Louis Lake Let Down

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Yellow sweetclover Atlantic City Iron Mine 
Yellow sweet clover growing on the hillside by the Atlantic City Iron Mine spoils.

Well, we slept in all the way until 6:30 (actually, I was awake at 5 something), had breakfast, and then were off to Louis Lake. We saw no wildlife on the way out, or while we were fishing.

We fished from 8:30 until 12:30 and gave it up. Not a single bite. But lots of Yahoos. We had planned to kayak after fishing, but, Yahoos. I suggested we go back to SPC, change, and do our weekly shopping and have tomorrow as a free day. Connie agreed to this.

We drove back into SPC and saw three pronghorn antelope. We changed, put a few things away, and off we went to Lander.

On the way out, our three pronghorn antelope had become five. The drive into Lander went quickly and, just before going down into the valley, we saw five pronghorn antelope.

We did our shopping. We saw one pronghorn antelope outside Lander, and one going back into SPC.

I stopped along the way back, across from the old Atlantic City Iron Mine to take a photograph of the landscape. It is getting toward the end of the season for the yellow sweet clover, but it still covers some hills. The fragrance of the plants was amazing!

We encountered, rain!, on the way home and were rained on as we put groceries away. The rain felt cool to cold, but was very welcome.

I fired up the smoker and Connie formed some burger patties. We can smoke four at a time. We smoked a total of eight burgers. While the second batch was smoking, we prepared frittatas for the work week.

I re-heated the last of the smoked pork loin and corn on the cob from earlier and mixed a salad for dinner.

After dinner, I took the frittatas out of the smoker and tossed in six chicken thighs for dinners over the weekend. Next, we discussed possible plans for tomorrow. Among the options, a day trip to Pinedale, Wy, to visit the Museum of the Mountain Man, won out. There are a few other things to see there and along the way, but the decision to bail on Louis Lake paid off.

Now, for the last bit of smoking, I put five ears of corn in. It’s 9:00 PM. What to do while they smoke? How about go over to the Miner’s Grubstake for a beer and write this narrative? Done.

A beer at the Grubstake, a bit of conversation with Chris, one of the owners, some writing, and its home to harvest the corn, so to speak, and then go to bed.

After volunteering at SPC in 2023 and 2024, it simply amazes me that I can go out for a beer at 9:00 PM on a Thursday evening. This is why we are trying to support a couple of these local businesses. 

Back to the trailer, I pull the corn off the smoker and shut it down. We see lightning on the horizon, so we may get more rain.

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