Having camped just a mile outside of Atlantic City WY the night before, I reached town first thing in the morning. Wild Bill met me outside of his B&B and immediately set me up with a little cabin. He and his wife Carmella are two of the nicest folks I’ve ever met. The temp had gone down to 24F the night before so the pipes were frozen to both the washer and the bathroom. This was crazy since it was mid June but it’s been a crazy year. After a hour though, everything was sorted out and Carmella had set me up with some herbal tea in fine china and fresh baked cookies and warm delicious brownies. This was a huge step up from my usual cow pond water and granola bar for second breakfast.

Tea time with Carmella’s fresh baked brownies and cookies at Wild Bill’s

Double Lunch at the Grub Stake in Atlantic City

Marco “Polo” and me enjoying dessert time with Carmella’s fresh baked apple ala mode at Wild Bill’s

Wild Bill was just in the process of putting in a hot tub for the hikers. Darn it! Missed the hot tub by 3 days.

I wasn’t quite sure what my next steps on the trail should be. Basically, I could either keep going north into the Wind River Range and try to push through the snow or bounce north all the way to the CDT northern terminus in Glacier National Park and start heading south. Montana had a nearly normal snow year and most of the snow had cleared out so bouncing up to Glacier and heading south was the sensible way to go. Of course I decided to continue going north through the Winds. This decision actually seemed crazy even to me. No one had made it through yet. Roadrunner had tried just a few days before but 25 miles in he made it to a river that he thought was too dangerous to cross then turned around and came just about all the way back. A horn hunter had also just gone missing in this same area. They later found his drowned body in a log jam. While looking for him using airborne FLIR, all they saw were elk and hungry grizzlies just coming out of hibernation. But some one had to be the first through and I had my bear spray, fancy new snow shoes, and Vanessa had just send me my spikes and ax.

So the plan was to keep going north through the Winds until it got too sketchy or the snow kicked my biscuits. Well, that didn’t take very long.

The next food carry was going to be the longest on the entire CDT at just a bit under 200 miles so I was carrying an enormous load of 10 days of food. That along with all my snow gear was well over the “oh my god, this is really heavy” backpack limit.

The first day was all under the snow line and much of it through beautiful pine forests. There was only patchy snow and it kind of felt like our late spring walks in New Hampshire. Because of the snow melt, water was everywhere and generally didn’t take like cow poop.

The start of the hike went through South Pass City: Population 4

Into the Bridger Wilderness. Do not expect a Wi-Fi signal.

It was the second day when the fun began. As the trail climbed closer to 10,000′, the patches of snow got more and more dense then continuous and then deep. The trail, which is normally hard to follow on the best of days with its lack of markers became nearly impossible to follow covered by deep snow and going through dense woods. The snow itself was a knee to hip deep slushy mess. Although my new snow shoes had plenty of float to stay on top of the snow, the spalling (snow build-up) on the snowshoe’s crampons destroyed any traction they might have had in the steep terrain. It was like having a little red saucer attached to each foot.

One of the few flatish spots above the snow line

I can’t remember slipping, sliding, falling and making so many snow angels in my life so off came the snow shoes and on went the MICROspikes. The postholing was not much better. Knee to waist high post holing through wet slush down into icy water underneath. It was no longer cold enough at night to freeze more than a thin top crust so I couldn’t play the trick of getting up at 2A and hiking while everything was frozen at night. At some point I realized that there was no way I was going to make it through 60 miles of this (which would start in earnest in a couple days) and that I would need to abandon the Winds for now and do the 60 mile road walk to Pinedale.

Little Sandy Lake in the Cirque of the Towers

Later that day, the trail descended below the snow line and I saw my first Wyoming elk herd on the CDT.

Bull elk in The Winds

Aspen grove

Aspen grove

The sound clip above is of coyotes howling near my camp.

I’d finally found the real wilderness that I had been looking for so long and now had to leave it. The Winds will still be there though after the snow melts and I’ll be back.

Trail magic beer on the road walk to Pinedale

Skeleton of pronghorn caught in barbed wire fence

Red Tailed Hawk with the clouds building into a storm

Royal was bicycling the pedal version of the CDT with his 80 pound rig

I want a mailbox like this!

Not a muppet

Pinedale, it really is all the civilization you will ever need.