Dear America,

Field report, August 8, our second day in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. We started yesterday from the Spotted Bear Ranger Station and are slowly moving up the middle fork of the Flathead river, having a great time. It's been cloudy and raining although today the weather broke and the sun is shining now as we rest our horses in a meadow about one mile south of the Big Prarie Ranger Station. Earlier we had a tour of the ranger station, an historic site consisting of six or seven log buildings constructed in the early nineteen hundreds and still serving the many rangers and volunteers who work on this part of the Flathead National Forest. There's also an old tri-motor airplane that crashed in the woods around 1940 and was dragged back to the station.

We're enjoying our time on horseback although having not ridden horses much before I find parts of my body are sore--especially my knees. But my horse, Rembrandt, has been doing a good job and seems to follow instructions well. Tomorrow is our layover day and we'll be staying here on the Flathead river, maybe doing some fly fishing in the afternoon. Our outfitters, Jack and Linda, have been treating--and feeding--us well, as have the other wranglers on the trip. In fact, this is the best I've ever eaten in the backcountry, just one of the advantages of using pack horses. That's all for now; please check back as often as you can!