Our 20th Anniversary Week

Well, quite a week ... Jeff & I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary this week, but not necessarily together.  It was very busy and we covered a lot of ground.  I'll try to give an overview along with some short anecdotes from the week.

Sunday, Jeff returned from two back-to-back overnighters for Moonlight Basin.  The 2nd night was 12 people so a big trip!  Monday, he headed right back out on a two-night Cedar Camp for Yellowstone Club... and it ended up being, in his opinion, one of the worst group of guests he's ever had.  I'll follow up later with THAT story.

In the meantime, I was cooking & wrapping & preparing food for 3 pack trips.  I packed two sets of food boxes on Tuesday afternoon for the trips leaving on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Jeff came out of his two-nighter and we (He, Bendigo and I) spent the day shuffling horses & vehicles where they needed to go, then getting home relatively late (7:30pm) and working on getting our gear / food together for the overnight pack trip we left on the next day (Thursday).

Thursday, we got up early and got going.  We had to catch & saddle 13 horses & mules, pack & load all the gear & food, go get diesel in the two rigs & meet the guests in town by 8:15... we were late.  So, got to the trailhead at around 10a.m., & hurried up & got stuff loaded & down the trail.  Very nice family (grandad "Bob", but his name was Don.. go figure; Dad Mark, Mom Courtney, and two boys Brooks & Bennett).

We rode about 4 hours into camp, set up & had dinner.

What?  What firepit?  This is a firepit?

Looks like a nice cool dirt doggy bed to me

Went to bed, got up & had breakfast, packed up camp & rode 4 hours out... Ugh.

It was interesting that there were some MASSIVE grizzly bear tracks on the trail through camp, up to where the horses range at night.  It walked up to the log where the saddles where all stacked & wandered along & pushed each saddle off the log to the left, but otherwise didn't bother anything.  Silly bear.












Lot of work for an overnight, but still enjoyed it and the guests.

Sage went with us also on the trip... we have not really been letting her do trips as she gets so tired, but with no one around to watch her & it being only a one-nighter, we decided to let her go.  She was her normal super-dog self on the way in, sniffing her way up & down the mountain.  But, by dinner was just looking for food & bed.  After eating a massive amount of dinner, she crawled into my lap & fell asleep.  We took her to the tent when we walked over & she crawled into her sleeping bag in Ben's tent.  The next day she was up in good time, but definitely slower... she pretty much just went straight down the trail out to the truck, where she made a beeline underneath it and fell over.  We lifted her into the truck when we left, and when we got home, she went straight in the cabin to her bed & crashed.  She slept through until almost noon today and is finally up & moving - slowly.  Poor thing just doesn't recover like she used to... I sure can relate to that!!

Jeff finally got to sleep in today, so he got up at 5:30 a.m.... weirdo.  Habits, you know.  Once we had coffee & got moving, we worked on putting away gear & food & cleaning up from the two pack trips that have come back (ours & another one), ranch chores, doctoring the injured horse etc.  Now, headed to Bozeman to meet the boss when he gets out of the Park with a THIRD trip so we can help drive one of the trucks & trailers back here as his two helpers both live there.

So, no big celebrations this week, I'm afraid.  The memorable words from Jeff came as follows...

On Friday, as we were riding out of camp with the guests, we stopped at Manly Camp to have lunch.  As we were finishing up our lunch and the guests were off to see a wolf-killed, grizzly-eaten elk carcass (Yes, yes we do provide high entertainment on our trips), Jeff said to me "I'm kind of liking this look you have going these days."
I responded ... "Um... what look?"
"This look" he said as he waved his hand up & down in my direction. "The whole thing... chinks, jeans, boots, even your crushed hat".
I looked down & pondered my stupid, cheap, too large chinks, my baggy jeans (I've lost some weight), my dirty vest & my poor beat up Palm Leaf hat that Sonny (a very young, stupid, & irritating pack horse) ate on my last overnight trip and that Sage then sat on in the truck on the way to the trailhead.
"Really?  This outfit? Why?" I asked as I was very confused.
"I like it.  It's..... it's endearing." he responded.
Great I thought to myself... "Endearing" is what you call your maiden Aunt who wears purple polka dots and neon green stripes, or that old ancient mule that is uglier than sin but sweet, or the big stupid dog that can't learn anything but is just a buddy.  Great... I'm endearing... NOT the compliment I was expecting - but I guess it'll do.