My Journey

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

As the old saying goes "all good things must come to an end" and so it was that we headed back to the rig.....



This time we took an entirely different route.....we crossed the trail at one point but mostly we just wandered in the direction of the rig. I had spotted a herd of elk to the south when we were on that sunmit and that got me to thinking that we just might get lucky and find a set of antlers (sheds).....




.....and the best way to do that is to stay away from the trails. The dogs.....they had something else on their minds.....water.....



One thing about a thirsty dog is that they become focused on their thirst mostly and not too much else.....and eventually they'll wander far off searching for water.....forgetting about their hiking companion(s).....



We hiked and hiked and we never found a single antler.....we never saw a single Grizzly Bear.....but eventually we did once again come across the remains of what appeared to be that tiny glacier.....



The dogs were probably a good half mile or more ahead of me when they arrived, and by the time I arrived, they were both drenched in that cool glacier water.....




Now this little ice feature.....maybe a half mile in length.....was exactly what the dogs needed. Water to cool their parched throats and ice to cool their skin and coats.....



The dogs got bored with the large somewhat flat slabs of ice and began to explore along the baseline of the tiny glacier.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Trapper seemed to be particularly intrigued with this ice feature.....Tanner.....he seemed to follow me while Trapper hugged the edge of the ice feature.....



I wasn't particularly concerned when I noticed that Trapper began to walk underneath the ice wall.....Tanner seemed maybe a little concerned.....



We continued to loiter around the ice wall.....and the longer we loitered, the deeper under the ice feature Trapper went.....




Before I knew it Trapper was doing a belly crawl.....getting as low as she possibly could.....and went deeper and deeper underneath the ice wall.....



Now I was just taking pictures of her not thinking that this situation was particularly dangerous.....I actually thought it was kind of humorous.....until she disappeared into an ice cave and I didn't see her again.....



A few minutes passed by and now I'm frantically calling her name.....whistling like a wild man having gone into total panic. The entrance to the cave was not much larger than her body diameter so there was no way that I could go after her.....

I wondered was it dark in there ? Did light filter through the ice ? Was there adequate space to even turn around ? Was the ice stable ? Could it all come crumbling down ?

I was in total freak out mode until finally I saw this.....



Look at the face ! The face of a true adventurer.....



If dogs could / do smile.....then I'd definitely say that that's a smile on that dogs' face.....



Sometimes you just gotta take some risks in life. It seems to me that whatever she saw in there was well worth the risk that she took. The whole experience made me wish that I too could have crawled into that tiny ice cave to have seen what she had seen.....

I often like to say that we go to new places to "see what we can see".....

Trapper.....she's a.....

Lucky dog.....

 

[chet6.7]

Checking for mammoths.