but working fuel pump on me, but was too lazy to replace it. That would have been the cure. Vanagons hate fuel pumps and consume one about every 18 months- not matter how much or little you drive.

Re: Things just working out (again): I originally split town to get some projects finished- I have several things I'm way behind on. I was diligent and did my work- and ran into the guy who I was supposed to get it to the day after I returned. Sweet!

Thanks for reading!

 

:good:

 

Thank you for taking the time to post this little detour, I've got itchy feet now!

 

Very timely post. I will be fly fishing in Jackson Hole next week! Thanks for sharing!