Monday, June 24th. Day 6.
Today's miles = 10.7 Total CDT miles 68.9
Yesterday was overall a pretty mellow day. I hiked, I hurt, I ate, and then I went to sleep. I wasn't asleep for long when I heard a loud grunt-sniff followed by Monkey saying, "Spins there is a bear right next to your tent. Spins there is a Grizzly 2 feet from your head. SPINS BEAR! Spins there is a bear right next to your tent." Apparently very shortly after we bunkered down for the night a Grizzly (I named him Scar) decided to come strolling down to our camp site to check us out. It got literally two feet from my head and four feet from Monkey's. He said that he had heard a rustle far away and was laying in his tent with the fly up allowing him to be able to see through the mesh. He said he had hoped it was a deer or elk when he looked out his tent and all he could see was the giant head of the Grizzly right next to my tent. Thats when he grunted. I was still in a daze from having just been woken up and didn't quite process the information until I heard the grizzly grunt again. Thats when Monkey started making noise like you're suppose to in order to let the bear know youre there and also to get it to go away. Baboon said that the grizzly didn't seem to care that he was making noise but deemed us not food (thankfully) and slowly walked off into the brush and down to the lake for a swim. By the time I was fully awake and aware of the situation Monkey had opened his tent and had the safety off the bear mace. We were both afraid that it would come back. I was shaking because I had just heard a grizzly grunt two feet from my face and Monkey was shaking because he saw a grizzly so close. As of now we only have the one can of bear mace (I'm going to buy a second tomorrow at Two Medicine) and it lucky was in Monkeys tent as he was the one seeing the grizzly. Because we only have the one can I didn't feel comfortable being in my tent without it. So I snuggled into Monkeys tent and he and I spent most of the night wide awake anticipating the bear to return. We were listening so intently to hear if it was coming around again. Every noise made me shake. Every splash in the lake let me know that he was still near. I truly was scared. Once you see one of those animals and understand just how big and powerful they are it gives you a new perspective. Our only real defense against it is the bear mace so Monkey kept it in his hand pretty much the entire night. Seeing a grizzly is rare. Seeing two in a matter of a few days and having one of those be feet away from you is extremely rare. I knew yesterday went too smoothly; it was too mellow. I can only imagine what would have happened had we had food in our tent. I, of course, hang my food when in grizzly country but two nights ago Baboon woke up laughing because he had accidentally left a Snickers wrapper in his pocket. What if that had been last night instead of the night before? What if we had messed up and innocently forgotten to hang something? I learned last night that there IS no messing up while out here. You hang everything that smells like food, any toiletries, and anything with a scent other than hiker stank. You life depends on the bear not smelling food in you tent.
On a lighter note. Today went pretty well except when we scaled up the side of a 70 degree ice wall with ice axes that we didn't have to and eventually had to also come down from. We were hiking up a pass and the trail disappeared underneath a giant blanket of snow again. We decided to go straight up it. Turns out that an hour and fifteen minutes later when we got to the top it just ended. The ice wall ended and led to an icy, watery death drop... so we went back down. It was quite the tactical climb and by the time we had gotten back down I was so spent and was still just at the start of the pass. Another 4 hours later and many more ice and snow sheets, I reached the pass. I shoveled a Twix bar into my mouth and started the descent. This pass (Triple Divide Pass) wasn't as bad as the last and I was able to get down a lot more quickly than the other day. The sun even came out and made it a very pleasant hike down. There were a few snow issues going down and some rock climbing I had to do to get around an ice sheet and a stream, and also the part where I had to squeeze underneath a melting ice block to get to the other side but other than that it was a pretty basic hike down a pass (steep, jagged, exposed).I
Tonight I am camped with Baboon. Panama and Bethany who are fellow CDT hikers are camped over just a ways. My only complaint tonight is the sun poisoning on my hands and my fear of another grizzly encounter.
Today's miles = 10.7 Total CDT miles 68.9
Yesterday was overall a pretty mellow day. I hiked, I hurt, I ate, and then I went to sleep. I wasn't asleep for long when I heard a loud grunt-sniff followed by Monkey saying, "Spins there is a bear right next to your tent. Spins there is a Grizzly 2 feet from your head. SPINS BEAR! Spins there is a bear right next to your tent." Apparently very shortly after we bunkered down for the night a Grizzly (I named him Scar) decided to come strolling down to our camp site to check us out. It got literally two feet from my head and four feet from Monkey's. He said that he had heard a rustle far away and was laying in his tent with the fly up allowing him to be able to see through the mesh. He said he had hoped it was a deer or elk when he looked out his tent and all he could see was the giant head of the Grizzly right next to my tent. Thats when he grunted. I was still in a daze from having just been woken up and didn't quite process the information until I heard the grizzly grunt again. Thats when Monkey started making noise like you're suppose to in order to let the bear know youre there and also to get it to go away. Baboon said that the grizzly didn't seem to care that he was making noise but deemed us not food (thankfully) and slowly walked off into the brush and down to the lake for a swim. By the time I was fully awake and aware of the situation Monkey had opened his tent and had the safety off the bear mace. We were both afraid that it would come back. I was shaking because I had just heard a grizzly grunt two feet from my face and Monkey was shaking because he saw a grizzly so close. As of now we only have the one can of bear mace (I'm going to buy a second tomorrow at Two Medicine) and it lucky was in Monkeys tent as he was the one seeing the grizzly. Because we only have the one can I didn't feel comfortable being in my tent without it. So I snuggled into Monkeys tent and he and I spent most of the night wide awake anticipating the bear to return. We were listening so intently to hear if it was coming around again. Every noise made me shake. Every splash in the lake let me know that he was still near. I truly was scared. Once you see one of those animals and understand just how big and powerful they are it gives you a new perspective. Our only real defense against it is the bear mace so Monkey kept it in his hand pretty much the entire night. Seeing a grizzly is rare. Seeing two in a matter of a few days and having one of those be feet away from you is extremely rare. I knew yesterday went too smoothly; it was too mellow. I can only imagine what would have happened had we had food in our tent. I, of course, hang my food when in grizzly country but two nights ago Baboon woke up laughing because he had accidentally left a Snickers wrapper in his pocket. What if that had been last night instead of the night before? What if we had messed up and innocently forgotten to hang something? I learned last night that there IS no messing up while out here. You hang everything that smells like food, any toiletries, and anything with a scent other than hiker stank. You life depends on the bear not smelling food in you tent.
On a lighter note. Today went pretty well except when we scaled up the side of a 70 degree ice wall with ice axes that we didn't have to and eventually had to also come down from. We were hiking up a pass and the trail disappeared underneath a giant blanket of snow again. We decided to go straight up it. Turns out that an hour and fifteen minutes later when we got to the top it just ended. The ice wall ended and led to an icy, watery death drop... so we went back down. It was quite the tactical climb and by the time we had gotten back down I was so spent and was still just at the start of the pass. Another 4 hours later and many more ice and snow sheets, I reached the pass. I shoveled a Twix bar into my mouth and started the descent. This pass (Triple Divide Pass) wasn't as bad as the last and I was able to get down a lot more quickly than the other day. The sun even came out and made it a very pleasant hike down. There were a few snow issues going down and some rock climbing I had to do to get around an ice sheet and a stream, and also the part where I had to squeeze underneath a melting ice block to get to the other side but other than that it was a pretty basic hike down a pass (steep, jagged, exposed).I
Tonight I am camped with Baboon. Panama and Bethany who are fellow CDT hikers are camped over just a ways. My only complaint tonight is the sun poisoning on my hands and my fear of another grizzly encounter.
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