Atlantic City to Big Sandy Lake: Dad joins the trip (Mile 1,742 to 1,792)

October 2nd to October 9th

I stayed an extra day in Atlantic City because I was invited out by some local ranchers to ride a horse and help with a roundup. It was a lot of fun!  We rounded up a couple hundred head of cattle, I felt like I jumped back in time. Mikey, Jeff, Aaron, Tyson, and Jess are all the real deal.  After we got done pushing the cattle we went back to their camp area. Jess grilled some hot dogs for us. She then put on some corn on the cob and some potatoes over the fire. It was a solid meal! After they packed up their stuff they took me back to the cabin I was staying at. I made some dinner and threw a few logs in the wood stove and just relaxed before getting back on the trail. 

Day 1: I woke up this morning and there was about an inch of snow outside. It was coming down real heavy. I made breakfast and some coffee and finished packing my stuff up. As I ate I watched out the window the big snow flakes coming down. Then I threw on my pull over, fleece cap, and rain jacket and walked outside into the snow. I wondered what the townspeople thought as they saw me walking down the snow covered street. Before long I was back on the trail and the snow continued to fall. I was warm though and continued to move. Before long I was passing the most beautiful golden aspen trees with a thin layer of white on their branches. A dark cloud started coming and before long it was snowing so heavy and the wind was blowing so hard I could hardly see 50 feet in front of me. I put on my rain pants and bundled up my rain jacket and pushed on down the trail. After about 20 minutes it had passed over and just small flurries continued to fall. I passed through South Pass City. A historic gold town from the 1860s has been preserved there. It was all shut down for the winter though so I walked through it’s empty streets. Finally I got off the roads and onto an actual trail. By mid afternoon I was out of the sage brush and into the very edge of the Wind River mountains. I was glad to have left the Basin. As I was walking I stumbled upon a set of mountain lion tracks in the snow crossing the trail. I figured based off the wind and how the snow had been falling they couldn’t be more than a few hours old. I kept my head on a swivel eyeing every rock ledge and hill around me. My senses perked up and I paid attention to every sound especially the squirrel barking and the birds crying. I kept walking and no more than 30 minutes later I came across a second set of tracks crossing back over the trail. These ones looked older, but I decided to stop and get my fixed blade out of my backpack and put it on my hip. Just as a precaution. As I went down the trail I began to get into the hills. The ground was white as far as I could see and my foot sunk down into the soft powder each step I took. I crossed a few streams and was following some tracks of someone else. My guess is a hunter was walking through this morning because the tracks were old. I looked closely at another set up tracks that looked like a shoe, but had claws at the toes of it. I was almost certain those were bears, but since they were old I wasn’t 100 percent. Before long I got into some flat ground by a stream off to the side of the trail. By this time it was 6:30pm and the temperature was sitting at 27 degrees. I pitched my tent and rolled out my sleeping pad and bag. I made some dinner and got comfortable for the evening. As darkness set in I could hear the faint sound of an elk bugling somewhere off in the woods. 

Day 2: I woke up late this morning because I was completely rolled up in my sleeping bag to where only my nose was visible. I didn’t see the sunlight shining through my tent, so I woke up late. It was freezing and it’s only going to get colder. After I packed everything up I reached over for my shoes. They were frozen solid. I tried squeezing my feet into them and with some effort I managed to. I then proceeded to lace up the frozen laces. I opened my tent and looked out upon the snow. I quickly packed up my tent because my feet were numb, so I was ready to start walking. I buckled everything up and started my pace off pretty fast. Before to long my shoes started to thaw out. The snow was still thick on the ground and I noticed moose tracks along the trail. I crossed over a few streams that had began to freeze over. Right as I was about to cross over a log I saw something move out of the corner of my eye behind me on the trail. It was a hunter coming down the trail. I said “hey” and he jumped pretty good. He didn’t see me because I was partially blocked by a tree. I wish I could remember his name, but he was a real nice guy who just got his elk the other day. He just finished up packing up his camp. We walked and talked about a mile down the trail before he got to his truck. I continued on down the trail. By noon most of the snow had melted and the ground was pretty soggy. It warmed up to 55 degrees from the 27 degrees this morning. I wasn’t going very far today. My dad was meeting me at the Sweet Water Gap camp ground. So I only had 11.8 miles to do today. I was approaching the campground and had to cross the river to get over to it. I looked up and down the stream, but couldn’t find a way to cross without getting wet. I finally just decided to walk across and I’d dry out later. It was only shin deep. I set my shoes on a picnic table on the campground to dry in the sun and shortly after dad pulled up in his truck. I hadn’t seen him since he dropped me off in Cuba, New Mexico. He’s going to do a week with me through the Wind River Range. We set up our camp and then since we had a set of wheels we went to town to grab some dinner. Tomorrow we will head on up into the mountains and try our luck with the snow. 

