The Allure of a Pack Trip

It's a ton of work.  Planning, buying, packing, remembering things.  Forgetting things.  Why take a pack trip?

Into the wilderness where the sky is big and open.  The air is clean and fresh.  There are very few human sounds.  An occasional jet overhead.

The horses and mules graze, their bells clinging, breaking the quiet with the reassuring sound that the method of transportation has not run down the trail and headed back to the trail head (a very bad thing).

Camp chairs, cracking fire, food - lots of food - hot coffee, cold beer.  Stories and tales and black nights filled with uncountable stars.  The dogs sleep, tired from the day of running and river crossing.

There are frightening moments.  The walk up the hill across the meadow.  Alone, getting exercise, stumbling onto a bear bed.  Probably a grizzly bear.

A ride down a skinny trail with a sheer drop off, hundreds of feet to a stream so far down there you can't even hear it.

A string of mules that spook, circling round and round, frightened from the lash rope that has come untied and trails on the ground.  There is great potential for injury - mules, riders, dogs.

The pack horse that gets a bee sting and bucks half a meadow's length before getting shut down.  Many eggs have broken in the box on his pack which carries this fragile load.

The horse that gets tangled up in a mud hole and rolls over her rider as she rolls down a hill.

The cold front comes through, cracking hundred-year old trees as it funnels down the canyon.  Tents are pitched in precarious locations.  Temperatures plummet.  Snow falls above 8,000 feet.  We are camped at 9,000 feet.  The trail ahead is cluttered with newly down timber.  A hand saw will be used to cut through this mess.  This is the wilderness where no motors are allowed.

Following, some of my favorite pictures from past pack trips and a blessing - may we weather the storms, may we find humor in downed trees, may we relish the food we have packed, may we savor our moments together, may we travel down the trails safely and without incident, may we take deep gulps of mountain air, stare at the evening sky with wonder, may we find joy in the challenges and celebration in the things that go well, and may we always remember, WE ARE ON VACATION!!

New Blood - Welcome Seth & Alden!

 Mike and I celebrate 10 years of marriage this trip!

The dogs.  We love our dogs!  (And spoil them too!)

We miss you Frank & John!