Thursday

Our last full day on the trail, and our longest trail ride.  We all saddled up in the morning. At this point, we had already become pretty comfortable with the routine of gearing up our horses.

We headed toward Hunter's Cabin, a camp site shared by the Cavalry program.

We were up high, and had beautiful views of the canyon and hillside.

We ate lunch at a spot along the way, near a small pond so we could water our horses. The ride was hot and dry, and our horses were tired (and so were we!).

After we arrived at Hunter's Cabin, we joined the Cavalry team and walked back along the trail to a small swimming hole. The boys cooled off with a nice swim in the cool waters.

Chris getting in

Grant cooling off

Unfortunately, Kyle's battery died at this point, so we have no more pictures.

We spent the night with the Cavalry team.  It was a memorable night.  As dusk was settling in, someone noticed a flashing light from the other side of the canyon, where Cavalcade A was spending the night.  An adult with the Cavalry team saw it and "recognized" it as an SOS signal.  Our camp radioed base camp, who tried to radio Cavalcade A, but they got no response.  Due to limited battery life, the wranglers turn their satellite radios off when they are not in use. Not knowing if there was a problem, base camp sent up a Search and Rescue team, driving their horses in the dark up the mile long path to Whiskey Bottle... only to find the entire Cavalcade A bedded down with no concerns.  It turns out the signal may have been their wrangler trying to use his flashlight to charge his "glow-in-the-dark frisbee", or someone taking photos.  Most likely, it was just a scout playing with his flashlight at overlook.  Either way, it was an exciting night, and we were glad no one was hurt.