The rest of the day is a tough one. The trail winds through brush and groves of aspen so tightly spaced that Celeste’s wilderness skirt keeps getting stuck. Jim is on and off her, manhandling the skirt through tight spots.
"Control, the problem we’ve got here is that the droppings are getting into the joints and jamming them. The skirt is getting stiff. I can get by without the dung stove. I’m going to abandon the stove and Celeste’s wilderness skirt here."
"Jim, you can’t do that," is the nervous reply. "You have to carry out what you carry in. We supplied you with the dung-burner mostly so you wouldn’t have to pack out Celeste’s dirty work."
Jim sighed. "Okay. I’ll try taking it down to the creek and washing it out."
"Jim, you can’t do that either. That creek is part of the watershed."
"What the! ... Okay ... Check the satellite images. Is there a damp spot, a puddle, that’s near me that isn’t considered part of the watershed?"
For the next couple hours Jim freezes his fingers trying to wash out the skirt in a nameless, reed-choked marsh. He makes camp at the base of a pine-covered cliff and broods.
The next day breaks frosty. Jim tries shaking out Celeste’s skirt. Instead of being supple, it is a board -- the water from washing is frozen in the joints.
"Patience, patience," he mutters. He spends the morning fishing and wandering in the local area looking at plants, birds, small mammals, and rocks. The big find of the morning is some bear tracks. He checks his climbing claws. Finally, after the sun is high in the sky, the air and sunshine defrost the skirt and once again Jim and Celeste are underway.
The going remains hard. They cross the 3000 meter line and Jim walks Celeste more than he rides -- the thin air tires them both rapidly. The Yellowstone gorge widens, then closes in on them again. They ride through pine but not far above them are gray, barren slopes that tower above the treeline: The peaks of the Uintas.
"These peaks are limestone rock," Jim tells the viewers before Bradley can find his notes. "They were laid down on the bottom of a shallow sea. A few million years ago, well after the age of dinosaurs, they started to rise. During the last Ice Age they were sculpted by glaciers into the form you see now." Jim pans his view. "The peaks make a network of cliffs and razor-back ridges that tower over the high plateau."
To the left looms the ridge that leads to Stone Mountain. It is somber in the afternoon sun. To the right is a shining ridge that leads to Kings Peak.
The gray cliffs pick up a sandy, iridescent hue as the sun sets in the west sky. This ethereal beauty is enhanced by the sky darkening overhead: Thunderheads. Soon rain is falling. Jim and Celeste take refuge in a pine grove, but they are careful not to stand under the tallest tree. Lightning soon follows. It is spectacular but it confines itself to the peaks, and in a few minutes the rain ends -- a Uintas afternoon thunderstorm.
The sun is under the clouds and the cliffs remain spectacularly lit as Jim and Celeste move on to Gem Lake. High up the canyon walls they see herds of bighorn sheep.