The Great Divide Basin

Hey all,

We are in Pinedale, Wyoming. It took a lot to get us here and I'm feeling better after yet another trip to the hospital. The great divide doesn't give anything any for free and I keep relearning that lesson.

First off, The Great Divide Basin, a 150 mile desert that is bordered on both sides by the divide so that whatever water falls within the basin, stays within the basin. Unfortunately, not a lot of water falls in this area and what does is quickly burned off by the unforgiving sun. Leaving a huge desert that is an adventure in itself to traverse.

We left Rawlins at about 530 am after allowing a great divide racer to use our campsite and headed out into the basin. We left early to avoid the afternoon sun and it worked. We cycled through the great expanse and arrived at a small reservoir after about 60 miles. We pitch the tent and made our own shade and chilled by the water. Being a desert and all, water is scarce and the next water source was another 55 miles away. Our water carrying capacity was about 40 lbs or 5 gallons and in order to minimize exposure to the heat of the desert we elected to leave at about 1 am in the middle of the night and get in as much riding in without the sun baking us.

Riding in the desert at night is a surreal experience. Probably one of the neatest riding experiences of my life. Underneath a sky filled with billions of stars and the milky way we set out with our LED headlights providing enough illumination to give us a sphere of light about 30 feet in front of us. Once the light ended, it was like a curtain dropped. All that "existed" in our world was what we could see in the bubble of light we created. Then way off in the distance was a thunderstorm in progress, creating a light show on the horizon. A truly surreal experience.

The sunrise on the desert was another great experience. Watching the sun change the whole landscape into an array of brilliant colors was also something to behold. Unfortunately for us though, we were pretty tired. In fact, Jamie was falling asleep on the bike, so we pitched the tent and caught a quick nap.

Its a good thing we did pitch the tent because the thunderstorm we saw at night turned into a wind storm over the desert by day. The wind was incredible. At one point, it nearly took the tent and us away in it after it pulled all the stakes up in one giant gust. I had to go outside and restake everything while being sandblasted by all the dust kicked up by the storm. We did manage to get a little sleep and awoke to everything inside the tent being covered by a film of fine dust that managed to filter through the mesh of the tent. When the storm cleared, the sky was clear and we continued on. Now the sun was up everything started to bake. I tried to concentrate on the sparse beauty the desert has to offer but being baked by sun and a tree lover, it was difficult. Progress was slow in the heat but we made it to the next water source which consisted of nothing more than a pipe sticking out of the desert. The BLM dug a well and pipe water into the desert for the wild horses and other wildlife. We took advantage of this and filled up our own supply and drank all we could. About the time we put the tent up, another thunderstorm struck with big heavy rain drops and more fierce wind. Learning from our previous encounter with desert wind, the ten stayed down and we sat out the storm. It passed through about sunset leaving us with a gorgeous sunset to watch as the light changed all the clouds into a variety of oranges, reds, purples and blues. The next morning, we packed up and made the final climb up and out of this harsh land. Although we had some really incredible moments, I was glad to see the desert behind me and shade trees in front as we climbed up and out of the basin.

One final note about the basin. The Oregon, Pony Express and Mormon Pioneer trials all crossed through this area and as an example of how harsh this land can be we passed by the site of the Handcart Willie tragedy. In the late 1800s a group of 400 Mormons were going to Utah when they were caught by foul weather in this area. All 400+ died of exposure. A sobering reminder about what life can be like out here in the west.

On the other side of the climb, we dropped into Atlantic City, an old gold mining town from the late 1800s. In fact, most of the building still date back to the 1890s. Tired, we stopped there, ate in a bar that was built in 1893 and still has the original bar. We stayed in a bed and breakfast operated by Bob and Barbra, two super nice people. Atlantic City is a tiny little town that has remained pretty much unchanged since its founding and we had a great time reading and hearing about all the history. We later ate at the other restaurant in town and I had a buffalo burger, something I would later regret.

The next day we rode out of Atlantic City and through South Pass city (the first city in the US to introduce a bill allowing women to vote). The town is yet another blip on the map and the sign outside list the population as "about 7?". Leaving that we climbed up to south pass and took off parallel to the divide. On one side you could see endless wasteland of scrub similar to the basin, on the other was the windy river mountain range of jagged snow covered peaks skirted by green and trees at the base. The contrast couldn't have been greater. I wasn't feeling too good that day and about terrible by the time we finally made camp by a creek. The next day, I was sick yet again! We were able to hitch a ride with some other campers into Pinedale and at the hospital I received 2000 mL of IV fluid to offset the loses I experienced trying to fight off the bug I acquired by eating the aforementioned buffalo burger. I feel much better now and we are going to take an extra day in Pinedale to recover.

I hope everyone is doing well at home. We will keep pedaling on here as we always do and I will not be eating any more questionable meat. One GREAT BIG THANK YOU to Andrew Gilchrist who shipped us out some much needed new tires. They are working out really well and now Jamie is taking off way out front. Another big thanks to Scott Hodge who shipped us out a special rear rack for Jamie's bike after her's broke yet again. Probably the next time you'll hear from us is when we make it to Lima, Idaho about 6-7 days from now.

Lee