Blue Goose ~ Day 41

July 11, 2014 ~ McCammon, ID to Kingston, WY

Everyone was up early at the Flying J, bustling about, getting ready for the day. I got coffee (surprisingly good) and a slice of a Western Omelet pizza (surprisingly good) along with a dozen or so burly guys also getting coffee and food (and a few women). I drove east to Soda Springs (passing near the town of Grace and thought of Dave and Ellen) where I stopped at a supermarket to buy dental floss and came out with the very same model of cooler that Steve wanted to buy for me in Florence but which I declined knowing, if I waited, I could pay $10 more for it in Soda Springs, ID…just kidding. Sorry, Steve…I should have accepted, and it fit perfectly (as Steve said it would). Since I have been buying ice at $1-2 a bag nearly every day, it will soon pay for itself. 

The road to Grays Lake NWR is the same road that goes to Jackson, WY, which, Joanie, is as close as I will get to Drew and his hot plate. It was a lovely scenic road, curvy, but easy to drive. There are many big RVs everywhere out here, and I was behind four of them most of the way, which was fine. Zen Driving is the thing with me lately. We carefully edged past bicyclists and watched for open range cattle. I wanted to coninue over the big mountains into Jackson just for the ride as the road was good, the sun was out; it was summertime….

Grays Lake is a shallow depression with marshy areas and pioneer / mining history. The refuge was open although I didn’t see or talk with anyone. The route around Grays Lake is about 25 miles and easy driving on gravel.

White-faced Ibis at Grays Lake NWR - ID

I saw perhaps three or four cars even though there are scattered ranches around the "lake." The map showed a boundary called Lake Meander which I gather was the historic lake bed or even its furthest reach in the spring after snow melt. Lake Meander…whimsical. 

I soon saw a White-faced Ibis and a cooperative Swainson’s Hawk, not at all spooked by my presence. A coyote ran in the distance. I passed a sign advertising bird houses for sale and immediately thereafter was half a mile of bird houses on fence posts, inhabited by Mountain Buebirds and Tree Swallows.

Mountain Bluebird at Grays Lake NWR - ID

So essentially, this was a large open flat place with mountains all around.  At the south end were aspens and Douglas firs.

I retraced my route to Soda Springs and went south to Bear Lake NWR which was another serene and bountiful marsh, with canals to help manage things. It is called Dingle Marsh by the locals. Here, as at Malheur, invasive carp are a huge problem. They are bottom feeders, uprooting vegetation and muddying the waters, effectively messing up habitat for the water birds.  (The water on this refuge is part of the contiguous huge Bear Lake.) So this is a management issue...trying to eradicate carp or reduce their invasion through dikes.

It was late afternoon, and as usual no one was out here. It was a Marsh Wren mecca. I saw several nests, up to four at once, and often the tiny birds would fly in hanging on the reeds, singing (chattering) constantly. My tires got loaded with Canada goose poop. The goslings look nearly full grown and could fly out of the way as I approached. 

I made a Priceline reservation in Kingston, WY, and on the way almost drove past Cokeville Meadows NWR, which is only accessible from the road, although there was a very short loop trail, an information kiosk and a viewing bench overlooking open wetlands.

Cokeville Meadows NWR - WA

A woman and teenage boy were also looking things over, binoculars at hand. Her husband stayed in their RV. She knew of Crystal Lake and Frankfort where her family had had a cottage "for many generations...and ya know...people say you can't go back again, but you can here...I did and nothing has changed." She now lives in Washington state and they were returning home. Again, in retrospect I wish I had asked the kid if he was also interested in birding. He was taking photos of the cliff swallow nests in the kiosk. I love to see the kid-bird connections. 

The brilliant late afternoon sun, the blue skies and distant grey mountains were a quintessentially western scene as drove into Wyoming. 

The motel...jeez louise. It was listed as three stars and a "smart deal" but it was at most half a star. The guy at the desk eventually showed up in stocking feet, almost certainly under some drug influence. He was nice enough and intelligent and not grubby but had that way slowed-down manner, and he rambled on and on about Priceline and "entities...bookings...front desk/front deck...scams" most of which I stopped trying to follow after two minutes. He had a bit of trouble getting my room key which seemed to be in a box on the floor. And then had to "check the room a minute" before I went in. It was relatively clean, although the bottom sheet didn't fit well and looked as though it had been washed 200 times. Luckily the Internet connection was fine, so I worked several hours after getting Tex-Mex food down the street. Wherever there is intensive farm labor to be done by hand (picking, weeding, hoeing, shoveling, moving water pipes) there are Mexicans in jeans and hats, and they obviously have settled in many towns and communities all over the west.