P. and I made it to the top of the Beartooth Front saddle. . . .

The Beartooth Front

Penny and I had made this hike a couple years ago with a group from the Montana Wilderness Society.  Several in the group were expert in identifying wildflowers.  One used a phone app.

One could use a phone because the trek was just outside the Beartooth Wilderness, as I said yesterday.

A couple years ago I was two years younger and all the stronger and more vibrant.  Even then, seemed to take all my strength to take to the trail, climb up an endless bunch of switchbacks, and come out at this saddle between the Beartooths and well, something else.  I think we hiked about 11 miles, half uphill.

Today I figured P. and I wouldn’t be able to hike all the way up the saddle, but we did.  I stopped and took a few pictures.  Well, I tried to take a few pictures with a new smart phone.  Trouble is, I don’t know how.  And if I did take some photographs, I haven’t the knowledge of plants to say what the pictures were of, or the knowledge of how to share them.  Our niece Becky will come home and help me post the pictures.

P. and I made it all the way to the top!  For that we have earned our own pride.  We also earned sore toes coming back down.  Oh yes.  Gunther accompanied us the whole way.  P. fixed up some drinking water by pouring some into a plastic bag that she fashioned into a reservoir for the dear dog to lap up.  There was a creek near the bottom of the trail just before the switchbacks commenced.  I have a picture of Gunther wallowing in the mud of the creek.  What a trooper!

Man my toes hurt.  My second toe is longer than my great toe, so it bumps into the end of my shoe as I descend a trail.  What a trial.  What pain.  However, the good thing is that I frequently get a black toenail on each foot, the sign and stigma of a real hiker.