Montana

I am not sure where I will go backpacking yet, but I am pretty sure it will probably be up a trail near where grizzlies wander at night. I'm thinking the Lee Metcalf Wilderness Area, straight west of Yellowstone would be good.

There is something wild and compelling, something different about those spruce and pine forests that the great bear calls home. 

And why the heck should I not do this?  It is not like there is anybody at home that will be waiting for me when I return.

Still I will be careful, and will take some pepper spray not only for my own protection, but to take a stand over my dogs if it should come to that.

I can't hardly wait to be up there, to finally begin the uphill climb towards the high Montana basins.

Rich I

Ben and Maggie pull me over to the frog pond, which is full from all the June and July rain we have received this year.  The dogs are trying to figure out these strange creatures who squeek when they take long leaps into the pond.

Above and behind us the cottonwood leaves rustle.  Noone else is around, though its likely a fox or two are watching us from back in the willows and cattails.

This spot is one of peace.  It is a place I go so often for comfort, with no worries, to just walk with my dogs and enjoy whatever season we are in.

My prayer is to have the health to continue coming down here for years and years, where the green leaves blowing, the song of the goldfinch, the swaying cattails, and my two good dogs are enough to make me happy.

Rich is what I consider myself, in being near such things, and having the heart to appreciate them.

Mountain Dogs I

I have seen theim swim across timberline lakes - cold, at 11,000 feet, just to explore the opposite bank.

Any rock is a platform - five feet high or a five hundred foot ledge, them to to climb and scan they country below.

Their excitement at fresh scent gives me a hint that something passed this way a little while ago - a deer, elk, mountain goat, or a bear.

When we rest on a hard trail, they sit close, and look up to me with affection.
Their eyes say how great this is, that life could hardly be better than up here, on this forest trail, with me. 

I know what they mean, what they express without words can be translated into love of freedom, enjoyment of health, life at peace, at its best,
high in the Colorado Mountains.