SUMMARY:  Today was like a CDT “collage” for us.

Piece 1 – Breakfast on the deck (surprise! We weren’t expecting it) provided by Mrs. “Wild Bill”. She told us about what it was like to live year round in Atlantic City.

Piece 2 – Second breakfast (after getting our packs reorganized and ready) at the Miner’s Grubstake. Found out that Laurel, the manager, used to live in San Francisco. Great Conversation. Conclusion: Staying in Atlantic City is WAY better than hitching into Lander.

Piece 3 – Visiting beautifully preserved and restored old mining town of South Pass City. Could spend all day there, easily!

Piece 4 – Lost the trail—took 3 tries and a lot of frustration.

Piece 5 – Weather! While we were trying to find the trail, black clouds and wind so fierce I could hardly stand up came racing in. Rain, too. Oh great!

Piece 6 – Finally the weather cleared, the trail climbed out of the desert, and we are back in the mountains, with trees and creeks! All that in one day!

DETAILS:    Well, in our cozy cabin at Wild Bill’s, we could not hear the party over at Miner’s Grubstake, so we slept well, and in fact, slept in till 7 am!!  When Fixit went outside, he was spotted by Mrs. Wild Bill, who told us she would have breakfast ready for us on the deck, very soon.  Breakfast??  We didn’t know that was part of the deal!  Nice!  And that was the beginning of what I can only call a “CDT Collage Day”, because we got a little bit of everything we’ve been experiencing out here, plus some, all in one day.

Collage piece #1  So Fixit and I had a very civilized breakfast–we were clean and rested, and sitting in very comfortable chairs on Wild Bill’s house deck, with great views, on a lovely morning with lots of clouds in the sky, so it wasn’t too hot.  And the breakfast was great–scrambled eggs, muffins, fruit, coffee, oj.  We had fun eating, watching the hummingbirds at their feeder, and talking to Mrs. Wild Bill, who told us what it’s like to live here year round.  She said Wild Bill does a lot of gunsmithing, he makes custom knives and he builds cabins for the ranchers–in fact he has one under construction right now.  He builds each cabin on a trailer, then tows it out to the ranch, sets it on a prepared foundation, and there it is!  We asked her about what it was like in winter.  “Very peaceful” she said.  “We really like the winter.  Most people in town leave, but we stay, and we really like it.”

Collage piece #2   Fixit and I loaded up our packs and walked over to the Miner’s Grubstake for a SECOND breakfast.  Yum!  Laurel, who runs the restaurant, was there.  She said the party last night went till way late.  “Good thing you were over at Bill’s,”  she said.  We ate and ate and talked to her at bit–turns out that she used to live in the San Francisco Bay Area (where we’re from).  Wow, amazing to meet someone from our “back home”.  We are so glad we came here to Atlantic City–some of the hikers who go to Lander dismiss it rather condescendingly with “Oh, it’s just a rundown town with a bar and some food”–but we found friendly, downhome folks and a nice place to stay.  No need to go through the bother of hitching, then finding a motel and eating at McD’s, where nobody knows you and nobody cares.  We love these tiny mountain towns with REAL people in them.

Collage piece #3   Then we walked 4 miles over to South Pass City, which is a beautifully preserved/restored old mining town, where the whole thing is basically a museum.  There is no place to stay or to get food, so we are VERY glad we listened to the bikers and went to Atlantic City.  But seriously, I could easily have spent the whole rest of the day here, looking at everything.  The highlight for me was the hotel–each bedroom was furnished, and then set up to represent different kinds of travellers, as if the person staying in the room had just stepped out for a minute.  There was a little creek running through town, and a bunch of kids were there, trying their hand at panning for gold.  Our resupply box was waiting for us in the office–heeeeavy with 7 days of food, to get us (hopefully) all the way through the Wind River Mountains just ahead.  Most of the hikers plan to detour to Pinedale, halfway through the Winds, so they don’t have to deal with heavy packs.  Maybe we are crazy, but we will try to make it through–that’s what we did on the PCT in the Sierras.  We did see Early Bird and Squirrel at South Pass City–they were amazed to see us, thinking we were way behind them by now.

Collage piece #4   It was well on into the afternoon before we got back on the CDT.  Fixit is not as thrilled as I am about “old stuff”, so he basically took a nap in the shade while I was running around looking at all the old buildings.  Ugh, our packs were heavy.  We found a CDT post (hooray) but a short time later, we were back to “Where did the trail go??”  We ended up walking along random roads, crawling under fences, trying and trying to find our route.

Collage piece #5   Meanwhile, black clouds were heading towards us, and the wind was growing fiercer till it got to the point where I could not walk at all, but could only plant my trek poles and my feet and brace myself, trying not to get blown over.  It was crazy wild.  And all this time, we were up on a bare ridge, still playing “Where’s the trail?”  Soon I could actually smell rain on the fierce wind, and a few minutes later, we were being pelted by a downpour that actually HURT, it was hitting us so hard.  This continued for awhile.

Collage piece #6  Finally the black clouds, wind and rain moved away, and after 3 “goes” with Guthook, we found the trail!  The sun started to come out, the trail was nice and clear and followable, and the scenery was very pretty–trees!  Rock formations!  Creeks with water!  By the time we stopped to camp, it had turned into a warm and beautiful evening.  While we were setting up, Bambi passed us–he had also passed us in the desert before Atlantic City, but had gone into Lander.  Now he’s back on the trail.  It’s so peaceful here, and we are looking forward to the Winds.  Hopefully, since they are so popular, it will be nice trail there.