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!