[Cdt-l] Southbound trip report from SouthPass WY to BattlePass (Encampment)

[Jeannie Zortman]

We did a similar trip through the great divide starting south on June  
2nd. Must be your footsteps we saw! Beautiful Must agree! No moose  
though just their droppings. Will be in rawlins in the morning if you  
are still in town. We may consider southbound from glacier as well.

Jellybean

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 5, 2010, at 2:47 PM, stumpknocker <stumpknocker at gmail.com> wrote:

> Mrs Gorp and I were three days behind 30-30 from South Pass City to  
> Rawlins.  We did this section now because we're just a teensie  
> weensie too early to start south from Glacier, but will be heading  
> up that way soon.
>
> We had a great time on this 120 mile section.  There was lots of  
> water on the northern two/thirds.  The longest water carry on the  
> southern third was about 17 miles.
>
> Loved all the wildlife!!  Saw 4 moose, 2 coyotes, a dozen huge sage  
> grouse, 2 horned toads, one large hare, 16 elk, a couple hundred  
> wild horses and 967 antelope.  :-)
>
> It was very windy every day.  Some quickly passing showers which  
> were very cold.  Did I mention it was windy??
>
> I guess the biggest surprise for me was that when they call this the  
> Great Divide Basin, I was expecting more of a basin.  It had plenty  
> of mountains to look at and kind of rolling terrain.  I would say it  
> was well marked and easy to follow.
>
> On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 2:11 PM, Scott Wyatt <swyatt002 at gmail.com>  
> wrote:
> After finishing NM we skipped up to SouthPass WY to hike south in an  
> attempt to avoid the snows of southern CO.  Reports showed extremely  
> high snow in all the southern sections that we wanted to enjoy so we  
> gave it time to melt while we continued hiking.
>
> We started May 27th southbound.  The trail & roads north of  
> SouthPass were snowed in deep.  The trail (SB) to Rawlins is all  
> dirt road walk with very high winds in the afternoon (60-90mph  
> constant) but dying out by 9pm.  Lots of pronghorns & wild horses.   
> Mormon springs is an excellent water source, but make sure to find  
> the 2ft diameter rock circle with no growth in it for the best  
> water.  Bull(?) spring is a solar well but due to the broken,  
> leaking external valves there is a swampy 6 foot moat around the  
> pump.  Fish Pond (~14 miles N of Rawlins) is a new solar well put in  
> by the BLM & Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
>
> From Rawlins to Encampment is a road walk for the first 2 days,  
> changing to heavy snow the last 35 miles which completely hides the  
> trail in the trees, the trail getting lost and constant post- 
> holing.  Signage/posts/cairns are excellent in the open areas.  The  
> 17 miles over Bridger Peak (north of Battle Pass) is solid snow,  
> 4-10 feet deep, but very little post-holing except near rocks.  The  
> trail follows the ridge & possibly a dirt road but is completely  
> hidden.  We saw zero signage & touched dirt once during the day.   
> GPS & map skills are a must, but staying on the ridgeline is the  
> key.  Water was plentiful due to snow melt but no liquid water  
> before/after Bridger Peak.  The road up to Battle Pass is currently  
> closed so you must road walk down to Encampment.  This should  
> hopefully change in about a week.
>
> The ridge south of Battle Pass is under 4-7 feet of snow at the  
> moment, so we are reevaluating our strategy.  We are leaning towards  
> heading back to Cumbres Pass.
>
> 30-30 & Fireball
>
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