The ride out

It was a sunny five hour ride out, with the same river crossings, and a different trail at the end that took us past a trappers cabin.

The wagon and team crossed downstream from us, following the wagon trail

Cutting watermelon with a machete, at our lunch stop

One last mountain photo...

Day four - a rest day in camp

There was rain during the night and we awoke to blue skies and sunshine - on our rest day!
First there was baseball after breakfast, with a driftwood bat, a tinfoil ball, and four trees for bases.

Camp baseball -  one of the dogs caught a fly ball and the batter declared himself out!

The foal and her mom doze in the sunshine

One arm of the Clearwater river

Rockies ride - day three

This was the day of our longest ride - 3 hours up to Lost Guide Lake, an hour there for lunch, and a 3 hour ride back.  The trails were challenging at times - either rocky, or steep, sometimes narrow with a cliff or slope on one side, other times there were big roots, or logs to step over, or jump.

Stopping to look across the valley at caves that are grizzly bear dens

A first look at the lake

One of the young guides went for a quick dip in the freezing cold water

Group shot

Ride in the Rockies, day two

Another hazy, smoky day.  We rode to Harrison Flats, and had lunch beside an old First Nations teepee site - it was easy to see the depression in the ground.  Behind it, over near the trees and behind a hill were wolf dens, used in the Spring, but empty now.

Lunch time on Harrison Flats

Blue, one of the three dogs on the trip.  I think the dogs did way more miles than we did on horseback as they run back and forth and over into the trees and back...

Stopped to see the view of the river through the smoke.  Our guide Chuck is leading Rusty, who carried the satellite phone.

Ride in the Rockies - day one

We were nine guests, all Canadian, on a 5 day ride in the Rocky Mountains northwest of Calgary.  The sun was shining when we set off, though there was smoke from forest fires obscuring the view of the mountains.

This team pulled the wagon, which carried our gear and the food.  Ted, the teamster, built the wagon, and made it high with river crossings in mind.

This young cat came to camp too, and caught mice.  We were told he sometimes catches squirrels, and the occasional wild rabbit!

This was one of the first river crossings, a shallow one - later on we crossed the Clearwater river, which was almost up to the horses' bellies, and very fast flowing.

On our way home

Today we fly home, taking a circuitous route: Hanoi - Bangkok - Taipei - Vancouver.
We've had a wonderful trip, our first to Asia.

We've especially enjoyed meeting many wonderful people and experiencing the natural beauty of the country. Vietnam is an amazing country undergoing rapid economic growth, profound social change and big environmental challenges. We learned a lot.

We leave you, after the plane pictures, with a few random photos for your enjoyment.
So we say goodbye dear readers, thank-you so much for following along!

Photo by Christian Junker on Flickr

Photo by Prayitno on Flickr

Some greenery on the wall near the cathedral in Hanoi

More plants on the wall, with a bench too

On weekends some roads around Hoan Kiem Lake are closed to traffic,  and kids have fun in these cars

Here we're about to visit the excellent Museum of Women with two Spanish speakers we met in a cafe

In the doorway of the old Hmong house (built in the 1930's) that's been turned into a lodge in the village of Meo Vac, north of Hanoi

An Art Tour in Hanoi

Back in Hanoi, we did a few more of the things on our list.
One was Sophie's Art Tour, to learn about the history and culture of Vietnam through art.  We met our guide at a cafe, met the two others who had signed up, and soon were in a small van going first to the Fine Art Museum, then to small galleries around Hanoi.
We really enjoyed the tour.

In front of the Museum of Fine Art

Our guide, Maia, puts the art in historical context

Examples of commercial art at a private gallery

This art space / cafe exhibits the work of emerging artists.  Ways to portray certain subjects are found, and the venue matters - some galleries are licensed as "souvenir shops" so avoid scrutiny, others are cafes technically.