The day before while camped at Letora Lake, several hikers asked us if we'd seen any horses. They came in with two pack horses and had stayed for four days down at Huckleberry Lake. There was another group that had a larger number of horses also staying at Huckleberry Lake. When the larger group left, the hikers noticed their two horses disappeared, and they thought they may have followed the other group when they left the lake. They had started from Kennedy Meadows and were headed back on foot. No horses had passed our camp at Letora Lake and we were camped very close to the main trail. There was no way a group of horses could have gotten past us without us noticing. In fact, we talked to each group of hikers that passed our way. I can't imagine the feeling of losing a horse or dog in the wilderness. I told them we were heading toward Huckleberry Lake the next day. I asked them if we should find them, if they wanted me to lead them out with us. I told them we too were heading to Kennedy Meadows and would be out by Sunday. They said yes, so when we eventually got to the Huckleberry Lake area, I started whistling and looking for them. I ran into two groups of hikers and by chance they had both seen the horses! I told Andra not to eat the last of the dehydrated apples in case we found them. Here in this picture I'm feeding them a few of those apples.

The horses were very friendly. They came walking over the moment they saw me, even before I dropped my pack to dig out the apples.

I got my rope connected and Andra took a photo while I got my pack back on.

My best guess is that the other group with horses either left along the trail we were on or headed south toward the Virginia Lakes Pack Station. The most likely secnario was that when they reached the first gate and realized they had too many horses following them, instead of properly returning these two, they just closed the gate in their faces. The gate along the northern trail was at least a mile from Huckleberry Lake. By the time the horses understood they weren't going to be able to continue with the other group and wandered their way back to Huckleberry Lake, their poor owners had given up searching for them and headed back thinking they returned on the same trail they came in from.