Last night was a Spa Treatment. We were camped by Sullivan Creek and it was only appropriate to treat ourselves to some pampering. Just Sally brought us multi-colored, gel filled eye masks that were quite soothing after all the hard work we have done in the past week. We drank hot tea and indulged in a little bit of spiced flavored libation. I think we all needed it.

The morning was cold, a little over 40 degrees. Being in the canyon must’ve contributed to the coolness. We all had jackets on when we hit the trail. That lasted for five minutes as we started our climb.

If I was a geologist, I think I would’ve lived in Montana. I don’t know much about geology, but I sure know a good rock when I see one. The mountains are so colorful with tons of different minerals. The rock formations are varied, as you turn one corner to the next. Today when we headed out of Sullivan Creek, we climbed up to a ridge line. I think it was a little over 8.000’. There was a massive rock slide in front of us, and a towering red mountain to the south. Each direction had different topography with forest covered peaks, sandy slopes, multi-colored mountain tops and a variety of pines, cedars, and tons of non-edible mushrooms. It really is incredibly diverse in this region.

Our plan is to setup for a ride back to Butte tomorrow. Sally is headed home, but don’t be too sad because as soon as she returns, she leaves for the Bahamas. Tough life she lives! We only needed to hike a little over ten miles so we stopped for lunch at Twelvemile Creek. Pretty leisurely day today.

Our only problem is once we left the creek, we would not have water for another ten miles. No point of rushing to the next water source so everyone filled up bladders and cameled up! That’s a term we use for drinking as much water as humanly possible and holding it like a camel. It actually works. Sally and I drank a liter each and refilled our bottles. Then continued walking to our future home for the night.

We scouted for awhile and found nothing too exciting. I wanted to find a nice spot for Sally’s last night and so Fearless and I dropped our packs and continued up the trail till we found utopia. It truly is a gorgeous place with meadows, trees and I’m thinking elk! It’s a perfect ground for them to graze and make elk-like sounds. We rushed back and apprised Sally of our choice and with packs loaded with gallons of water, we arrived to our final destination, Elk Meadow.

As we were building our homes, we realized it wasn’t elks that we were invading but wasps. Oh no! After a couple of close calls, Sally killed one and they all retreated. Now we can pitch our tents without pesty little boogers biting us. I’m gonna miss my bug slaying friend.

Fearless and I were talking about how much we are going to miss having Just Sally around. She has been such a wonderful addition to our hiking regiment. Who else is going to bring spa treatments, kill unnecessary bugs and have the endless bladder of clean drinking water? She’s gonna be a hard one to replace. That’s for sure!

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10‬:‭24‬-‭25‬ ‭NIV‬‬