One never reaches home, but wherever friendly paths intersect the whole world looks like home for a time.

                  - Hermann Hesse

7/22/15

From Breckinridge we sped north.  Our first stop was Saratoga, WY to visit the Hobo Hot Springs.  We got the low down from one of Michael and Sydney’s friends at the party.  Not only did Saratoga, WY offer up free hot springs, it also had a new brewery that had great food and solid beer.  I was very impressed with everything about this particular hot spring - it’s free, there is a cold river to dip in between soaks, there are public showers, the various pools are made of concrete, and there are no naked mutants waving their junk around.  It was a huge score.

What do you mean the water is hot?

After an hour-ish of soaking we hit the road and drove to Lander, WY. Lander is just east of the Wind River Range (one of the most amazing places I have ever been) and is the home base for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS).  I had always imagined that if I could have planned my twenties out a little better I could have landed myself a job at NOLS when I was young and unbroken.  I could have gone into teaching after I was older and broken.  Luckily for me the path I did land on has been pretty awesome as well.  

Lander is also home to a company called Lander’s Llamas.  It is my hope to someday take a course on how to manage llamas and then organize a two week climbing expedition into the Wind River Range with the llamas doing the heavy lifting. Apparently each llama can carry 60 pounds, eat as they go, and are great watch dogs - they freak out when anyone or anything approaches camp.  That can be especially helpful if the visitor is a grizzly bear.   Get a group of ten people and twenty llamas and the Wind River Range would be a pretty sweet place to tromp around. 

Free camping in Lander is pretty sweet...

I would imagine that some people might find Lander a little too sleepy.  I am not one of those people.  To me Lander does a great job of keeping it’s western feel and independence while being a very welcoming place.  Lander has an up and coming restaurant scene.  We checked out two different spots and they were both pretty awesome.  Another welcoming aspect that the town has to offer is City Park.  A small, but versatile park that has tennis and basketball courts, two baseball fields, a soccer field, lots of picnicking areas along the river, and free camping and public restrooms.  My guess is that my home town (Portland, Maine) would never offer up its park (Deering Oaks) to the public for any sort of camping.  Which is a shame.  

Po Po Agie falls includes a rock slide drop in.... 

Lander is surrounded by incredible outdoor terrain.  Not only is the Wind River Range next door, but Sinks Canyon State Park is only minutes from it’s downtown.  The Winds run roughly north - west to south - east for100 miles and follows the Continental Divide. Gannett Peak, at 13,804 feet is the highest peak in Wyoming.  One of its most famous sections is the Cirque de Towers which is a collection of several dramatic, granite peaks that form a circle around it’s plush, boulder strewn meadows.  Sinks Canyon is a section of the Wind River Range.  The canyon is the middle fork of the Po Po Agie River. There is a section of the river that flows into an underground limestone cavern at “The Sinks” only to emerge 1/4 mile down the canyon in a pool named, “The Rise”.  

For the three of us Lander was a new place to explore.  Hikes lead to beautiful water falls and hunger led to outdoor burger joints with locally made beer.  City Park, where we camped, was filled with locals that picnicked by the river during the afternoon, and people that were camping in Lander by night so they could explore the town and the surrounding area by day.  Everyone we met was friendly and courteous.  It was a place that friendly people seemed to intersect…

This spot is just a 45 minute hike up into Sinks Canyon State Park...

  

The kind of place you don't want to leave...