Day 3: Yesterday dad met me at the campgrounds and we set up our stuff and went out to eat for dinner in lander. We didn’t get back till 11:30 at night, so we slept in till about 8:30 this morning. We took a good while to get on the trail, we were busy repacking our packs and fitting them with snowshoes and ice axes. We met Bill who ran the Wild Bill Bed and Breakfast in Atlantic City. He actually has family around Joplin and the Kansas City area. We talked a little while and then finally got on the trail around 2:30pm. It was nice to be climbing back up into the mountains. Dad was really enjoying it and just the wildness of the mountains. Our pace was a little slow. I’m used to everything, but throw a 50 lb pack on and start going uphill to 10,158 feet in elevation on your first day. That would be what dad was going through each step looked grueling. But we pushed on and as the snow began to fall we kept going. Eventually we got to the downhill part once we crossed over the saddle. Around 6:15pm we made our camp with the temperature hovering at 30 degrees. As we set up our tent the snow started coming down hard. We managed to shrug it off and finish setting up our camp. We cooked our dinner and as the evening went on the snow continued to fall at a steady pace. I wouldn’t be surprised if we woke up and have close to a foot of snow. 

Day 4: Dad and I woke up this morning and it was 20 degrees. We had a fresh layer of snow covering the tent. We got up and started packing our stuff up. We had a little breakfast and got on the trail a lot earlier than the day before. We stepped off about 9:30am. When we first stepped off into the Cirque of the Towers Alternate the “established” trail was pretty much non existent. Even with the snowfall you can still distinguish a path. There were so many downed trees it wasn’t till about a little over half a mile in a path started to appear. We finally found our way right as I was about to say forget the alternate. I’m glad we pushed on though, because this is supposed to be an incredibly scenic path. The granite peaks tower towards the sky with shear jagged edges as the snow paints everything white around us. We came across a few lakes that were starting to freeze over and some where completely frozen over. As we were walking along we came across as set of bear tracks in the snow. They were going the opposite way from us though. By the looks of the tracks it appeared to be small bear. We went down into the valley and the ground was pretty marshy and partially frozen over. A bald eagle flew over us and then started circling before flying off. We trudged on and in some areas the snow was about a foot deep. We came across a second set of bear tracks as we were approaching our camp site. We set up all of our camp and got everything organized in our tent. Since we saw two sets of bear tracks we decided to eat our dinner away from our tent. Right as it was getting dark we stored or food and got into our tent just as the temperature was hovering at 24 degrees. Good thing is it’s not snowing tonight, but it’ll probably get to the low teens. 

Day 5: We woke up this morning and when we got out of the tent it was 12 degrees. Living in the snow is a challenge in itself. My shoes I put on were like an icebox. While I waited for dad to pack up his stuff I jogged in place to gain the feeling back in my toes. They were very numb. Eventually they started to thaw out. Last night was probably in the single digits. I didn’t feel like going out and checking my thermometer, but when I checked it this morning and it was 12 degrees it was about 8am. We finally got on the trail around 9:21am and pretty much blazed our own path through the snow. All the creeks are beginning to freeze over and it makes for some incredible scenery with the mountains towering all around. We were plowing through the snow and gaining in elevation. The elevation was really taking its toll on Dad leaving him quite winded. Around noon we started getting into snow that was over our knees. We decided it was time to try out our snow shoes. We strapped them on and that was my first time wearing them. I felt like I was gliding on the snow, but if we got into powdered snow we would sink a few inches. Almost all the snow today was powder, but it beat trying to walk without them. We thought at one point we were back on “better snow” so we took our snowshoes off and I took two steps forward and the snow came up to my waist. We decided it was better to leave our snowshoes on. We did about 3 miles today and made camp at Big Sandy Pond right before we climb over our first pass. It was already 4:41pm when we got to the base of the climb. The sun had already sunk behind the mountain. I knew at our current pace it would be dark before we got over it. We packed down the snow where we planned to pitch our tent.  Once our tent was up we started piling snow around it to serve as a wind block. The sun had disappeared and the temperature started to drop. We got in our tent and at a hot meal. Tomorrow we will climb up the pass. 

