Had well over a half dozen hours of riding in four days.
When you're 57yo, it's hard on one's body to go from having not ridden at all in some five years, to riding a lot! And I'm not talking any ol' riding -- this was up hills, and down through narrow culverts, and across huge pastures on the top of buttes, and through shallow forests, and across the river....
People with cows always want to know what's going on with their cows. So, first one has to find their cows so they can count them. Even just thirty cows tend not to hang out together! So, it was a lot of riding to find and account for them all. It was such an exhilarating time for one who loves being horseback. The 22yo Spanish horse Cisco was a trusty mount, as he had been when I visited some eighteen years ago.
My friend Connie rode Aria, her Peruvian Paso mare. I rode her the last day, and she sometimes gaits and sometimes trots. When she gaits (one of those four-beat "broken pace" movements that various breeds have), it feels fast and smooth. Such a delight, though I preferred Cisco's calm "bomb proof" demeanor. Both horses were pretty calm about deer darting out from bushes (white tail and mule deer). They did both get a little nervous once, and Connie spotted a coyote, which otherwise didn't bother us.
Being there also meant home cooked meals with vegetables from the garden, plus ripe home grown cantaloupe. What's not to like? I already have tentative plans to return next September. The weather was fabulous throughout the week.
Came back through eastern Montana and eastern Wyoming, having been on the west sides (plus a good portion of Idaho) on the way up. Traffic was pretty much non-existent throughout the trip, except for the highway that runs through the little towns of the Bitteroot Valley, which is the area where some of the scenes are filmed for the Yellowstone TV series.