Day 083 - Continental Divide Trail - Atlantic City to East Sweetwater River

Day: 083

Date: Sunday, 28 July 2024

Start:  Atlantic City, WY

Finish:  East Sweetwater River

Daily Kilometres:  30.7

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  2440.4

Weather:  Cool early, then warm and sunny with a short-lived cold rain squall in mid-afternoon.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Fruit, egg & bacon roll, cinnamon scroll.

  Lunch:  Snacks/trail mix

  Dinner:  Rehydrated meals.

Aches:  Dave - many niggles; Julie nothing reported.

Highlight:  It was very nice to get into the conifer forests and meadows of the foothills of the Wind River Range after days of hiking through the treeless sagebrush plains and hills of the Great Divide Basin.

Lowlight:  Nothing in particular.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

A wild storm came through during the small hours with heavy rain and very strong winds which blew a number of things around outside the cabin.  We were very glad we were not camped in our tent in an exposed location.

Around 7:30am, after a good sleep-in, we had a delicious breakfast on the verandah of “Wild Bill’s” where we were joined by the man himself for an interesting chat while we ate.  Turns out he is the same age as Dave, but a few months older.

We did well to enjoy the food while he described in graphic detail the sawmill accident in which he lost a finger and mangled his left hand just a few months ago.  Fortunately, his right hand, and particularly his trigger finger, was unharmed as he is an avid hunter.  Last night he told us about shooting, from his front door, a large black bear that was going through his garbage

We began hiking at 8:30am, with the first 8km being a gravel road walk, involving some significant climbing, to the now tiny historic mining town of South Pass City.  Back in the mid-19th century gold rush days it had a population of around 3000 and must have been a sight to see, but now there are just a few permanent residents plus some summer vacationers.

Part of the old town is now a state historical park, with tours of the old town and mines offered in summer.  We stopped in at the visitor centre, which welcomes CDT hikers, and bought ice creams and drinks which we ate for morning tea at a picnic table with a power outlet set aside for hikers passing through.  Very thoughtful.

From South Pass City, the trail returned to the sagebrush plains for a few kilometres and was quite scrappy walking, but it improved as we approached the mountains and attractive rocky outcrops adorned the scenery.

After crossing Hwy 28, we really did start to get into the mountains and forests again and it was a very welcome change with more to look at, and some nice views to the craggy peaks, and pleasant meadows to traverse.  Also welcome was the number of streams we crossed meaning that water will be readily accessible for a change.

In mid-afternoon, the sky suddenly clouded over, a strong gusty wind arrived, the temperature dropped markedly, and a cold rain began to fall.  Fifteen minutes later it was gone, the sun was out and we were warm again.  Such rapid weather changes have become very familiar to us in the mountains.

We found a nice place to camp near a river around 6:40pm on a beautiful peaceful evening and an owl is hooting nearby as the blog is written around 9pm.  We are a little higher (8300’) and the night promises to be cool.

We have now recorded 1500 miles on the CDT.

Day 082 - Continental Divide Trail - Sweetwater River to Atlantic City

Day: 082

Date: Saturday, 27 July 2024

Start:  Sweetwater River 

Finish:  Atlantic City, WY

Daily Kilometres:  17.3

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  2409.7

Weather:  Cold to cool and mostly overcast with strong winds and occasional showers and thunderstorms.

Accommodation:  Cabin at B&B

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts/Muesli

  Lunch:  Cheeseburgers & fries

  Dinner:  Cheeseburgers & fries (the menu wasn't that big!), strawberry & rhubarb pie & icecream.

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  It was satisfying to complete our crossing of the Great Divide Basin without the terrifying thunderstorms, debilitatingly heat or gale force winds other hikers have dealt with.  Although we had a taste of all three, they were quite manageable.  There was an awful lot of nothing out there, and we saw very few people, but that in itself made it interesting and an experience to remember.

Lowlight:  Nothing in particular.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We had a good night's sleep and were hiking by soon after 6am, hoping to reach Atlantic City, where we had a B&B cabin booked, in time for lunch.

