Today is my dear friend Rachel’s wedding! She is getting married to a stellar guy, Paul, and while I’m sad to miss the festivities, I’ll do my best to celebrate with them when I get home.

So I saw my first bear today! I was hiking up a rocky little hill and suddenly heard a crash and saw a baby bear tearing off into the distance. I looked around and made some noise in case mom was nearby, but didn’t hear anything else. Hard to believe this is my first bear.

After another morning of trees I entered the high country once again. The alpine meadows were taking on the golden and maroon colors of Fall, and even though the past week has been fairly warm, I can tell we aren’t far away from some colder weather. In fact with all the smoke in the sky today, the sun was barely able to break through, and I wore my longer layers the entire day.

I met a family up in the high country with a 2 & 4 year old! Wow, that is young for backcountry adventures, and they looked like they were having a ball. I also met 2 women from Butte out for the weekend as well, so good to see people enjoying their wilderness….this is a really stunning area and I would be up here all the time if I lived nearby.

Ah, my legs are aching a bit and my feet have been feeling the pounding. I’ll make over 2,200 miles tomorrow, the milage has just been flying. I’ll hit Darby on Monday morning, hope I can make it in for breakfast!