Hi Sweetie!
Woke up bright and early, got everything packed up after breakfast, and we managed to leave camp by about 9:20, almost right on schedule. Today was another day of lovely trails, though the noticeable difference was the number of other hikers that were also on the trail. The terrain was again beautiful, and we had to go by several hot springs and take a bridge over a hot stream, which, in an abundance of caution, Maureen took each mule over separately. Apparently a number of disasters have occurred on that bridge, and with a steaming hot stream to fall into, several animals have been badly scalded. We got over it with no problems, just taking our time. And before we knew it, we arrived at the trailhead around 12:30, with the truck and trailer waiting for us! We unpacked, sorted, loaded and were heading out within the hour. We arrived at the airport a few hours later, where I secured my rental car, transferred everything over, said good-bye to my new trail buddies, and headed over to the hotel. A quick stop at Albertsons for a couple of frozen dinners and cereal pots for the mornings, and I was soon checked into the hotel again. I took a long hot shower (after I took a short bath, stopping the drain with a washcloth as best I could), and I'm not going to be long out of bed, I'm exhausted! Good night, my darlin'! I so wish you had been able to come with me in person, though I know you were there every step of the way in spirit! Love you forever!

Hiya Darlin'!
Hard to believe this journey is nearly over! Woke up to a mostly sunny morning, which gave me the opportunity to do a good cleaning and drying of my tent. It was a leisurely morning, and we celebrated that the sun was making appearances. We packed up and hit the trail after noon, in no hurry since we only had a bit over five miles to go. This was a beautiful trail, one of my favorite sections of the South Boundary trail. I don't know if it was because of some more stunning views, or because there was finally no dust, or that it just smelled so fresh after the rain, but I found the whole experience just lovely. We mostly followed the Snake River, though we often were quite a ways above it, and at the end of the day, arrived at our camp, again on the Snake River. All the rain has turned the river a milky color, but we expect it will be mostly clear again by morning. Keaton tried his hand at fishing, while my focus was to pull everything out of my canvas duffel and set it out to dry. That was mostly successful, with the bag and all the contents getting dry enough to put away after dinner. My sandals managed to get dry, as well as my sheepskin saddle pad. I had to wear my rain pants today, not because it was raining, but because my saddle was so wet. Had another lovely dinner and another evening of going to bed early and reading. We have an early start tomorrow, we have about nine miles to reach to trailhead and many hours to reach Cody. What an amazing journey this has been! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Today was the day our party was to split up. Tony and Ann were headed out with Chase, while I continued on with Maureen and Keaton. It started to rain about 9:30 last night, and was off and on all night and most of the day. The others got out of camp at 9:00, and it wasn't raining then, but it wasn't long before it was pouring down in camp. We waited until after 11:00 when in finally let up enough to mostly get packed and it was after 12:00 when we finally hit the trail. It was a lot of working packing the new configuration, and it continued to rain off and on during the day. Fortunately our next camp was only a mere 3.7 miles, so we arrived before 1:45. More rain made the setup complicated and we all had to set up between downpours. At last, around supper-time at 5:30, the sun finally broke through. We all hung our wetter stuff out to dry. After dinner, I did my Snowy River poem, and then headed to bed. Not even 8:00 yet! But I'll read for a few hours, as usual, before finally dozing off. Another short ride tomorrow, with overnight rain in the forecast, but now only cloudy skies tomorrow, which is an improvement! Good night, my sweet! Love you!

Hiya Darlin'!
Finally! A wildlife sighting! After days of fruitless searching, and constantly being told, well, it's midday so they're all sleeping excuses, we finally saw a mama grizzly and her three cubs! They were skirting around the camp a few hundred yards away, and I got some good pix and video. Yay! Afterward, we got on the trail around 10:30, doing another 13 miles to the next camp. Some of it was the prettier terrain that I've seen, with rolling hills and rivers running through it. Sadly, Tony was hurting pretty badly from his incident with the bees the other day, so we actually stopped for a lunch break, which we hardly ever to. I was glad, though, because I have a hard time eating when I'm constantly surround by dust. It was cloudy today, but no rain to settle the dust, so I've been wearing a bandana around my mouth every day. Maureen decided to carry on with the pack mules, and in some ways, it was a relief because there was a lot less dust stirred up that way. Then I got a little frustrated because I though the priority after lunch should have been to get ailing Tony back to camp ASAP, but instead, Chase made a choice to school his young mule along the way, so we were constantly stopping and starting, which I felt could only be more detrimental to Tony. Unfortunately, when I tried to discretely mention it to Chase, he blew up a me as if I had insulted him, which, of course, was not my intention. Anyway, I wasn't very happy about being chastised just because I was trying to help someone in pain, but ultimately, I had to let it go for the sake of harmony in camp. Another bear was spotted around supper-time, so hopefully we'll have another wildlife sighting tomorrow. There's also suppose to be a hot spring around here somewhere, and they're hopefully going to find it not too far from camp. The thought of soaking in a hot spring is utterly delicious. I hope it happens. Meanwhile, I'm in bed by 8:00, still daylight, but what else is there to do but read? I'll do so for a couple of hours, at least, just to try to maintain some semblance of normal. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
I took four ibuprofen before bedtime, and that finally seemed to do the trick. I mostly had an excellent night sleep. I woke up around 3:30 and took the opportunity to gaze at the night sky from my tent. Magnificent! Indescribable! Every part of the sky was filled with something amazing! Stars, the Milky Way, galaxies, nebulas, truly indescribable! What magnificence! After being totally awed by the stars, I returned to bed and slept for a few more hours, feeling fully refreshed by the time I started the day. We headed out of camp just after 10:30, and traversed through more pine forests on rocky trails (which has reminded me why I don't want to bring my horses out west!) and went nearly ten slow miles to our next camp. Our trail was slow going with many downed trees, which required our crack wrangler team to clear before we had safe passage. We ran into another string of pack mules on their way to resupply some other camp somewhere near Heart Lake, but otherwise, there wasn't much activity on the trail. We finally reached our camp, which our outfitter had never used before, but because of the peculiar configuration of this trip (with the other two guests leaving after ten days, and me continuing alone for two more days) they've had to do some things differently. Nevertheless, it's a lovely camp, right next to a creek, with lots of grazing for the animals and very convenient for the laundry I intend to do tomorrow. It was another gorgeous day weather-wise, though a bit hot for the locals, though perfect for this Florida gal! Dinner tonight was ribeye steak and a lovely apple dessert, and they even broke out into a rendition of Happy Birthday for me. I had cracked open my Jim Beam honey for the occasion. There were a few brief moments of cell connection which enabled me to send birthday greetings to my friend Jo, who shares my birthday, and found she'd sent me similar wishes as they crossed through cyberspace before I lost the signal. I forgot to mention, when I woke up this morning, a corner of my washcloth was frozen! Anyway, it was a lovely day, a lovely Birthday, and I'm looking forward to a restful day tomorrow! Good night,
darlin'! Love you!