It was a much colder morning than for the last week and we both had frozen hands after the tent packup for the first hour of hiking.  Although we had a beautiful sunrise, the weather gradually deteriorated as we walked and soon it was very grey and dull with an increasingly strong cold wind blowing.  Usually, we remove some clothing layers after the first hour or two of hiking but not this morning.  The landscape was bare and treeless with a few scattered cows.  It was bleak and worsening, with a few light showers coming through and some distant thunder.

For most of the way we were hiking along a gravel road with almost no traffic and making good time.  After climbing gradually most of the morning, we descended quite sharply into the old mining village of Atlantic City, which boasts a 150 year history and has metal plaques outside many properties describing what the building had previously been, or what had previously occupied the site.

The housing is now mostly wooden cabins or mobile homes plus two bars/cafes, next to each other, and a tiny general store.  It's the kind of place where people come to live off the grid and we doubt there are many Democrats in town.

We found our B&B on the way into town, arriving around 11am, and left our packs on their verandah before walking a kilometre to one of the cafes and having a very welcome and tasty early lunch.  In the early afternoon, we returned to the B&B, met “Wild Bill”, our very friendly and accommodating host and were given access to our cabin.  Apart from operating the B&B with his partner, “Wild Bill” is also a gunsmith, selling guns and ammo, a knifesmith, and operates a septic tank cleaning business.  Truly a jack of all trades, and a very nice one at that.

Disappointingly, there is no electric power in the cabin to charge our devices, a critical function for thruhikers, but there is a power board on the verandah of the main house we can use.

During the afternoon, Julie managed to do our laundry and we sorted out our food, which we had mailed ahead to “Wild Bill”, for the next five days to Pinedale, our next stop.  We are looking forward to this next leg which takes us into the renowned Wind River Range and the start of grizzly bear territory (which stretches from here to Canada).

In late afternoon we walked back to the same cafe where we had lunch for an early dinner.  Later, back at the B&B, we enjoyed a cake and ice cream supper on the verandah with "Wild Bill" who told us about his very interesting life.

After breakfast tomorrow we will be back on the trail.

Day 081 - Continental Divide Trail - Bison Basin Road to Sweetwater River

Day: 081

Date: Friday, 26 July 2024

Start:  Bison Basin Road

Finish:  Sweetwater River

Daily Kilometres:  40.7

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  2392.4

Weather:  Mild to warm and partly sunny with a strong wind for much of the day.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts/Muesli

  Lunch:  Snacks/Trail mix

  Dinner:  Chicken & rice

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles including the new ones; Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  Nothing in particular.

Lowlight:  Nothing in particular.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We were woken at 3:30am by the sound of a strong wind buffeting the tent.  It was too noisy to go back to sleep and Dave feared the tent could be damaged if it got any stronger, so we got up at 3:45am and packed up camp.  By the time we had finished the wind had abated a little but, an hour later, it became very strong again and continued into the early afternoon.

Although Dave was complaining about lack of sleep and fatigue from yesterday, one advantage of the early start was that it meant we should comfortably be able to cover the 39km+ we hoped for the day, giving us only about 20km tomorrow morning into the tiny village of Atlantic City where we have a B&B booked for the night.

We hiked using our headlamps for the first hour or so, backed by a beautiful sunrise gradually illuminating the sagebrush plain in front of us.  The day seemed a repeat of yesterday in that, after a few kilometres, we spent the rest of the morning gradually climbing through a series of valleys, this time to about 7500’.  The CDT followed a complicated course, as was the case yesterday, connecting up a series of unused 4WD tracks that took it in the desired direction.  It would have been hard to follow on a hardcopy map, but our navigation app proved up to the task.

Water availability was again an issue, and we planned our day and breaks around the few water sources, which we generally shared with the few cattle we saw and, later, a herd of wild horses with a number of foals.

We crossed a high treeless plain with some attractive rocky outcrops for much of the afternoon and, as some small trailside markers told us, we were following the route of the famed Oregon and California Trails used by wagon trains taking settlers west in the 19th Century.  What a trip that must have been, and what a forlorn and depressing sight the Great Divide Basin must have been to those optimistic pioneers.  It really was a lot of nothing, though the distant snow-patched Wind River Range became a feature of our afternoon view.

