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The CDT - Wyoming Trail Notes (1999)
These are some of our 1999 trail notes for the section across/around the Red Desert in Wyoming (from Atlantic City to Rawlins) and some general comments about the rest of Wyoming.
The BLM Wyoming CDT Page has coordinates and the most recent information on the water sources through the Great Basin. Ray Hanson at the BLM in Lander is very helpful to hikers.We took the BLM route from South Pass City/Atlantic City around the eastern edge of the desert and into Rawlins. At the time, the route was brand new (and still hasn't been completed around Rawlins.) These notes were our comments, sent to the BLM and Jim Wolf and cdt-l. Ginny made other notes, but we no longer have a copy of those. You’ll need the maps to really make sense of this.
If you take a different route – like straight across the Red Desert into Wamsutter, then these won’t be of any real use to you. Choices, decisions – freedom – and consequences. That’s what this thruhiking stuff is about.
This section was worrisome before we got there - there are some people who skip it entirely. But it was a wonderful experience for me – there were wild horses that played with us and 50 – 60 antelope per day. I loved the desert – it’s hard, it’s harsh, it’s dry and it demands respect. It’s a different kind of challenge and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I won’t edit these - you get them ”the way it was”. But I will insert some additional information in brackets […]. I'll also add some other notes about Wyoming at the end.
Oh, yeah – gotta give credit here --- It was Bob Ellinwood who sent us his notes on water sources for this section. They really helped. We’ve added to them – maybe they’ll help someone else.
Atlantic City, WY to Rawlins, WY
We picked up CDT markers on the ridge south of Atlantic City. Followed them for a while then went back to the road. Reasons (this is one (two?) thruhikers viewpoint and not meant to impugn what’s been done):
- The road is nearly level – the trail (as marked) has a lot of elevation gain/loss – in and out of one ravine after another.
- Tromping through knee-high sagebrush and briars with no treadway is SLOW by comparison to road walking (1 mph vs 4 mph)
- Thruhiking is partly about time, energy and efficiency. Very few thruhikers will take the trail as marked when it’s paralleled by a road that they can see from the trail and when there’s no clear treadway (basically bushwhacking from one carsonite post to the next). [Particularly when they know that the trail rejoins that same road in five miles.] I’ve found that the “Keep the trail entirely off the roads” philosophy is espoused mostly by those who are not long distance hikers. There’s more to be said about this - later.
Trail conditions–
For the most part, the trail was well marked from Atlantic City until a couple miles before the A&M reservoir. [The trail marking was completed for this section after we went through]
We lost the markers when the trail apparently left the road and crossed into the Magpie Creek drainage (no markers). We followed the route indicated on the map - down the road along the ridge west of Magpie Creek and picked up the markers again when we were headed east toward Brenton Springs at the bottom of the ridge. [Pay attention to the maps. This isn’t – and wasn’t - that big a deal]
East of Crooks Gap Road the ‘road/trail’ becomes an intermittent morass of deep sand for several miles and we abandoned the road to walk in the sagebrush. Slow, but not as slow or as tiring as the soft, churned sand of the ‘road’. Walking on that kind of surface, to put it mildly – sucks swamp water. Not good trail. We also understand that there is no alternative – this is desert – and it’s the nature of the land.
The absolute worst part of this section, though was the road walk along Route 287 into Rawlins. That 15 miles is, very simply, an accident waiting to happen. Several years ago a young couple was killed on the Pacific Crest Trail under conditions that were far less dangerous than those which prevail on the Rawlins road walk. That 15 miles is along a 2-lane highway that's a main north-south route for fleets of 18-wheelers – with a 1 ft shoulder. Sooner or later, some thruhiker will die on that road. Who’s gonna take the responsibility for that? Who’ll take the heat for it? Under the circumstances, I can only assume thatthis is another case of bureaucratic inertia and/or laziness for which some hiker will pay the price. [This roadwalk may no longer exist – last we heard was that the BLM was doing land swaps to eliminate the roadwalk. Check with CDTS (Jim Wolf) and/or the BLM for the latest information]
One other comment on the route – the ‘official’ route from Bull Springs to Route 287 adds several miles and a long bushwhack through a lot of prickly pear. We didn’t take it. Nor would any other thruhiker with any common sense. That’s already a 26+ mile waterless section (we don’t consider Bull Springs to be a viable water source). Adding more miles – and waterless miles, at that – is simply unacceptable. Note that the Larsen Sheep Co. land is posted to say that recreational users are welcome on their land (just west of Separation Rim). They should be approached about a trail corridor. There’s also a broken well along that jeep track that could be fixed as a water source.[Again – check with the BLM and/or CDTS for the latest status]
Water sources –
[2005 note: We've recently been called "liars" with respect to what we've previously said about the quality of the water sources. For better or worse, that happened in 2004 when most of the Rockies got upward of 500% of the normal precipitation level, as well as a late snowfall. The previous 7 or 8 years had been drought years with constantly deteriorating water quantity and quality. The lesson? As always - do your own research and take what others (including me) have said with a large grain of salt. There are no absolutes on the CDT (including this statement).]
