Cody Wyoming (Cassies Saloon)

I planned my backpack trip so that after hiking out of the Madison Range I would drive to Yellowstone and camp there. I saw Old Faithful again, then went up by the lake and across the Hayden Valley to Canyon.

Once again I went the 328 steps down the Uncle Tom's trail to the base of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone. I waited on the steps for a long time til there was noone around, and I could play Amazing Grace on my harmonica without disturbing anyone. It meant plenty to me, to again hear my notes drifting out into such a beautiful landscape.

On the last night of my vacation I stayed in Cody. I usually try to end my trips there, with a visit to the Art and Nature Museums at the Bufallo Bill Historic Center. They had a special exhibit this year by Alexander Proctor, a sculptor who lived in Denver from age 11, in the late 1800's. The exhibit said he camped and hunted alone in the Colorado Rockies when he was young. One of his favorite places was Flattops Wilderness, where he would spend months alone. A couple of his huge sculptures are still in the park in front of the city and county building of Denver. My favorite was a lifesize piece he created in 1929 of an indian maiden and fawn.

I also stopped in Cassie's nightclub on Saturday night to be around people and listen to the band. There were several bikers there on the way to Sturgess. A large group thought I looked to lonely sitting at a table by myself, so invited me over to theirs.

They asked me plenty of questions, and I told them what I had been up to the last couple of weeks. I described backpacking in the Madison's and having to be alert because of all the Grizzlies in this mountain range just a few miles West of Yellowstone. They would not believe that I went up there without a gun, and nothing I could say would convince them.

As the evening went on they kept drinking and became more talkative and uninhibited. One said this was such wide open country that you could hide a body anywhere and noone would find it. He thought that was so funny he repeated it again to me twice more in the next half hour. I told them about my long marriage, and how my exwife and I used to come to Cassie's a few years ago while on vacation. They wanted to know what happened to end my marriage after twenty six years, and were quiet waiting for my answer. 'She said she wanted to move on.' , 'she said it was her', was my reply, which sound like sour cliches now, especially when used to end a lifetime together. One of the ladies at the table said 'He is allright, he has good eyes', which I figure was a compliment.

That was plenty of socializing, and countered all the time I had spent with just my two dogs in the weeks before. I also got to twostep with all the local western ladies from Cody who came out on a Saturday Night. The best was the intensity of dancing with a pretty woman with long blonde hair while the band played a great version of Steve Earle's Copperhead Road