August 5, Monday

I had trouble sleeping due to the mice climbing up the sides of my tent and running over the top. It happened twice before I got so worried about them chewing through my tent and into my food bag (in my tent), I finally got up and put the pannier on my bike. Bears were the least of my worries in this spot. If a fox or skunk tried to get into the pannier the bike would fall over as an alarm.

Nancy left before us, though headed for the same end point. We gradually climbed and then followed the divide, with views spanning over 50 miles on either side if the road. More and more antelope appeared,  but not much else.
The size if the sage brush got shorter and shorter until it was no taller than 5 inches. We came out on to pavement to use a rest area and get water, use the restrooms and the pavilion, then it was back to dirt to travel to South Pass City, mostly a museum town.
Both South Pass City and Atlantic City are in depressions geographically, so you dive down into them steeply and climb steeply to get back out. Atlantic City was a tiny, but seemingly vibrant town and we stopped in the mercantile (which was a restaurant /bar, not a grocery)  and had "lunch", brownie sundaes and loads of non-alcoholic drinks before the steep climb out.  Nancy was there whiling away the time so as not to arrive too early at the campground, so we all climbed and rode through some delightful rolling downhill to the Sweetwater River where we camped in a meadow; so beautiful.