Around 4pm we began a steady descent along a better gravel road, meeting an English couple mountain-biking south along the Great Divide MTB route, the first people we had seen all day.  After a bit of gnarly single-track we reached the Sweetwater River and camped near its banks at around 5:30pm.

We had an early night, looking forward to showers, laundry, soft beds and some junk food tomorrow, after four very solid days across the Basin.

Day 080 - Continental Divide Trail - Crooks Creek to Bison Basin Road

Day: 080

Date: Thursday, 25 July 2024

Start:  Crooks Creek 

Finish:  Bison Basin Road

Daily Kilometres:  44.1

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  2351.7

Weather:  Warm with hazy sunshine in the morning, overcast with a strong warm wind in the afternoon and a brief shower.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts/Muesli

  Lunch:  Snacks/Trail mix 

  Dinner:  Tuna/Chicken & rice

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles plus sore toes and shoulder chafing; Julie - sore toes.

Highlight:  Nothing in particular.

Lowlight:  After a long day, missing a turn with 5km to go, and wasting about 15 minutes.  Not a lot in the scheme of things, but frustrating at the time.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We were hiking by soon after 6am in the knowledge that we had a long day ahead of us.  To reach water to camp for tonight we needed to cover 43km+, as there were no water sources after about 22km.

It promised to be a warm day, with quite a lot of heat in the sun by 7:30am but, as the day wore on, a haze developed which grew into cloud cover and it wasn't as bad as feared, but still thirsty work.  However, it did become very windy and we were battling into an unpleasant strong warm headwind for most of the afternoon.

Although we were continuing to cross the Great Divide Basin, after few kilometres,  we began climbing a mountain range that even had a few trees on it, getting up to about 8000’.  Mostly, however, the vegetation remained sage brush or tussocky grass, and treeless.  At the top of the climb, we remained high for many kilometres with good views from the bare ridges down to the plain below, from whence we came.

Although we dipped down into some valleys, we did stay high until near the end of the day, even catching some glimpses of the jagged Wind River Range where we will be in three or four days time.

The last hour saw us lose significant elevation until we reached our target trailhead at 7000’, soon after 7:30pm, where there is a very welcome water cache and we camped nearby.  Dave was very tired and sore.

Day 079 - Continental Divide Trail - Bull Springs to Crooks Creek.

Day: 079

Date: Wednesday, 24 July 2024

Start:  Bull Springs 

Finish:  Crooks Creek 

Daily Kilometres:  38.4

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  2307.6

Weather:  Hot and sunny

Accommodation:  Tent 

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts/ Muesli

  Lunch:  Snacks/Trail mix

  Dinner:  Chicken & rice

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles plus a couple of sore toes; Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  The water cache, maintained by a church group from a little hamlet about 15km from the trail, was a most welcome stop for breakfast.  They had even provided cushions for us to sit on while we drank and ate.

Lowlight:  Biting flies were a nuisance all day.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We woke at 5am, just as our four fellow thruhikers, who were camped nearby, departed.  They must have woken very early and packed very quietly.

We were packed and gone by soon after 6am on a day that was already warm.  By 7:30am we were hiking in shorts and T-shirts and expecting a hot day, which it turned out to be.

For many kilometres we followed, and could see stretching out far ahead, a 4WD track passing through arid treeless sagebrush country.  We stopped at a very welcome water cache for breakfast (see above) and continued gradually climbing to a ridge at 7500’, about 500’ higher than our starting point, before gradually descending a similar amount during the afternoon.

Our lunch stop was at a creek flowing out of a small dam near where a little-used dirt country road crossed the trail.  It was very hot and there was no shade.  While stopped, two Continental Divide mountain bikers came past, and a local in a pickup slowed to check that we were OK.

The afternoon was more of the same country though the trail became very sandy which made hiking harder and slower.

Soon after 6pm we reached the spring which was our target for the day and camped close by.  It was nice to have running water for a change and we both had a refreshing wash in the cold water after a hot sweaty day.

