Back in January a passing thought occurred to me: “I wonder if I’ll ever backpack again. Do I want to backpack again?”.

It had been more than a decade since I’d taken on such an adventure.

I thought to myself, “If I do this, it has to be with a guide because I don’t have the expertise to do this without someone who has the necessary skills.” 

(My past experience was with a group a friends, where my friend Jim had the backcountry experience, skills and knowledge).

Facebook read my mind and put an ad in my newsfeed for a company that runs tours in Yellowstone that I ended up booking my trip with. (It’s eerie how Facebook does that because I don’t think I said anything about this out loud).

Ever since I was a kid I’d built up Yellowstone in my head as a place that was so wild and rugged, just stepping outside your car could include a wildlife encounter with predators like bears (not that other parks don’t have these things, but this is just what I’d specifically built up in my head with Yellowstone from an …

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