Day 9: Backpacking through Montana

Day 9. Today is our last day on the trail – 14 miles. Billed as an “easy 14” but it seems a bit tougher, maybe because we “smelled the barn.” In and out of the woods, meadows, valleys, and hills, all is gorgeous. No grizzly bears (yes big tracks!) or mountain lions but mule deer common. Even Luke, who is 14, said on a scale of 0-15, that his aches were a “4”. Curiously but nonchalantly, he remarked agreed, thinking I was about a 7”. We pull up at a coral, the terminus, of our journey. Beef jerky, crackers, cold drinks awaited, as we loaded our saddles in trailers. How could it be over? We are just now becoming one with nature. We are filled with more understanding and more humility and more fulfillment.

Einstein had it right: “Look deep into nature and you will understand everything.”