Day 35 Atlantic City WY to Great Divide Basin WY

It’s hard to find the Mercantile closed. 8am it opens to serve breakfast & remains so until last orders at the bar. It’s the towns meeting place: for locals to call for a chat, for people passing through to rest up (Dividers, motorcyclists) & for organised events. For example, today (Saturday), there will be a bike race, an ATV poker drive (where those nasty 4 wheel all-terrain vehicles create havoc & lots of dust trying to find markers) & Gold Diggers gathering. It is perfectly unpretentious to just chill, it has a great atmosphere, & serves great food & beer!!

My home for the night – 20m from the Mercantile entrance

For 10 years, it has been run by husband & wife team Dale Anderson & Laurel Nelson. Dale was an electrician for prisons – glad to say no electric chair experience – & has lived all over. Before taking on the Mercantile, Laurel had a long career in nursing then 15 yrs running her own care home. I mentioned this job is quite a change. To her, it is a continuation of her career in caring except that everyone here is a little insane. “Sanity” is 40 miles away (at the next town). In fact, the opposite is true, the community is solid & everyone supports everyone else & both of them play pivotal roles in this.

Laurel & Dale

Hi both, I know you will be checking out this blog so my opportunity to say thank you for the wigwam / tipi & for making my stopover so memorable. Also, Dale, those corn beef sandwiches made for the trail were awesome!!

The route through the Great Divide Basin (3,600 sq miles of desert) follows historic trails such as the Oregon, Mormon, California & Pony Express. As I discovered, it is a harsh environment even today with reasonable dirt roads, gps, good maps & knowledge of water sources. Back in the 1800’s it must have been hell!

My goal had been to ride through the Basin to Bairoil, a small village some 95 miles on from Atlantic City – it was not to be. 13 miles short, a major storm came on – torrential rain, thunder & lighting, the whole works. Being the only vertical object around, I lay flat on the ground until things calmed down. During a lull, I set up my tent & jumped in (not that straight forward). The storm continued for hours. “Safely” inside, the noise was deafening & lightening came in as huge flashlights.

The desert is not completely devoid of life & activity. Cattle & wild horses, herds of pronghorn roam freely. There is also oil & gas extraction & even the Sweetwater Uranium mine.

On the horizon are Buttes – unexpected

Nodding donkeys at approx 40 miles

Water for Dividers – left by kind locals.

People had mentioned that the Basin is flat. The section completed today is definitely not – my Garmin recorded 4,000ft assents, 4,500 descents. Add to this, the heat, wind thermals & weight of extra water, it was a challenging day.