Day 078 - Continental Divide Trail - Rawlins to Bull Springs

Day: 078

Date: Tuesday, 23 July 2024

Start:  Rawlins

Finish:  Bull Springs

Daily Kilometres:  45.2

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  2269.2

Weather:  Very warm with hazy (from wildfires to the north) sunshine.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Microwaved breakfast burritos.

  Lunch:  Ham & cheese subs

  Dinner:  Tuna/Chicken & rice

Aches:  Dave - chafed shoulders and the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  Nothing in particular.

Lowlight:  Nothing in particular.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Conscious that we had 42km+ to hike today to get to the second of two water sources as a campsite, we woke at 4:30am and were hiking by soon after 5:30am.

Initially, we had about 27km of road walking to do along the busy Hwy 287, with a small deviation after 19km to a solar spring to get enough water to see us through the rest of the day.  The countryside along the highway was arid sage brush-covered hills, occasionally with some cattle visible. The last part of the highway roadwalk was a steady descent to the Great Divide Basin which looked like a desert spread out before us.

Four of the CDT hikers we had dinner with last night, a young married couple from Boston, a young French girl and a retired US serviceman from Reno, who were a “trail family”, meaning they loosely travelled together each day, were hiking the same route as us today and we saw them several times, and ended up camped in the same place tonight.  

At the bottom of the descent, we left the highway to follow a perfectly straight old sealed road into that desert for many kilometres.  There was almost no traffic, but a pickup did stop along the way and the driver, after asking Dave whether he was too old for this, gave us both a bottle of water!

In mid-afternoon, we left the sealed road and followed a rough undulating 4WD track for the remainder of the day, which had become very warm.  However, the earlier road walking had allowed us to make good time, and we reached Bull Springs, our goal for the day, around 5:45pm and found a campsite nearby.  There are cows about and plenty of cow pads around our tent.

Day 077 - Continental Divide Trail - Rawlins

Day: 077

Date: Monday, 22 July 2024

Start:  Rawlins

Finish:  Rawlins

Daily Kilometres:  0.0

GPX Track:  Click here and here for Julie’s Strava & Photos from her runs and walk today.

Total Kilometres:  2224.0

Weather:  Warm and mostly sunny.

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Three egg scramble, toast & jam.

  Lunch:  Chicken salad subs

  Dinner:  Cheeseburgers, apple crumble & icecream.

Aches:  Nothing to mention.

Highlight:  For dinner, we joined a BBQ in the motel courtyard organized by a young married couple hiking the CDT who are staying at the same motel and who we met earlier on the trail.  It was an enjoyable evening with lots of interesting stories shared.  There, we also met “Log Man” who is carrying a log on his shoulder (in addition to the pack on his back), for the entire CDT.  He has already hiked the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trail carrying his log (to raise money for charity), so he is one tough cookie.

Lowlight:  Nothing in particular.

Pictures: Click here.

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Another slow start to the day with Dave really catching up on some missing sleep, not waking for 11 hours.

For breakfast, we walked back to the same diner where we had breakfast yesterday and ordered pretty much the same thing again, before walking 2km down to the old part of town and the post office to mail food ahead to our next town, the hamlet of Atlantic City.  By the time we boxed and sorted out addressing, etc, it took some time.  The PO staff were very kind and helpful.  

There is obviously some local pride in the historic old part of town, but still many shuttered businesses.  Rawlins seems mostly dependent on the business generated by the I-80 transcontinental freeway and the transcontinental railway (on which there always seems to be a very long slow-moving freight train) which pass through town.

Then, it was back to the motel and lunch before Julie went to the nearby supermarket to buy the remaining supplies we need for the next 180km-long leg crossing the Great Basin in the Red Desert of Wyoming.  The Basin is a depression on the Continental Divide where no rain that falls ever reaches any ocean and we know that water will be scarce and we will be very exposed.  Also, we are unlikely to have much Internet access, so blog updates are unlikely.

Later, we joined some fellow CDT hikers for an enjoyable BBQ dinner in the motel courtyard (see above).

We had an early night, anticipating a long day tomorrow.