Hiking, Hunting, and 4 Wheeling

Just got back from a couple of days in the backcountry. It started of a little rough but ended well. About hour into the hike on the way in it started to pour rain. Needless to say I got soaked. After about an hour hiking in rain got to a hut and got fire going. Managed to get dried out after about 3 hours. Continued on up the river valley to another hut. All told it was about a 8 mile hike in. If you look closely in the second photo right where the trees meet the gravel of riverbed you can see a small red dot. That's the hut. Fording the river was the only way to get over. Without breaking stride I plunged right in. After being soaked only 3 hours earlier I was again wet from mid thigh down. Knowing a wood stove was in the hut helped. I arrived to find a young guy already there. He was just about to leave for a evening hunt for red stag. Perfect! I had hoped to run into some hunters. So I just dropped my pack, grabbed flashlight and camera and tagged along with him. He had two others friends that were already off upriver hunting. We went down river. Never managed to find a stag but was a good evening none the less. The other two guys arrived about hour after dark. They were all three firefighters from Dunedin. 21, mid 40's, and mid 50's. Stayed up way to late swapping hunting stories with them quizzing me on everything American! Three super nice guys. So the next day I hitched a ride back out to my car with them. They had driven in. That necessitates a very slow crawl up the river bed. High clearance and 4 wheel drive a must. By riding with them I never had to ford the river again which was good. But it doesn't stop there. About halfway out we met four other hunters on the riverbed that were stopped, and sighting their rifles in. Naturally we stopped for a chat. As soon as we walked up to them one noticed my hat(I'm still faithfully wearing my B Bar Ranch Montana hat with the elk on it!) turns out he was from Livingston! The other three guys were from Whitehall, and Philipsburg. They had just arrived and were starting their own do-it-yourself hunt for Tahr and Chamois. We wished them luck and went on our way. Turned out to be a really good trip. Just goes to show you never know who you're going to run into!
Have had a little snow on mountain tops and it real frosty this morning. I guess fall is here. Headed for the coast tomorrow. Hopefully the weather stays right.