Upper Mormon Spring is located about 200 ft NNW of a broken Oregon Trail marker. The spring is in a pile of rocks on the backside of a low rocky rise. There are 2 small pools in the white rocks. Good camping about 200 yards west of the spring.
Haypress Reservoir is useable – but barely. It’s a muddy, cow-churned mess. The size of the suspended particulate matter makes it nearly impossible to filter without destroying the filter element. NEED to use a coffee filter or similar prefilter here. The same comment applies to Bison-Basin Reservoir.
There is a reservoir and piped spring east of Crooks Gap Road. The piped spring is great.
The spring at Weasel Draw had water – it was a beautiful shade of green. We filtered 1 qt of water and kept moving.
There was good useable water in Arapaho Creek and the lower end of Magpie Creek (west of the route as marked). Nice camping if the cows aren’t around. There’s another nasty green spring ¼ mile west of Magpie Creek.
Brenton Springs was fenced, but a lot of cows apparently don’t know that. The water was useable though if you go upstream in the exclosure.
The A&M Reservoir is VERY low (at least 20 ft) and chock-full of visible livestock as well as being very green. [Last information we received was that the reservoir is even worse than when we were there. Check with the BLM and/or CDTS.]
Best water source of all was the solar well about 6 miles south of A&M Reservoir. My question was – why is the solar panel oriented so the well won’t operate until late morning or early afternoon? [Additionally - solar equipment has a history of unreliability over long periods of time with little maintenance. Again check with the BLM about the status of the source. DO NOT ASSUME that this is a viable source. NB: In 2005 this well was missing.]
Worst water source was Bull Springs. There were 2 cattle skeletons and a fresh carcass feeding into the springs. There is no way to get acceptable water out of this area. The smell alone precluded getting close enough to the water – I nearly lost my lunch there. The rabid coyote was just an added incentive to leave the area quickly. [Supposedly the State has built an exclosure - which should help.
The spring shown on the BLM map near the junction of Mineral-X Road and Route 287 is NOT a viable water source. Dead willows line the channel and the water is alkaline and undoubtedly toxic. This is mining country.
There is no other viable water source between A&M Reservoir and Fish Pond Spring (the spring 4 miles south of Mineral-X Road and ¼ mile west of Route 287). This means a 26 mile waterless section between the solar well and Fish Pond Spring. Missing Fish Pond Spring (it’s NOT obvious) would add another 12 waterless miles. To get to Fish Pond Spring, go around the south end of the snow fence that starts north of milepost 11 on Route 287. Follow the jeep track west toward the ridge for about ¼ mile. The spring is the vertical drainage pipe in the middle of the fenced enclosure beyond the (dry) reservoir. The map has the location of the spring correct, but it lies about the road locations.
Our filter clogged solid 3 days into this section. The filter was less than 3 weeks old at the time. We used both the filter (with a coffee filter) and iodine. The water from nearly all sources still smelled and tasted like cow dung. But we were grateful to get it.
There's a reason we call this the Cattle Dung Trail
A few more general comments about Wyoming:
Yellowstone - call ahead to get a permit. Yellowstone is very friendly to thruhikers, and willing to work with you on the permits. But know what you want before you call.
The Teton Wilderness is horse packer heaven. Get used to it. Watch where you are on the map - there's a bit of confusion between the guidebook and the trail. Evidently they moved the Wilderness Area sign near Turpin Meadow. Also - watch where you step.
South of Togwotee Pass the trail is 'obscure' - really obscure. We were told that the FS was planning to build trail from Brooks Lake to Pelham Lake, but at the time there was no trail built. Don't think it's been built since. We followed a route we found on the map, not the official route, after hearing several others mention getting lost in that area. There was new trail marked near Lake of the Woods and north of Gunsight Pass.
The Bridger Wilderness down through the Green River area and the Wind River Range is beautiful, remote and rugged. Enjoy it. We did. One former thruhiker talked about getting lost in the Bridger for three days. He said it was the best part of his hike.
Can't tell you about the "official" route south of Big Sandy Lodge because we took what "should be" the "official" trail - through the Cirque of the Towers and the Popo Agie Wilderness. It sounded a lot better than the roadwalk that constitutes the "official" trail. And it was. Next time we'll do Temple Pass just for contrast.
When you drop out of the Popo Agie is when the desert begins - about half a day from South Pass City. Water up before you get into the sagebrush country. We ran into our first trail markers in over 100 miles a few miles before South Pass. (Evidently, USFS is under the impression that Wilderness Areas are not supposed to have ANY trail signs or trail markers. Wyoming is not the only place we ran into that particular bureaucratic idiocy, but except in Wyoming, most Wilderness Areas had trail markers.)
South of Rawlins you're still in the desert for a day or two, then you get into real mountains again and the trail is well marked for a while.
In general, the problematic section with respect to water is only a couple hundred miles, and even there, the problem isn't really quantity, but quality. A lot of people imagine Wyoming is boring - we didn't find it so. The Wind River Range is incredibly beautiful (but crowded), Yellowstone is interesting with its geothermal activity, and the desert has its own beauty, in endless expanses of sky and land, brilliant sunsets and frequent wildlife sightings. YMMV
Created: Fri, 09 Jan 2004
Revised: Mon, 17 Oct 2005Copyright © 2005 Spirit Eagle