Motocaching the Counties Finale - Part 7

Semi wreck

We departed the motel in Frutia bright and early going in opposite directions.  I got a text message later in the day from Yancey advising me that he had made it home a little after midday in good shape.  After a short distance heading west on I-70 I turned north on Hwy 139.  I had gone just a short distance when I encountered a semi facing me diagonally blacking the road.  On the left side of the road at a cross road was a car with the front end totally demolished.  An older man was on his cell phone with his arm on the shoulder of a very distraught young lady.  I'm guessing the man was the truck driver and the girl was the driver of the car.  Miraculously, no one was injured.  I was just the second one on the scene and when I determined there was nothing I could do I squeezed by the truck on the right shoulder of the road and went on my way.

Cache S of Rangely

Highway 139 was a fun road with little traffic and some curves and hills.  Shortly before reaching Rangely, CO, I stopped for a cache down off the road next to a fence.  At Rangely I took Hwy 64 northwest up to US 40 at Dinosaur, CO.  I proceeded over to Vernal, UT, and then turned north on US 191 up to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.  When you reach Flaming Gorge you can either stay on Hwy 191 and go around the east side or take Hwy 44 around the west side which is what I did.  Either one of those routes is a great motorcycle ride.  At Manila, UT, Hwy 44 intersects Hwy 43 which changes to Hwy 414 shortly when you cross into Wyoming.  I continued north on these rural highways and when I needed a beak I stopped at the Cokeville Meadows National Wildlife Refuge for a cache located alongside a paved trail out in the meadow.  I had a lot of miles to cover so I was only stopping for caches to take a break unless it seemed particularly compelling.

Hotel is open

Do Drop In TB Hotel

After crossing the line into Idaho going north past Montpellier I did stop at another that did seem compelling as it had garnered an incredible 62 favorite points.  It was a Travel Bug Hotel designed like a real hotel.  The hint consisted of numbers which turned out to be the combination that unlocked the front of the hotel. When opened, the front swung down uncovering little numbered "rooms" where the travel bugs resided - really clever.

I didn't stop again until I reached my destination at the Super 8 Motel in Blackfoot.  Finding the motel was a feat itself.  Although the motel sign was very visible from the interstate, getting there was another matter.  It was located in the back corner of a shopping center and you had to actually follow signs in the center parking lot to get to the motel.  It's a nice motel once you find it.

In spite of the distance traveled, 459 miles, I was not late getting in due to the few stops I made.  After unloading my gear I roamed around the shopping center as well as an adjacent one and picked up a few more caches making 8 for the day.  When I lived in Idaho Falls in 1968 I remember Blackfoot as just a small town.  It certainly doesn't seem that way now.  After a dinner at Arby's I went back to the motel and used their lobby computer to enter my caches as it was faster and easier than my little laptop.  [To be continued]  M/W