NE Wyoming fires

[gillettehunter]

If you plan to hunt deer or pronghorn in NE WY this year I'd suggest checking to make sure you're hunting area has not burned. Could make for a very unsuccessful hunt. Between Weston, Campbell and Johnson counties around 1000 square miles have burned recently.
Also use extreme caution in regards to fires this year. One fire in Johnson county moving into MT was 130,000 acres. There have been documented pronghorn deaths. A good rain would see some green growth coming back in the burns and see some animals moving back into those areas. Unfortunately that really hasn't happened and we're running out of time for that to make a difference for hunting season.

Check your area!
https://wyofile.com/wildfires-blacken-key-sage-grouse-pronghorn-habitat-in-northern-wyoming/

 

[gillettehunter]

Beside I-90 just east of Buffalo WY.

 

[BigDon]

View attachment 601891
Beside I-90 just east of Buffalo WY.

We're getting that smoke in Cheyenne and Laramie.

 

[HRM Johnny]

Thanks for the information @gillettehunter

 

[Airedale56]

Ah, Recluse, Wyoming.
The postmaster/mistress there took my picture there with a County Commissioner (her brother-in-law as I recall) in 1999/2000 to prove there was actually a State Patrol car in Recluse once. She posted it in the Post Office in Recluse.

I knew Ted Weischeidel on Weischeidel Rd (about a mile long County Road) East of Recluse between US 14/16 and WYO 59. Met him in 1999/2000 when I was Trooping with WHP in Campbell County. Great guy.
He passed in 2016 at 89 years old.

The first time I met him he was bent over a swather in summer time while cutting hay, trying to unclog it. He heard the tires on the gravel and looked west, over his shoulder to see who was coming by.
He jumped out of his skin when when he saw it was a State Patrol car.

He asked, "Is everything alright?.
I replied "Well, it looks like your swather is clogged"

"No, I mean, I've never seen a Highway Patrol car on this road in my life!."

I explained I was just cutting across on County Roads from Recluse to State Highway 59 instead of going all the way South to the airport at Gillette.

He said he had lived on that road for over 70 years and never seen a State Patrol car on it.

A few months later, in Fall, I was cutting across the same way again on a full moon night. When I hit Weischeidel Road off of the Bay Horse Road, I could have driven across there without headlights, it was so light outside from a full moon.

I met a westbound pickup coming toward me. The headlights were on, then went off, then came back on, then went off again. I stopped and waited on the pickup. As it got closer, I spun the lights on the Federal Vector light bar and waited as the pickup stopped at my drivers door, doored up with me.

I said "Hello, Ted. How are you doing tonight?"

"Hi, John. I'm good. How about you?"

"I''m good, too, Ted. What's going on with your headlights?" I asked.

"Oh, it's an old ranch truck and the switch is bad. It never leaves the ranch. I'm headed down to break ice for my cows. You're not gonna write me a ticket, are you?" asked Ted.

"Hell, Ted, the road's got your name on it. I don't care what you do on it. Have a nice night!" was my reply.

That was the last time I saw him.

Good man.

Gillette Hunter, sorry for the thread hijack.
I was reading about the Recluse fire on Cowboy State Daily and Ted Weischeidel popped up in my memory bank.