Across Flathead Lake from us is Wild Horse Island, a great hiking spot. Today the weather was warmer than it’s been in a while– I think the ol’ mercury actually hit 70 at one point. We decided it was time for an outing on the water. We fired up Trixie and Lil’ Pepe (our jet skis) and headed across the lake.
There’s a network of trails on the 2,200-acre island, and we headed up our favorite. Fortune was on our side, because we spotted two of the four wild horses who live full-time on the island. Pepper pointed them out (although the camera angle doesn’t line up quite right).
That little white speck left of her hand is one of the horses; the other is a bit farther to the left. There are signs posted on the island warning people against approaching the horses. I doubt there’s actually much danger, but we didn’t feel like walking all the way down to the forest to pet them anyway, so we continued along the trail.
The scenery was great, and we could hear various boats zipping around the water surrounding the island. The temperature might’ve been a bit chilly for playing in the lake– air temperature aside, the water is still around 50 degrees– but it was perfect hiking weather!
To our surprise, we stumbled across four deer along the trail. Three are shown in the left of the photo below; the fourth is off to Pepper’s right.
Of course this begs the question: how do the deer get to the island? It’s separated from the shores of Flathead Lake by quite an expanse of water. The closest shoreline is almost a mile and a half from the island. Did the deer swim over? Why? The mind reels.
Anyhow, it was a ton of fun and we’re excited to visit again soon and sample a few other trails.