I have it all. How did I get to be so lucky? I have a wonderful partner, incredible dogs, and amazing horses. Not every partner would agree to do a trip like this. And not all horses and dogs would be so agreeable.

I think that others who are equally or more fortunate also don’t realize how good they have it. This is because we are living A life as opposed to The life. One day to follow another like a baby goat follows its mother. (This is an amazing analogy and one for which I will give myself a pat on the back. The problem is that my analogies are small, like the small of my back, and I can’t reach them and pat them.)

I have watched other yoga students (I used to be one) and noticed that tall, lanky women are best able to put their hands behind their upper and lower shoulders and touch them together. In fact, some can even shake their hands. Ahem. How one does at yoga has to do with their build. You can only be a pretzel if you have length. Do I sound envious? If not, I will try harder to make this apparent to you.

Trail south of Dawson

My fingers remain light years apart when I attempt to do this. But my good life. Here I am in the Yukon at this screamingly quiet campground, one with a shelter, wood, and shelter toilets. Well, it’s somewhat quiet – there’s an airport not too far from here, and the planes are taking off and landing.

If, say, I’d visited a fortune teller when I was 18, and on my way to college, and she’d told me that 50 years from now to the day that I’d be camping in the Yukon, outside of Dawson City, and traveling with three horses, two dogs, and a partner who loved me dearly, I would have asked her for a refund.

Back then, I didn’t know where the Yukon was. However, I would have been pleased to have had this prediction. I’d also have wondered what events might have led to my ending up in the Yukon. I’d have hoped that there would be all ups and no downs.

We had our best trail ride this afternoon. It took place about 25 miles south of here. We had a hard time finding the trail we were seeking. We found it. It had a gate on one side of the road and a sign that read Aetna Farm on the other. The trail itself had a gate; we could have gone around it but chose not to. So, we decided to bypass this trail and keep on going. Consequently, we will never know if we made the right decision.

The trail further down the road, the one we elected to take, wasn’t at first all that promising. The pathway was heavily bulldozed. Then it became a single track on dirt. There were numerous downed branches, Someone, some time ago, had done some maintenance work on it.

The trail followed a ridge line. It wound through thick brush, alder, aspen and spruce trees, and was on rolling terrain. The trail was easy to follow. It was warm and increasingly overcast. I heard thunder on the return trip. Fortunately, we got back to the trailer before the non-existent deluge.

Tomorrow, we go to Dawson City and do wash and get showers. Then we’ll begin the long trek home.

Next: 166. 6/18/24: Day # 13, Hardship Sells