Day 6: Today we began our climb up our first pass. We began it in snowshoes till we got to the snow covered switchbacks that were extremely slick. We decided it would be better if we switched out our snowshoes to our microspikes. Microspikes are slip on cleats and chains that go on the bottom of your shoes for traction. We slowly started making our way up the switchback. Then snow had completely covered up the trail as we went on. It turned into a completely covered snow field that was near vertical climbing. It was about a 60 to 70 degree slope. I seriously questioned if one of us was going to lose our footing and fall down the mountain. We had to kick our feet in the snow to get a foot hold and keep them from slipping and then anchor our ice axes in. It would take 10 minutes to go twenty feet. I knew one wrong move and nothing was stopping us from falling 500 feet. About 2 hours later or maybe a little longer we finally got up onto the saddle. We were only about half a mile in, but it was a rugged half mile. Dad was completely worn out. But we were both happy to have the worst part behind us and be alive. We sat a moment and rested from the long climb before pushing forward and making our way down the other side. We were up to our waist in snow and eventually I decided to put my snow shoes back on. Going down the other side was a lot easier. The view that laid ahead of us was incredibly stunning! Jagged peaks covered in snow surrounded us on every side and down below in the middle was a clear deep blue colored lake. The lake stretched out off into the distance to where it looked as if it met up with the scenic mountain backdrop. When we were almost down the mountain to the edge of the lake Dad realized he dropped his phone. All his pictures were on there so we retraced our tracks in the snow. We ended up finding it about 100 yards up the mountain laying slightly under the snow. After that we followed along the edge of the lake and dad stepped into some deep water hidden under the snow. Somehow one of his trekking poles fell into it and disappeared. After a few minutes he was able to fish it out. We topped off our water while we were stopped. Before long the edge of the lake came up to a cliff, so we had to do some climbing again. It wasn’t as bad as the previous climb, but the snow was really slick and if you fell you’d go into the icy lake. After awhile we the ground began to flatten out and we descended back onto level ground. We made our way a little further and by this time it was 5pm and the sun had began set behind the mountains. We pitched our tent on a little flat ground along the lake and eased into the evening. Overall today we did about 2 miles. 

Day 7: This morning we woke up and it was 20 degrees we began packing our stuff up and then strapped on our snowshoes. It was mostly flat to start off with. We were making good time trudging through the snow. A little over an hour in we stopped at Rapid Lake to fill up our water. The lake had frozen over so I had to get a rock and break the ice apart so I could stick my water bottle down in. We came across some wolf prints or possibly a lynx and they seemed to run along the trail for most of the day. Before long we were heading down hill into a steep snow covered ravine. We crossed back and forth over a icy creek to get on the most level ground. Although none of the ground around there was level and rocks were hidden under the snow. We had to watch every step. We finally made it to some more even terrain and came across some bear tracks. When we got down to Big Sandy Lake we came across the tracks in the snow of a wolf pack. I counted 6 sets of different tracks. In the stream feeding into the lake rainbow trout were all over the place. We watched them for a little while and a bald eagle soared over us. We then continued on down the trail. We took the Big Sandy Trail Cutoff because at our current pace we don’t have enough food or toilet paper to push on and finish the alternate. Also the snow has made some of the passes very treacherous. I believe this is the end of Dads part with me. It was great having him out here to enjoy this experience. He would do the whole thing if he could, but unfortunately doesn’t have the time right now. The short week that he did have though I’m sure he will never forget. Neither will I. 

Day 8:  We finished up our section together and made it to the Big Sandy Trailhead. It was only 2.5 miles from our camp last night.We headed into Pinedale to get some food and restock our food. We then headed to the lodge we originally planned to stay at to get a shower and do some laundry. It’s good to be in some heat again for a short while before heading back into the snow.