I found gold!

I got it. I found a piece of gold. Don't be fooled, even though it looks like a piece of paper, it's really gold.

This is a backcountry permit. People wait 3 months or more for one of these. It's hard to forge one of these (not that I would know). You can't even bribe a ranger to get one of these (not that I would know about that, either).

It means that I can camp out here, in the middle of all these rocks, and rattlesnakes. Where the deer and the antelope roam. Actually, the antelope look more like longhorn cattle. And bison. And they don't play nice.

It means that I can haul all my food and a whole lot of water on my back, down some trail that you can't see because it goes across rock and has no markers, and never crosses any streams and has not much shade, just so I can sleep on a rock, hoping a rattlesnake doesn't want to join me in my sleeping bag.

All of this joy and privilege granted by that one little piece of paper. No cushy campground with water hydrant and a bathroom for me. No sir. I'm headed to real backcountry, to where you better know how to use a compass and can carry your own weight in water. (Man, where did I put that Compass Reading for Dummies book?).

I'm also excited that Daughter #1 will be joining me for a couple of days on this expedition. I haven't told her about the rattlesnake part yet. Or the no water part. Or worst of all, the no bathroom part. I thought I'd break all that to her gently, after we were too far away from the car for her to walk back in the dark.

So here's hoping for good weather, for an abundance of wildlife (except rattlesnakes), and that I figure out how to use this compass in the next couple of days.

          Happy Trails, and may your adventures always be gold!