Day 23

After a remarkably pleasant sleep I go down to the lobby and dish up two omlettes, three sausages, and two yogurt cups. The calories don't concern me at the moment since they'll be used up in four hours or so. Almost immediately after getting onto the main street I see my turn. I've decided to take the back roads for a couple days. Patit winds through some beautiful country and continues (quite precisely) along the trail Lewis and Clark followed on their return to St Louis. For about 13 miles it's up one ridge then down into a gulch. However, each depression and every gully presents a unique impression, painted with an elaborate range of colours and textures which display the amazing imagination of a wondrous creator.

Once on Hartsock the scene changes again. This gravel road has a 8 or 9 % downgrade and it takes me right into a ravine where deer are numerous and the steams flow cool and clear. I arrive at the campsite (on the corner of Tucannon and Blind Grade) and proceed to set up. Two gentlemen, Ron and his son Tony, keep me company for a while. They share how they're camping up the road in a leanto with horses and hope to bag some good size bull elk in the coming days. Once the sun's gone, it doesn't take but a moment 'for the cold sets in, so I scurry off to my bag by 19:00.