Day 10: (13.5 miles)

We walked out of Atlantic City (uphill of course) after a hearty breakfast at the Miner’s Grubstake, and made our way to South Pass City, where we would collect our first resupply of this journey on the CDT. A hefty headwind dogged us the entire 4.5 miles to South Pass City. I don’t know why we were surprised.

When we arrived at South Pass City, they initially said that they did NOT have our resupply package. WTF?! A frantic search for our shipping receipt ensued so we could call the postal service to find out what happened. The gal told us there was a hiker box in the storage area that we could go through and maybe resupply from there. I followed her to the storage area, and immediately saw our package. She had overlooked it. Phew!! At the “thru-hiker” picnic table, we unpacked our resupply…6 days of food = nearly 12 additional pounds. Yikes! And yes, we added bear spray and for some reason our microspikes. (The last time we saw the Wind River Range, it had been blasted with snow…again. We tend to over prepare.) The start of this leg was going to be onerous.

South Pass City is a Wyoming State Historical Park that the CDT happens to travel through. The significance of South Pass City is not only that there was a gold rush here as well, but it is a geological anomaly wherein there is a break in the Continental Divide mountain range that allows passage over to the west coast. South Pass is the lowest point on the Continental Divide, and is  natural crossing point of the Rockies. It was also pretty much the “half way” point of the Oregon Trail. Nearly half a million people immigrated to the West through this Pass, which makes it a more than significant land mark in our Great American Western history.

5 miles out of South Pass City we find ourselves resting in the shade, on perfectly flat, non-pokey ground,without the use of an umbrella. There are trees here. Actual trees! Pines and Aspens. A reprieve from the wind we hide amongst the trees on soft debris free ground for our first break.

This is not to say we didn’t have a 20 mph headwind the entire time. And…that it wasn’t mostly an uphill experience. At least it involved different scenery.

We are not sure if we are in bear country yet, so we now have the added wrinkle of hanging our food bags and hoping they are still there in the morning.