If there is a better way to turn 40 than being 4 days into a 10-day backpacking trip in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area, I don’t know of it! I turned 40 last week on our way out to document the remotest location in Montana. My actual birth day was surrounded by four days of climbing 7,500 ft peaks (including the Continental Divide…twice), if that doesn’t make a woman feel strong, powerful, and full of vitality I can’t imagine what would!
Out on the trail, life is simplified. Everything you need is on your back. Gifts come in small but extremely meaningful packages. On my fortieth, I awoke to coffee delivered to my tent.
When I got dressed (hat, gloves, down jacket) and came out of the tent, Ryan had my breakfast already made. A bouquet of wild flowers and grass stalks more beautiful than anything a flower shop could make (and I sacrificed the weight and carried them all day!).
Ryan even rinsed out my shirt in the creek for me!
A good footsoak at a beautiful spa…
Surprise birthday celebration at the foot of the Remote Spot — lugging in 4oz of chocolate is a decadent gift when your pack already weights 70lbs!
Caribou stew for dinner prepared by a dear friend — again, carrying the weight of someone else’s meal is very significant on a backpacking trip!
A beautiful birthday sunset (Sunset over the White River)
All the gifts a woman needs…
Happy 40th birthday, Rebecca! What a great way to celebrate it!
That looks like a wonderful way to spend your birthday.
Glad it was a good one.
Would love to have celebrated with you. Well, after seeing pictures of the climb, maybe not. We will celebrate when you get home. I am so proud of all y’all.