And now for something totally different….

While Jim was busy with the Transpac, I decided to go back to my roots and went for a high country horse back packing trip in the Teton National Forest. We were near Ferry Lake, Yount’s peak and Soda mountain. All I can say is WOW!

Here are the numbers:

8,200 – 8,600 feet. Some of us got higher, all the way up to the Continental Divide.

14 Horses, 17 mules, 8 riders, Yonni, The Instigator, rode Beech Nut, a Buckskin mostly Quarter Horse. Natalia, The Match Maker, rode Pudge, the piggy, a mostly Quarter Horse. Debbie, GiGi rode a Friesian mare, BeBe. Sally, The Entertainer, rode a Friesian Gelding Moose, aka Fabio. Birgitta, The Mule Yoga Instructor rode Maude, a Clydesdale. Carol, The Horse whisperer (she cheats. She had grain) rode Stormy, I mean Smokey, a mostly Quarter Horse. We don’t have a good photo of Stormy, I mean Smokey, but here’s one of Carol loving on another horse that looks just like Stormy, I mean Smokey, that Carol thought was Stormy, I mean Smokey. Jenny, The Green Horn, rode Rivers, a smaller Mustang and Dan, The Man rode Yeti, a Percheron.

And, some memorable mules – Cindy and Kona, Dee, Jack, June Bug, Anna

3 Wranglers, Dennis, who rode an young, enormous 18 hand Freshian named Kong, or a young Quarter Horse named Cody, Ben, who was Dennis’ college room mate. I don’t know who he rode. He was way at the front of the string. Drew “rode” a very young and new to the string Appaloosa named Roadhouse. He mostly pointed him in the right direction and stuck on like a tick. We also had a visit from Jake, a wrangler from a neighboring camp, shown here getting wardrobe advice from Dennis and Drew.

Day 1: 1, 16 mile ride up to base camp. OUCH DAY 2: 1, 4 hour ride with the 14 waterfalls to Turpin Meadow or 6 hours if you went all the way up to the Continental Divide. Day 3. 1 short ride (and a freakin ridiculous, straight up scramble, with no freakin’ oxygen) to the ice cave, then later that same day, a short ride to the waterfall & swimming hole. Day 4: 1, 16 mile ride down to the ranch. OUCH!!!

3 amazing meals per day, 1 spring fed creek to drink from. Hamburgers, fresh salad, pancakes, sausages….

♾️ flowers. Meadows everywhere. Green Grass. Trees, some of which were dead and had fallen across the trail like pixie sticks. All the horses were excellent at picking their way through the obstacles. Most walked over them. Jennie’s horse River, a small, “experienced” (old) mustang, and Birgitta’s Clydesdale Maude both decided to jump their 1st pixie stick obstacle. Jennie, who had 1 hour of riding experience, and Birg, who had ridden a few times, both stayed on, all be it with much bigger eyes and more coaching whenever we played pixie sticks again. Daniel’s horse Yeti, a huge Percheron, decided that stomping on and crumbling the dead fall trees was an acceptable alternative solution.

14 waterfalls on 1, two hour ride, not to mention streams, creeks, rivers and a waterfall fed swimming hole

1 elk named Hollywood, because he likes posing for photos, 1 Grizzly Bear (50 yards away, but with a big canyon moat between us, 200? buffalo/Bison/Tatonka 🦬, 1 set of wolf tracks (that’s close enough,) at least 1 deer, Trumpeter Swans, Canadian Geese….

And more stars than ♾️!!

All of us had an absolute blast and will be doing it again next year. This time I’m bringing a sheep skin pad.

Thanks for the memories!