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Today I was supposed to go horseback riding, however I was not feeling well so I decided to try to sleep in. My roommate headed off for the ride and sleep was beckoning, however it was not to be. This is a place where things start early, and people are out and about, and finally at 9am I gave up and pulled myself together as I felt like I was messing up the housekeeper’s schedule as I was in the room. I missed breakfast and didn’t find any coffee anywhere–nor did I ask–so I worked for a while. Finally people came in from their morning activities of hiking, fly fishing and riding, and lunch was served.
Lunch was great–and the chef here is wonderful! Portions are quite generous, and no one should go hungry. I had a kobe beef burger for lunch and dessert was a carrot cake cupcake with divine cream cheese frosting. It was delicious.
After lunch I waited in the lobby to see if the afternoon ride would go on as scheduled. There were some weather issues at the lower elevations (it was snowing up here for a while) and they wouldn’t take us riding if it was raining. Finally the manager made the call that there would not be any riding because of safety for the horses, and the riders. Although I was disappointed that I didn’t ride, the bigger picture is the safety aspect.
In lieu of riding he offerred to take us on a hike–at a lower elevation because there’s just so much snow up here. We headed down to about 8000 feet to another mountain and parked, and started walking up. Most of us were huffing and puffing because of the altitude. It really wasn’t a steep incline, but we were feeling the thinner air. We saw mule deer and elk, and I really wanted to see a bear. Our guide did bring bear spray, but alas, no bear. After about an hour we headed back to the van and went back to the lodge.
Pine Cone and Bluebell
There was a bit of time before dinner so I decided to go outside and take some photos. As I walked towards the lake I saw a patch of grass, and then I realized that there’s four feet of snow, and its melting (which is why I saw the grass) and right at that point I crashed through. Ended up in snow almost waist deep, and unfortunately I had quite a bit of work to do to get to an area which would support me. It was a lot of effort to get out of all that snow, but I made it–however I was wet from the waist down. Headed back to the room and found the laundry, and threw in a load as I didn’t want to return home with wet clothes.
Dinner was a short time after I came in, and again it was another delicious meal. This was the “Farewell Dinner”. Dessert was served in the lobby, and then we were told to go back to the dining room for a photo presentation/slide show by our guides. It was a nice time. Then back to the lobby for board games (my friends played Clue, but I just watched for a bit.) I decided to go back to my room and pack as I’m trying to stay under 50 pounds or I would pay overweight luggage fees with the airline. Was in bed by midnight.