We woke up to blue skies and a glassy lake. We were all amazed at the beauty in front of us and we spent some time taking it all in. The mountain reflections in the lake made for some awesome photos. Ellen’s mom loved the picture below and made a large print to hang up in their family room.
It was difficult to leave this spot, but we needed to hit the trail and hike back towards Bubbs Creek. Stopping for lunch along East Creek, Jeff thought it would be yummy to ‘grill’ his Spam over the stove. Arriving back at Bubbs Creek, it was time to wade across and then back through Junction Meadow with all the flowers.
Now, much further down the trail and still along Bubbs Creek … the excitement began. As we rounded a corner with Ellen in the lead and Jeff and Chris chatting in the rear, Ellen spotted a black bear sauntering up the trail towards us. Ellen stopped, stepped back, turned toward Jeff and Chris and said “bear”! Jeff immediately whipped out the camera … that is the first thing one does when one sees a bear, right? Then the three of us grouped up for safety.
As the bear caught sight of us, we loudly but calmly shouted “hey bear, yo bear”! A bear has an outstanding sense of smell, but his vision is poor and his hearing is only comparable to a human. Now, we were downwind of the bear, around a curving trail, and alongside a rather loud creek … so the bear was not aware of us until we shouted out.
He kept approaching us but when he finally did notice, he stepped off trail and into the trees on the steep canyon wall where he found a rotten log and started digging for ants or grubs. He was not aggressive and was probably just as hot and tired as we were, so he had been taking the easy path. We stayed calm and shouted, “good bear, nice bear” and we waited a few minutes before we proceeded down the trail. That’s as close as any of us had ever been to a bear in the wild. It was pretty exciting and was a high point of the trip!
After another couple of hours, we made it back to the Bubbs/Sphinx junction, crossed the bridge over Bubbs Creek, and found a lovely campsite overlooking the creek. We set up camp and took a dip in the frigid water.
Journeys with Jeff and Ellen 