Ok I'll be honest, I have been waiting to use that quote for a long time. I am currently at mile ~1100 in South Lake Tahoe, which by the way is a massive lake. And this leg of my journey allowed me to see something really special, but I'll get to that.
This leg started at Kennedy Meadows when Dirty Brown, Anteater, and I hitched back to trail, the others did not seem like they were going anywhere quickly and I was ready to go. This section has proven to be much easier than the last section(s) for there were no passes, and being able to see the trail is always a plus. At first I was hiking with my companions, but I wanted to pull bigger miles so soon I was on my own. However this did give me the opportunity to read my book and see more wildlife.
The first day out I pulled a 28ish mile day so that I would be in a better position for South Lake. As the day progressed a hurt knee and a long day slowly pulled my spirits down. I kept pushing but I was not in the best mental state. Then I came across a couple of day hikers who told me that there was some magic about 6-8 miles down the trail. So I pushed more. Every part of me wanted to stop, but I knew if I pushed it would be worth it. So when I finally came up to trail angel Doug who cooked me eggs, gave me coffee, coke, cereal, milk, and bread I felt like a king. Magic really does go a long way to make you feel better. After that short break the thought of pushing an extra six miles seemed like nothing. Hiking after coffee=amazing.
The next day however was the true highlight of the leg. For that's when I got my first bear sighting on trail. The day started off like any other with my morning ritual of eating breakfast, reading and doing everything possible without leaving my sleeping back. Then when I had no other options I packed up and hit trail. There was nothing of note until I was descending some switchbacks. While going down (and ironically eating gummy bears) I saw him. A beautiful black bear meandering up the trail. I must have been down wind because he had no clue I was there. Tingling with excitement I stood frozen watching and eventually got a couple of blurred shot of him (camera fail). At about 100 feet he looked up, saw me and I waved. This was sufficient enough to scare him down the hill. Considering this whole trip I have wanted a bear sighting and considering I never got on in the high sierras, I was ecstatic.
Well the rest of this leg was without event and once I am recovered here I will push on, though I may wait for friends, getting a little tired of myself. It's one of the downsides about hiking faster than the big heard of hikers, less friends on trail.
No comments:
Post a Comment