More journal notes: (not always sequential)
22 July ~ 2024, Montana:, 11:55pm I'm backpacking overnight not too far from the summit of Beartooth Pass, Montana. I have two canisters of pepper spray, since this is Grizzly Country. Two is mostly for my peace of mind, because being out where the big bear could come by is not something I do all the time.
Around 11 pm I was woken from lightning flashes in the distance, which really concerned me, since I am way above tree line. I considered heading towards the truck, since my tent with aluminum poles is the tallest thing around. I have cellular access up here at the top, and so I checked my Clime weather radar app. It shows the thunderstorm is down south of Yellowstone lake and it's supposed to dissipate in a couple hours. Another one will crop up around morning but according to the app should not quite make it to where I am.
Since I was up checking on the weather I took a photo of the tent and the full moon just before it disappeared behind a bank of clouds. Beau and Hayley are in the tent. Jess comes out to be with her Dad though.
July 2024 backpacking
(click on photos below for larger image . . . - Esc or clicking outside of image will close it)
28 July ~ 2024, Colorado: After getting home from a week camping and backpacking in Montana, I went dancing last night til after midnight, and then spent the day driving up to see the Cheyenne Finals Rodeo. I am ready for some slowing down, in the backyard with the chickens and dogs.
Cheyenne was good, but I have gone to it so many times over the last 30+ years it feels a little routine. I got some good photos though, and enjoyed the annual art show. There were sketches and paintings of four or five border collies in it.
My favorite events are bare and saddle bronc riding and barrel racing.
8 August ~ 2024, Colorado: I was up very early today to drive to the high country. The dogs and I started hiking before the sun came over the mountain. It was a beautiful morning. And my pleasure being up here in the mountains on a summer morning is magnified by seeing how much joy 2-year-old Jess takes in all of it. It's amazing how much energy she has. She is an alpha girl and both Beau and Hayley are always watching to see what Jess is doing. In a lot of ways she is the leader of the three.
14 August ~ 2024, Colorado:
My summer mountain adventures are done, and I head off across the Pacific soon for my fourth trip to the coral seas of Indonesia. I am staying at the same place as the other three times, and will have my own cottage on a hill with a walkout deck that has a view of the ocean. I know the ropes there, and will pick up right where I left off, swimming over the lagoon and out to the edge of the reef. The reef edge is an oceanic cliff, and goes down a mile past the drop. Local fisherman can catch deep sea fish from their small outriggers. In 2019 I witnessed two of them bring in a six foot swordfish.
My first year there I was very nervous when the current would push me out into the deep blue. By the second year I was used to it, and knew the dive boat would watch the yellow buoy I tow behind me and would come get me before long. So I just hang onto the buoy and relax.
It is a wonderful summer to hike so much at 11 and 12 thousand feet that I am fit for high altitudes, which basically means I have more red blood cells. Then when the wildflowers begin to fade I head off to the other side of the world, 8,000 miles away, and have extra energy at sea level. I have been also taking probiotic pills thanks to a friend’s advice (thanks Tricia), and that might give me some extra immunity from viruses. Just in case though I will be wearing a mask in all the airports and on the planes, and will take a hand sanitizer and some antiviral nasal spray. California is in the midst of a severe summer covid outbreak, and I fly through San Francisco.
The main thing I would like to avoid on this trip is stupid mental errors, which come pretty easy because of the switch from day to night (fourteen hour time difference), and then snorkeling multiple times a day until I barely have the energy to climb the steps to my cottage after dinner. I usually fall sound asleep at 7pm Indo time. Last year I let my buoy full of cameras drift away without noticing. Fortunately I recovered it after some sharp eyed young people saw it floating south to north several hundred yards out. Easily avoided mistakes can put a cloud on your trip. Being so mentally and physically tired tends to cause you to magnify their importance. I am going to try my darndest to go slow and careful and keep things simple and stupid error free.
Most of the time I am alone in the ocean, but the owner of the resort has told me they can usually spot my yellow buoy from a distance away, and know that I am ok. She also has said that they are not thrilled when I go to the other side of the island alone, since there is no one to check on me if I get in trouble.
To my credit at least I have never floated off across the mile deep water, for very long anyway. I have some border collies I want to get home too.
The wildflowers fading in the high country is a vivid reminder that everything is always changing. Eventually my time will run down and I will fade into nothing also. Which is exactly why I love all of it so deeply, knowing the change will come. Mountains and sea, border collies and dancing, who can ask for a better life?
July 2024 backpacking
“Wherever you go, go with all your heart"
