Hitch 3:Tongue River Canyon

   Wyoming continues to amaze me. I spent the last ten days in the bighorn mountains of northern Wyoming working on a trail in the tongue river canyon that leads to the tongue river cave. Right now the cave is closed to prevent the spread of white nose bat syndrome.  Unfortunately, people choose on a daily basis to disrespect the closure and enter the cave anyway, risking a $5,000 per person fine.  In addition, the cave seems to attract a mischievous crowd as the walls in and outside the cave are covered in graffiti.  The trail itself wasn't in much better shape when we arrived.  The steep slopes are littered with trash and erosion is very bad as people cut off the switchbacks to find a faster way up or down the trail.  It's one of those unfortunate dilemmas of public land management.  The forest service has an obligation to maintain the trail for users to pass safely, but the trail leads to a closed cave that no one should be entering.  Are we just making it easier for the rough crowd to go do bad things?

cave entrance

 

      I spent a majority of our 10 days in the tongue river canyon considering this.  Ultimately, I realized that it isn't an option to let the trails condition continue to degrade.  All you can do is fix it up to working condition and hope that the solutions you've come up with are sustainable.  Hopefully, users will see the trail looking better and start to treat it that way.  Really what I'm saying is that if you treat a place poorly, people will follow the agency's lead.  If you take time and care to make it nice, maybe people will treat it accordingly.  I guess we wouldn't know unless we tried.  

    Aside from the dilemmas of work, we could not have asked for a more beautiful work site.
 The tongue river is running at flood levels and I could say for a fact that going for a swim in the river would surely result in death.  But, the views from the cave entrance were extraordinary.  I was lucky enough to see my first moose since moving here on our last morning of work.  Additionally, I got to see the western side of the Bighorn mountains and make my first drive into Montana in the bighorn national recreation area where another crew was working.  From the top of the bighorns, you can see all the way out to the wind river range and yellowstone national park.

Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area

       For now, I must go pack my bags as my crew leaves in the morning for Boysen State Park/Reservoir in central Wyoming.  Although the temps are certainly rising out here, it will be nice to be at a place where we can swim at the end of our work day.  It will also be my first time seeing that part of the state.  

Walking back from work on the last day-Beautiful!