Tumble in the N Fork

Frost covered our tent in the morning. We took our time breaking camp and let things dry out a bit. The goat had climbed a bit higher, but was still munching away.

Our route was supposed to take us back over Tenderfoot, down to the North Fork of the Imnaha River over Boner Flat and down to the S Fork to camp. We went back over Tenderfoot andencountered the same smells we had the day before - animal. We finally caught glimpses and then long stares once we got down into the canyon. For 20-30 minutes, we chased a herd of elk along the N Fork. The screeching and stamping of the elk as they herded was amazing.

We crossed the N Fork, where I took a painful tumble off a log (lost a pole, got kinda wet and bruised, but otherwise no casualties). After we crossed, though, we couldn't find our trail up to the flats. There were blow downs everywhere. So we eventually crossed back and followed the N Fork to the confluence with the S Fork and headed up the S Fork to camp, stopping just short of our intended destination vi Boner Flats. The walk along the N Fork showed obvious flood damage, so our intended route may have just been too damaged and not yet restored. We found great camping in a small meadow by the mellow S Fork and spent the night warming and restoring ourselves by a fire after an 11 mile day.