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.