Back in the Saddle with the Princess Pony

Madison made the tough decision to sell her OTTB over a month ago and hasn't been in the saddle since then.  I honestly haven't been riding all that much either this month since we got back from Banff - mostly because I was either busy or it was just too hot.  But the other night we both found ourselves free and the weather was perfect.

It was so nice to see her riding her favorite horse ever!

It sure didn't take long and Mata Hari was awake and back to her old awesome self with her favorite rider.  They looked great!

Stop to smell the roses...

When you frequently walk the same path, you tend to stop paying attention it seems. So I set out the other day to really LOOK and found myself focusing on everything that was blooming. They are all wild flowers and weeds I guess but all so pretty in their own way!

Work Friends

Sometimes I think it's easy to forget how important our work friends are since we don't see them outside the office very often.  But as more and more of my friends retire, that has changed.  For several years now I've been hosting a "Women's Wine Wednesday" event at happy hour to get work friends together for conversation and networking.  These women have been at the core of that group. Connie, on the left, retired about 5 years ago but has been coming back for these events now and then when she's in town.  Michelle, in the brown shirt, retired 18 months ago and moved to Florida. But she has managed to show up now and then too.  The other three all retired together a couple weeks ago - this was taken at their retirement party.

I'm going to miss all of them!  

Random Banff Trip Pics

Sara, Madison and Samantha - our three 20-somethings that kept us young on the trip!

Our daughters were not happy that Jill and I didn't take them to Iceland 2 years ago so this time we did!  And they were happy.  Below is Sam, Jill and Sara.

One of our favorite cowboys, Mitch, loading a mule.  He was from Australia - many of the people working for Banff Trail Riders were Australian.

Our little Halfway Lodge.  There was a great view no matter which direction you looked.

Hanna, Emily and Tess.  Hanna is from Japan and came to Canada with a Japanese veterinarian degree.  She hopes to be able to get this transferred to Canada.  Emily was our cook and came from the eastern side of Canada.  Tess is from Australia.

Jill and her horse on the top of the mountain near Allenby Pass.

Emily in her kitchen at Halfway Lodge.  She turned out some AMAZING food from this primitive little space.   She was also just as nice and friendly as could be possible.  We loved her.

Me, sitting on the coffee table because the girls were asleep on the couches/benches.

Cowboy lounge chair.

Our group of seven wild women - Christine, Teresa, Madison, Me, Jill, Sara and Sam.

Definitely a trip to remember!!

Banff - Day 6

Our last day in the beautiful Banff National Park!  We all woke up a little bit sad.

The day started out bright and pretty but as we got closer back to the ranch and the end of our adventure, the darker clouds moved in.

We took a slightly different route going back from the big lodge to the ranch riding up some pretty high ridges after we once again crossed the river!

Some low morning clouds were hiding the tops of the mountains.

We rode through some pretty dense forest areas.

And of course, along the river!

This pano shot makes it look so bent!!  It was barely curved.

As I mentioned before, EVERYTHING going to and from the lodges goes by mule.  This includes all the food, linens, supplies, wood, and all the horse feed!  We had passed one mule train earlier in the trip but I didn't get any pictures.
And then going along the river, here comes Mitch with his team!

Each mule has a weight limit and the haulers know each one of them.  Most can easily handle 300 lbs but there are others that carry more or less.

These mules at the back had no loads. They were along for the trip to bring stuff back.

The rock slides from the avalanches kind of amazed me.  It was really crazy how they could completely wipe out everything in such a wide swath and then narrow down to nothing.

Our last campfire lunch was hot dogs!  And they were the biggest darn hot dogs I've ever seen!  Tess did battle getting this fire going.

Frost - our mule.  The two layers of snips on her tail indicate that she can haul and be ridden.

My fairly lame attempt at a rock stack!

And then it was lunch time!

So pretty...that's Madison and Samantha off in the distance to the right.

I tried so hard to just be in the moment this last bit of our journey.  Absorbing all the beauty and fresh air.

Madison tried too but we had both already started thinking about our return to civilization and everyone was planning on how and when they'd turn their phones back on expecting the deluge of messages and notifications.

As the path got wider, we knew we weren't all that far from the end.

We came down a pretty steep mountain where there were so many switch backs we were passing one another!

Unlike all the crystal clear rivers of snow melt, this one comes from a hot spring full of sulphur giving it this unusual color.

It was also crystal clear but just looks so different!

We HAD been up there and now we were down.  The last mile was kinda sad.  We were also joined by two huge groups of what we called, "Tennis shoe riders".  They were tourists on rides that lasted an hour or two and were completely inappropriately dressed for riding.  Coming into the ranch, there must have been a line of about 30 horses.

A very sad moment as we digested that our amazing adventure had come to an end.  We were seeing cars for the first time in 6 days and we now had cell phone reception...

Before leaving, I had to thank Juice/Deuce for taking such good care of me.  He may have tripped and stumbled on occasion, usually on totally flat ground, but when it came to the rocky cliffs, he was a Rock Star!

A whole week of no make up, no hair dryer, and the same darn riding pants!  And I loved every second of it.

Madison and Whiskey did too.

Thank you Banff! We will definitely be back again some day!

Banff - Day 5

After our last night in Halfway Lodge, we had to pack up our backpacks for one of the packers to take back to the other lodge on the mules.  This is Mitch.  He was from Australia and talked non-stop!  He always wore a smile.

We had passed what we came to call the "fairy falls" a couple of times over the past few days. They were these tiny waterfalls/streams that passed through a wooded area covered in heavy moss.  They don't photograph so well.

They trickled and tinkled their way down these steep slopes. The horses loved to stop here for a drink.

Further on we passed over the river in a few spots again taking a higher trail going back to the big lodge than we had taken on the way out.

At lunch, we tied the horses up.

And then Madison and Samantha demonstrated their ability to do headstands!  What a backdrop for that!

And then we were on our way again using part of the river as our trail.

Passing through meadows with Pierre...

And Christine and Hanna...

And then following rocky ridges that dropped way down to the river.

By now I had total trust in Juice.  No way was he going to step off that trail dropping us to our death far below!

We had all become good partners with our horses!

And we were all relaxed and full of smiles. We were on our 5th day of being disconnected!  What wasn't there to smile about!

Always quiet but bringing up the rear with our faithfully loaded mule was Hanna.

I never quite understood when and why we crossed the rivers on the bridges and then through them.  We had just crossed a bridge about 50 yards away and then rode through at this point.

In what seemed like way too fast, we were back at the big Lodge to be greeted by marmot babies!! They were obviously not newborns but had only started coming out from under the house in the past couple of days while we had been gone. They were about the size of a guinea pig.  And oh so cute!

That evening we climbed to the ridge behind the lodge.  this was also a very steep climb but nothing like we had done previously since it was only a short distance!  You can see the piles of firewood ready to be split.  Last fall they had cleared quite a few trees from behind the lodge as a fire prevention.  The wood won't go to waste.  They almost always have a good fire going in the wood stove for heat.

Looking down from the top.  Madison and Samantha had continued to practice their roping skills and convinced Scott, another of the packer cowboys, to do some "cowboy jousting" with them.  In this game, both "cowboys" run at one another swinging their rope.  Then as you get close or pass, you try to rope their legs!  By the end of the tournament, all were hot, sweaty and semi-successful!

Once again, the climb down was almost harder than going up!  But it was a good "sleeping pill" along with a glass of wine.  Add in the sound of the river once again, and we slept like rocks!