We launched from O'Neill extra early, arriving at the airport a few minutes before it opened at 7:00. We picked up our flight plan in the air, and continued on to Rock Springs, Wyoming, our next stop.

Well, all I can say about this part of the journey is that Jack should get his money back on the weather forecast. We were expecting a few patches of broken clouds, but about an hour after departing, we found ourselves in a solid cloud layer at 10,000 feet (the minimum altitude, because of the terrain), with the outside temperature just above freezing. Worried about the possibility of ice, and seeing some patches of blue sky above, we decided to try for 12,000 feet. The air traffic controllers here are amazingly accomodating - just about everything you ask for you get.

But as we started the climb, the temperature began to drop and we began picking up some ice on the windshield. We also experienced a very brief loss of power as we added carburator heat, but it came back almost immediately. We headed back down to 10,000 feet, to enjoy the turbulance and clouds some more. I regret having no photos from this part of the trip, but we were too busy flying to do much else. Besides, all they'd show would be a grey windshield, anyway.

Some time later, we tried climbing again, and were treated at 12,000 feet to a beautiful, clear, smooth ride, above a white carpet extending to the horizon in all directions. Neat!

Eventually, the overcast layer of clouds deteriorated to a broken, and then scattered layer, and we were treated to our first mountain views. A welcome sight, after about 14 hours of flying

By the time we reached Rock Springs, we were completely free of clouds. We were advised of a simulated emergency taking place there, visible in the center of the photo to the left (or at least the enlarged view, visible with a double-click). The airport was open, but we decided to push on to the next airport, Fort Bridger, Wyoming anyway.

On the way in, we could see a layer of clouds over the mountains we would have to clear during the next leg of our trip. I was a little concerned about these clouds, as our next leg would take us over the mountain, and the recent experience with ice didn't leave me feeling particularly optimistic. We landed in Fort Bridger, which consisted of not much more than a hangar, a house, a "Pilot's Lounge", and a fuel pump.

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