This is an appropriate time for the word "beset," I think. "Set upon." On one arm, glancing as I ran to the back of the car, I saw six mosquitoes already digging in. I grabbed the Off! from the back and sprayed until I gagged. Soaked with Off!, I turned up the hill. The swarming continued, but I felt at least somewhat protected. However, I did feel the need to jog up the hill, about 1/4 mile, straight up. Note below that I couldn't even stand for the 10 seconds of the self-timer once I reached the monument. Add to my difficulties the fact that I was wearing my Birkenstock sandals, which are basically flip-flops, because I did not feel like I had the time to swap into more appropriate climbing shoes.

A nice monument, and well marked. Again an A.V. Richards creation, surveyed and marked in 1871. I didn't care. I needed to get back into the friendly confines of the Subaru and get the hell out of there. I scraped my belly somethin' good in my haste to close the gate at the state line. I didn't even think of tetanus until several days later when I told the story and someone asked when my last tetanus shot was. At press time, my jaw is not locked, fortunately.

The evening quickly drew to a close as I drove back north toward Cokeville, WY. Some spectacular big-sky clouds to the west made for a glorious sunset.

I needed a place to camp for the night and the Bridger-Teton National Forest was somewhat nearby. I headed in there to find that my intended campground was about 25 miles into the forest, up over some big-ass mountains, along a windy, dark, narrow, lonely dirt road. After over an hour of exciting night driving (and wildlife spotting) I found the campground. Closed.

Fine. I set up my tent and slept there anyway. It was closed because they were doing some logging operations nearby, but I figured that between 10:30pm and 6:30am, not much would be happening, so I took the chance. I was right - I was the only soul on that road until a good 20 miles of driving the next morning. Spectacular country up there - cold as I've been in a while (it was 43 degrees when I parked the car) - but thankfully bug-free.

Ham's Fork Campground, Bridger-Teton NF, WY