Found the Library

I have just found my home for the next few days, and it is awesome.

I wanted to camp on plains like those through which the fur trappers passed.  When trapping parties or resupply missions set out for the Rockies, they usually left St. Louis and traveled up the Missouri, then headed west along the Platte River through what is now southern Nebraska.  Later, after trappers had mapped the South Pass through the Rockies, wagons followed the Platte and the path became known as the Oregon Trail.  Today, Interstate 80 follows the same route.

The North Fork of the Platte near Lewellan, NE.

I slept last night along a farming road just north of Cozad, Nebraska, which lies along I-80.  When I got back on the interstate heading west, then, I was following the fur trail.  But of course much has changed.  What was once wild prairie, thick with grass grazed only by buffalo, is now chopped into private acreages devoted either to intensive tractor-driven farming or heavy grazing by livestock.  Between the crops, the low-grazed grass, the fences and the pavement, the scene along the Platte ain’t what it used to be.

The closest big green splotch on my map was the Crescent National Wildlife Refuge, and that’s where I went.  I drove up about twenty-five miles of well-maintained dirt road to get into the refuge from Oshkosh, Nebraska, then spent about forty-five minutes bumping along a four-wheel-drive only road to make sure I was as near to wilderness as I could get.  The four-wheel-drive “road” was only a bushhogged track through the prairie, and the grass was so high that I had to roll my windows up so the grass seeds wouldn’t fly into my truck.  I was particular about the site that I wanted: I wanted to be way off the beaten path, in the middle of authentic prairie, near a water source for cleaning and bathing, in a place where I could get some cell service to update this blog, and preferably out of sight of the forest service tower that I suspect the authorities use to keep watch over the goings-on on the Refuge.



I found it.  My current spot is (or at least appears to be) in the middle of nowhere.  It’s tucked between a couple hills so it can’t be seen from the tower, and if I climb a nearby ridge, I can get internet service on my phone.  The grass is thick and tall.  Best of all, I’m parked right next to an old ranching windmill that still works – the windmill drives a pump which draws groundwater and deposits into a metal tank.  I can use the water for cooking, cleaning, or drinking.  It tastes clear and cold.  The coordinates are 41°44.489’ N, 102°22.643’ W if you want to look me up on Google Earth.

The view of camp from Internet Ridge.  You can see my truck, the windmill,

and the tank in the bottom right corner.

I’ll hole up here for a few days and research.  By the time I leave Crescent Lake NWR, I will have a fairly precise route planned over the Rockies, across the Great Basin, and over the Sierra Nevadas.  I expect that tomorrow morning I’ll itch to crank the truck and keep moving, but it’s time for a modicum of discipline.  For the next few days, I’ll have to put some salve where the traveling bug has bitten me.