Up early this morning for breakfast with Rey Adame, Public Affairs Officer for the three surrounding BLM field offices, Harlen Hiner, Acting Field Manager for the Rock Springs Field Office, and Wally Mierzejewski, Recreation Planner for the Rock Springs field office. One of the issues we discussed is the traditional access roads and trails across private land to public land. Even here in Wyoming, where space seems limitless, the sale and/or division of large ranches are restricting access. This is a common concern in more populated states and public lands close to large population centers. Reduction of access points makes it more difficult for visitors to enter public land and may restrict dispersed opportunities. Construction of new roads and even trails are expensive, time consuming, and depending on location and proposed visitor use may raise strong environmental and social opposition. Personally I believe that there needs to be more emphasis on protecting and enhancing access routes in planning processes and that in community development adjacent to public lands there should be some easement requirement to protect existing trail and road access points.

Following breakfast Wally guided us on backroads through the Moxarch Oil and Gas Field. The Field approximately 75 by 40 miles in size produces from 1,000 wells five million barrels of oil and seventy-three BILLION cubic feet of natural gas each year. 12% of the revenue from the oil and gas goes to the United States treasury.

Next stop was the Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge to join up with Carol Damberg, Refuge Manager, and our river guide Chris. We returned to our canoes just down from the Refuge and spent the next three hours paddling and floating down the Green River. Wildlife for the day included a herd of twelve deer crossing the river, five trumpeter swans that we saw twice, numerous great blue herons, hawks and white pelicans, and one salmon thrashing around along one bank.

We came ashore at the “6-Mile Ramp”, ate a picnic lunch on the bank, and then all piled into Mike Browns agency suburban and the Hondas to drive out to the Green River crossing and an emigrant trail interpretive site off Highway 28. The primary emigrant trail period across Wyoming lasted approximately from 1843 to 1869. The completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 greatly reduced the number of emigrants traveling by wagon train along the Oregon/California/Mormon/Pony Express Trail route that crosses Wyoming and the Green River where we traveled today. During these twenty-six years approximately 400,000 emigrants traveled along the Trail. The interpretive site off Highway 28 commemorated the estimated 10 to 30,000 pioneers who perished on the trail. It was hard to read about and think of those who lost friends, spouses and children along the trail, had only time for the simplest of burials, and then had to proceed on. Standing and looking down the trail until it passed over the horizon it was as though we had stepped back150 years.

Tonight was a let down your hair and relax evening. We had a group dinner of BBQ steak, ground buffalo and antelope sausage (the latter two provided by Carol and Doug Damberg), watched an intensely bright rainbow be absorbed into a magnificent sunset, and then went over to the Refuge’s almost finished interpretive/meeting building for a presentation on the National Wildlife Refuge System and to see the slides that Bob A and Bob V have put together on the Journey. The final treat was that we are staying in the Refuge’s new seasonal house. So for tonight no rain and no packing up wet tents in the morning. From the Journey, dana