Day 9
Starting mileage: 5861.2
The trains ran almost all night and when I say all night, I mean ALL NIGHT. Â I’m wondering if that’s the reason why they don’t charge to stay at that campground.
When I woke up and crawled out of the tent, I found the fly was completely coated in ice. Â My hands got so cold as I was packing up the tent that it took me probably twice as long because I had to keep shoving my hands into my armpits to regain feeling. Â I put out food for the dogs but they just watched me struggle with the tent and probably added some new words to their already expansive vocabulary of curse words. Â I had planned to make breakfast but decided to move on.
Pocatello is not too far down the road and we stopped at Red Hot Roasters.  I got a really good breakfast burrito and americano which I destroyed as we walked around the town.  I have a clip that I use for their leashes that allows me to go hands-free.  From the number of people staring at me, it seems that it’s an unusual sight to see someone double-fisting breakfast as they walk with three dogs.  The dogs were walking amazingly well so it made us look like superstars.
As we were driving down the highway, I saw signs for Frontier Pie. Â I wasn’t going to stop. Â I wasn’t going to stop. Â Hang on…why are we in Rexburg, Idaho and why are we stopping at Frontier Pies? Â Well fine, I can’t stop here and not go inside. Â I mean that would be rude and as a Canadian it is my duty to be polite. Â I ended up leaving with a slice of peanut butter chocolate cream pie for later.
I saw signs for Yellowstone National Park and my plan had been to cut through there but then when I saw a $30 entry fee, well same thing with all the other parks: if I’m going to pay that much money I’m going to make a day of the trip. Â We took the highway around the edge of the park and found a parking area which let us hike into the edge of the park anyway.
It was a nice hike and we had not gone in too far when I noticed Jack’s attention was focused on something to our right. Â It took me a few minutes to see the deer that was watching us. Â I was able to get the camera out and snap a few pictures before it turned and bounded away. I wanted to let the dogs off for a run but decided that with deer and all the signs for bear, that would probably be a bad idea. Â When we got back to the car, I poured out their water and ate my pie. Â It was so tasty.



We crossed into Montana and the first rest stop that we stopped at had a fenced in dog area! Â While most rest areas have a designated pet walking area, most of them are unfenced and require the dogs be kept on leash. Â Montana has had more fenced areas and nicer places than most states. Â Bravo Montana! Â We also made a stop to take in the fall foliage. Â The bright yellow contrasted against the blue sky. Â Stunning.


A short time later as it was starting to get dark, we stopped at another rest area. Â I saw signs for a pet area with an arrow off to the side that pointed away from the buildings along a dirt track. Â I was intrigued and followed the trail along the side of the hill and up to the top. Â There over the rest area was this wide open field with benches at one end. Â The view from the top was incredible and with no one around and no one being able to sneak up on us, I let the dogs go for a run. Â We lingered there until almost dark and I followed the paved path back down to the parking area. Â And that’s when I found the sign warning about rattlesnakes. Â Well it would have been nice to see that a little sooner.








Remembering what the temperature had been the night before, I decided on a hotel and stopped in Mile City, Montana. Â As I was checking in at the Motel 6, I asked if there was a good place for food and was directed to the Gallaghers across the street. Â I popped in there and ordered the Rodeo Hoagie. Â So good.
Piper decided that she needed some space and took up the other bed, leaving me to snuggle with the boys as we watched TV. Â I discovered the show “The Last Alaskans” and stayed up late into the night before falling asleep.