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In the morning we split up. The Philippi wanted to paddle the main Shoshone River, and Lee went with them, since it was east and he wanted to get started home after paddling; the rest of us preferred to drive a few miles west to the North Fork of the Shoshone.
The forest fire was between the North Fork and the South Fork of the river. We were fortunate in that the smoke was blowing south, so we had a clear day on the river.
We put on at the Clearwater group campground of the Shoshone NF, 12 miles west of the Wapiti bridge, and took out at a fishing access 5.2 miles west of the Wapiti bridge, just below Lost Creek and the Bill Cody Ranch. Everyone had a good run, but three canoes were lined through the biggest rapid, just a half-mile before the takeout. This rapid (and the entire river trip) could have used a bit more water; Sheila and I abused our boats fairly severely here.
It was only 4:00 PM when we had finished shuttle and got everyone loaded up for the highway home, so we decided not to dine together, and each began to make his own way home.
Sheila and I, though, were out for one more week. We drove through Cody to WY-120 south. We hit US-20 at Thermopolis, and drove around town a bit to see the famous Hot Springs.
From Hot Springs we drove drove US-20 through the gorge of the Bighorn River and joined US-26 to take US-20/26 to Lander. From Lander we took one of those wonderful Forest Road detours southwestward, initially on WY-131, into the southern unit of the Shoshone National Forest. It got quite dark as we drove up toward the national forest, and we stopped at the campground of the Sinks Canyon State Park.
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