Wayne's Reflections

2017 has been a record water year in Mackay.  In February, snow fall in the upper Big Lost River basin was reported by the National Resource Conservation Service as 400 % of normal.  And, on top of that snow, approximately 3/4 inches of rain fell later in the month.  We are now seeing the effects. The Snotel gage at Lost-Wood Divide (top of Trail Creek Road) shows no snow for the past several days.  The gage at Smiley Mountain (measures snow that will go into the East Fork of the Big Lost River) indicates there are still 26 inches of snow with 11 inches of water content (today 6-10-17). The high runoff has peaked by all indications:  Snotel gages and the White Horse that "Old Timers" used to determine when high water had peaked has disappeared from the m ountains south of Barton Flatt.  Interesting how old methods to determine when water runoff has peaked, have been verified by modern technology. The water flow at the Howell Ranch gage (used to mea...

Last fall when Shirley and I were ending our road trip to Connecticut (see Road Trip 2015), we were invited to spend a night in Greeley, Colorado at our friends Jani Malkiewicz and Robbyn Wacker. Our son, Travis, had suggested that we spend some time in southwestern Colorado and see the sights there before returning home.  As we had been on that trip for almost 30 days, we decided to go on home and visit southwestern Colorado on another trip. Well, later last year (2015), Jani and Robbyn were married and invited us to their wedding reception which would be held May 28, 2016.   We were excited to accept their invitation and started planning Road Trip 2016.  This trip we planned taking our 27 ft. travel trailer and staying in RV parks Road Trip 2016 began by leaving Mackay on May 25 and going to Riverton, Wyoming to spend several days with Shirley's brother Terry and sister-in-law Donna.  We did make one change in our route to Riverton.  As we were pulling ...