Blue Lakes and Meander Meadow, page 5

Cayuse attentively inspecting something.

I’d say this trail hasn’t been brushed out in a couple of seasons. I imagine that the cost of fighting the fires this year didn’t leave much in the budget for trail maintenance.

We passed through a number of brushy meadows, at times finding it a struggle to force our way through the bend and broken ferns. Someone on horseback had come down the trail, bending everything the wrong way (at least, from my perspective.)

The last two streams were dried up, so we were happy to finally come to this mediocre camp and find a sketchy trail leading down to Indian Creek. I enjoyed the luxury of a sponge bath and rinsed out my hiking shirt, bra, and shorts.

Tomorrow we’ll see about getting up to Meander Meadows or at least Indian Pass, which looked pretty woodsy from down here. Four-mile days seem just the ticket right now. I suppose we should have gone on a bit more today, but the tent site’s here, the water’s nearby, and it looked pretty darn good as we were slogging up the trail.

The pups are all waiting anxiously for their dinner. The puppies were on three meals a day; not any more! I packed 22 baggies of food for them, so on some days they’ll just get fed once. And I know I most likely am not going to be able to stick to this once they start the baleful puppy-eyed begging routine, so I packed extra rice and gravy mix to treat them with. Wouldn’t give it to them regularly, but a little bit now and then won’t hurt.

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