I'm back from Montana. It was an absolute blast! I took a ton of photos, but not sure what size they are so I haven't posted them yet. Also came back to the house being a disaster (to be fair, it was a disaster when I left) and my daughter's birthday party looming on Sunday, so I'm short on time right now. And had some Amtrak issues that caused me to get home a day later than I had planned. (Long story there.)

Anyway, just wanted to report back that I was not mauled by any bear or mountain lion, did not fall off any cliffs and did not experience any ill effects from the altitude (in fact, at the highest point on the trail, I decided to go HIGHER and climbed a nearby peak so I could call my husband on my cell phone-- yes, I know, that's kind of cheating when you're supposed to be out in the wilderness, but I couldn't resist climbing higher anyway, and it just so happened my phone worked up there and then how could I NOT call just to say, "hey, guess where I'm calling you from?!").

So, anyway, lots and lots of fun. I even enjoyed the backpacking part. I kept my pack pretty light (probably between 30 and 35 pounds, and probably closer to 30) and I think that probably made a huge difference. I did wish a few times that I had a fleece in addition to the rest of my clothes, and I was glad for my zero degree bag even if everyone else did fine in their 20 degree bags. But I wasn't miserable with cold, either. I also kind of wished I had brought a bag of marshmallows since camp fires were permitted for some portions of the trail. Oh and more toilet paper. I had to beg tp from others for the last day or so. Oops. Not a good thing to run out of! Other than that, pretty happy with what I brought.

I managed to catch one very small fish while fly fishing (first time). Not even sure what kind it was (cut throat? brookie?) because I was too busy worrying about getting someone to help me unhook it. I kept getting bites but not being able to actually hook the fish. Oh well.

Anyway, I definitely want to do this again. I think the others are looking for less elevation gain/loss next time, so I will be back here asking for trail recommendations, especially since I want to get in some early suggestions for stuff that's more in the mid-west or maybe east coast if mid-west doesn't offer what we're looking for. I'm tentatively thinking the white mountains in New Hampshire, though that's a little further from home for me. There's also Vermont, Maine and New York, New York being the closest of those options for me. Also not sure what's in Kentucky, as that's not too terribly far. I think we can do a longer hike if we don't have the kind of elevation changes we had in Montana, too. (Honestly, I really enjoy hard physical work, so I got a kick out of the hike, which was "strenuous, but not technical", but not everyone gets that kind of satisfaction out of physical labor.) What they really want most of all is beautiful scenery and not a lot of crowds. Which I think is more likely when you take a strenuous or technical hike. One thing I know, though, is that we are going to stay away from technical stuff. I enjoyed scrambling up that peak near Fossil Lake, but I would NOT have been up for doing that with a pack on!

So, yeah. Just wanted to check in, mostly, and say I'm back alive!