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The next morning, the wind was still blowing viciously when
we awoke. It had been howling all night, and for that reason, I slept rather
poorly. Tired and cranky, I began packing my stuff into my backpack. Then,
while I ate breakfast, John proceeded to drop camp. He was joined by a rabbit,
which hopped into our campsite and stopped next to our tent. John called him
George, i.e. from the Bugs Bunny cartoons: "A rabbit of my very own! I will love
him and pet him and squeeze him and call him George!" George hung around camp
for a while, apparently looking for food. He didn't mind when we took pictures
of him, for he obviously wasn't afraid of humans. He eventually hopped away
when he realized that we didn't have any food in our campsite.
We left camp by 7:30 a.m. and began our long hike back to the car. Our entire
day's hike would cover 8.7 miles -- the longest distance we have ever hiked
with full backpacks. Most of the hike, however, would either be downhill or
level, meaning that we could probably hike at a rate of 2.5 miles an hour for
the first seven miles. The last 1.5 miles of the trail, though, involved
climbing up those switchbacks. That section would take some time.
The first seven miles of the return hike was uneventful. We didn't see any
wildlife, aside from the group of young rangers who were going out for a day
of trail maintenance. There were ten of them, and they were all carrying saws
and axes as well as their backpacks. They were probably going up to Stony
Indian Pass to begin initial clearing, but that's just my guess.
We stopped to take a break around 9:00 a.m., by which time I was starting to
feel a little flatfooted, probably due to the fact that I had been on a binge
since Janice's wedding! John, too, was feeling flatfooted; we knew then that
it was definitely time to diet...after the honeymoon!
The last 1.5 miles of our return trip entailed climbing back up the
switchbacks from the Belly River valley -- a elevation gain of almost 800
feet. That was the most difficult part of the whole trip, because it was one
long, tedious climb uphill, with full packs, in the wind and under the hot
sun. Fortunately, it was soon over, and before we knew it, at 11:00 a.m., we
were back at the car! Ah, what a relief it was to be back in the air
conditioning, to drive instead of hike! John was so happy to be back in the
car that he almost forgot to take the GPS unit off of the top of the car
before he drove away!
We stopped in Babb to grab a six-pack of beer to drink along the way. Then, we
made a side trip to Many Glacier for lunch. We ate delicious pizza and drank
beer at an Italian restaurant -- having spent three days in the backcountry,
everything tasted so wonderful that I ate until I was gorged. After that, we
hobbled out of the restaurant and drove over to Muleshoe Outfitters Trail
Rides. That was where I cashed in my Easter present: a coupon for one
horseback ride. (On Easter, John had hidden Easter eggs with coupons inside of
them. One of my coupons was for a free auto repair, within John's
capabilities; another was for a hug, kiss or grope; and the third was for a
horseback ride.)
We got there just in time to go with the 1:30 group for a two-hour horseback
ride in the Cracker Lake area. Our tour guides selected horses for us and
helped us get into the saddle. The horse I rode was a docile animal called
Rockefeller, and John ended up with a stubborn creature called Wyatt. Once all
of the people in our group had a horse, the tour guides lined us up, and when
we were all ready, we were off.
Our five-mile ride took us down the Cracker Flats Trail. From the stables, we
began to follow a ridge line that gave us some very breathtaking views of Lake
Sherburne and Grinnell Point; and we had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery
as our journey got off to a slow start. There were several "potty breaks"
during the first mile of the trail -- this was when one of the horses suddenly
stopped to relieve himself. (That day, I learned what "peeing like a
racehorse" really meant.) It was also during this stretch of the trail that
John learned about his horses bad habits. Wyatt seemed to have a problem with
snacking. At every stop, he would attempt to eat the wildflowers on the side
of the trail, which was a big no-no. However, when John tried to pull him away
from the snack, Wyatt would stomp at the ground and snort, a sign that he was
impatient. That horse just had too much attitude!
Continuing on along the trail, we eventually came to the horse loop, which
took us through two creek crossings before emerging onto a beautiful meadow.
This was Cracker Flats, the site of an old mining town called Altyn, which no
longer exists. In its place is Lake Sherburne, the only man-made lake in the
park. A dam was built to create this reservoir, which inundated the mining
town.
We stopped for a break in the meadow before continuing along the loop. During
our break, Wyatt became as stubborn as ever and kept stomping and snorting.
Rockefeller, too, was getting a little impatient and snorted once or twice
when I wouldn't let him snack on the wildflowers. You would think we were
riding stubborn mules! Aside from the impatience of our rides, though, I
enjoyed the trip because I love horses and because it was an easy way to see
beautiful places without having to hike five miles on foot!
At the end of the trip, we dismounted and returned to the car. It was already
3:30 p.m., so we decided to head back to Apgar Village to check back into the
cabin. This time we would be in cabin number one -- a much bigger cabin, one
with three beds instead of two and a kitchen that was separate from the dining
area. We liked this cabin better because it had so much more space in it, more
room to move around and to put all of our stuff.
After unloading the car, we took showers and got dressed up to go to dinner.
To celebrate our successful backpacking trip, we decided to go to Heaven's
Peak again, since their food was so delicious and their service was exquisite.
This time, however, we had a clueless, ditsy waitress who almost forgot to
serve us our wine -- and she forgot to charge us for it! She managed to screw
up the wine order at one table, and at another table, she rang up their bill
wrong twice. At least the food was still delicious!
On the way to dinner, we made reservations to go whitewater rafting in the
morning, at 10:30 a.m. Though I was a little apprehensive about going rafting,
John kept assuring me that I would love it and that I wouldn't get hurt. He
finally talked me into going, though I was still a little bit scared even
after our reservations had been made.
Once back in our cabin, John and I settled into bed with our bathrobes, a
glass of wine and a good book, and we relaxed our tired and sore bodies until
we fell asleep. It felt so good to sleep in a real bed again that we slept
soundly all night long, until 7:00 a.m. the next morning...
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