13    Rawlins - South Pass City / Atlantic City     206 kilometers

Rawlins

Atlantic City / South Pass City                206 km

The Great Divide Basin was a surprise for me. It was not really hot and ALL water sources were in good shape. We were never short on water and never carried more then 3 liter. We had checked with the BLM office in Rawlins about conditions in the basin. The ranger gave us good information. Being so early in the season in the basin obviously helps with lower temperatures and easy water access. And there are so many flowers everywhere.

Hiking is almost only on old roads or 4-wheel tracks. Often this is with relative soft surfaces. We saw many wild horses. Some were as near as 50 yards and very nosy. And we met two big herds with over 50 horses each. One herd send one horse over to our campsite to have a look at us. Besides horses we encountered cows too. Then we had a surprise meeting with Scarecrow, Yabba the Hiker, HNO and Greyhound. They had bypassed Colorado too and were now SB on their way to Rawlins. Ahead of us we could see the snow in the Wind River Range. We would soon find out how much there is still on the trail. Based on our progress we decided to push for Atlantic City for the night. Despite having to wait for more then an hour we finally had a nice dinner at the Mercantile. We also got a small apartment for the night with a good shower.

Curious wild horses checking out us hikers

CDT follows these dirt tracks in the Great Divide Basin. The cows kept going ahead for a while.

Blooming flowers in Great Divide Basin along CDT

For a while we followed the Oregon / California Trail Seminole Cutoff which is marked with these columns

A water source in the Great Divide Basin

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