Day 41: Little Sandy Creek to Sweetwater River

Ride time: 4:27

Average:  10.7 mph

Distance: 47.63 mi

Chilly morning!  We awoke to frost covering everything, but as soon as the sun poked its head over the mountains, we were warmed up and good to go.

Early morning frost

We got out of camp early, in order to beat as much of the heat as we could.  The sun continues to be blazing hot, and as you can see, there aren't many clouds.  The air is really dry, too, so I don't ever feel myself sweating, but my skin always has that nice crusty salt feel to it.  The creeks are a pleasure to jump in at the end of the day's ride to wash all that off.

We crossed the divide three times today (#14, 15, and 16), but it wasn't that noticeable as far as exertion goes.  We even got to ride atop the divide for a mile and a half, and that was super sweet because the Great Divide Basin was on our right and another basin was on the left.

Into the Basin we go

We stopped in Atlantic City, Wyoming after South Pass City to have lunch at the Atlantic City Mercantile Exchange, and had really good food, but whacked out service.  I'm not sure what the deal was, but I will tell you that I've seen copious advertisements for crystal meth abuse prevention.

South Pass City

There were only ten miles left after lunch, but the first part was uphill, and I almost barfed up my Cowboy Burger (double patties).  There's something about exercising after one eats...  We finally got to our site, and there was an absolutely wonderful section of the Sweetwater Creek (sweet because of all the cow manure in it?) running through it, so we set up the tent fast and jumped in.  It wasn't that cold, so we stayed in for awhile.  The Bobs showed up right after us, and we hung out in the creek until it got cool enough to get in the tent.  Tomorrow is going to be a BIG day--nearly 70 miles through the Basin.