About 10 years ago in the Lost Creek Wilderness of Colorado, we were camped deep in the Lost Creek Canyon about 1 to 2 miles from the nearest established trail. I decided to go on an exploratory hike near where we were camped and I bushwacked up the nearby ridge that involved a little 4th class scrambling near the top. As I gained the top, there, about 30 feet away on the other side, was a blue party balloon with its red ribbon snagged in a bush. It looked so incongruous out there in the middle of nowhere. I figured it had escaped its initial young owner and drifted miles until finally coming to rest in this remote place. My daughter's birthday was later that week so the balloon got one more chance to make a kid happy. You should have seen the look on the faces of my family when I returned to camp with a blue party balloon on a red ribbon.
-Mark