This day starts out great with Rita’s blueberry pancakes. But then she starts to tell us about how hot, how dry, how steep the next section is and how they have had people start it and then return to them and ask to be driven to Kennedy Meadows. We laugh a little and indicate we prefer words like “gentle slope” rather than “steep slope”. After eating we get ready and jump into the truck and they take us back to the trail. Rita was not wrong but she forgot to mention the trail was also very rocky and it was the rocky part that got to me. There are generally some rocks on the trail of course but this was ridiculous. The rocks were a constant and they would not just small pebbles but rocks of size and rocks with sharp points and rocks that rolled one way or another when you stepped on them. For me, this day was the hardest day of hiking on the entire trail thus far. I ended up the day with 2 blisters and a sore hip. It just did not seem my feet where ever just flat on the ground but were always angled one way or another. About the middle of the day a bug flew into my mouth and I swallowed it. I thought, OK, I needed a little protein. but the bug was not ready to go that that easy. It either clung on for dear life or keep crawling back up my throat. I kept on drinking lots of water to try and force it down. The bug would have nothing of it and eventually seemed to get caught in the gagging zone and I ended up throwing up on the trail. Such a waste of needed food AND water. Paul was close at the time as was a new hiker Poppins which I had met earlier for the first time. At the next stop, Poppins gave me half an orange (the orange I had shared much earlier in the trail had come back to me) and Paul gave me some Oreo cookies to eat.
The rest of the group went more miles than I did. I got to the water source and called it a day as soon as I found a level spot to camp. The water source was a spring fed trough and it was about .25 miles off the trail. Straight down off the trail into a valley. When I got almost there a woman was running up the trail from the trough and indicated there was a bear down there. Sure enough, it was easy to see. The bear was down getting a drink. I sat down on the trail and watched as the bear got his fill of water and I had the following thoughts. 1) Why am I seeing a bear at this point. There should not be any bears until Kennedy Meadows about 40 miles away. I guess nobody told the bear. 2) I think I am safe because the bear is two switchbacks away from me and then of course it occurs to me the bear does not use the switchbacks and could probably bound up to me in no time at all. 3) Since bears were not suppose to be here, I did not have my food in a bear canister. I hoped that the bear did not like summer sausage and cheese which was sitting in my pack. It did not take long for the bear to move on but I waited another 15 minutes or so just to make sure. I went and got my water and then went up and told those waiting smartly a little higher up that the bear was gone.
The next day I caught up with Paul and Sam again and they indicated that the bear had started to come towards their tent. Like me, they did not expect a bear and Paul had prepared their supper in the tent. The bear apparently noticed and they saw him moving towards the tent. They both jumped out and began making a lot of noise by banging their trekking poles together and yelling. The bear paused and looked at them for awhile and then turned and went away. They were a little shaken by the experience as I would have been.
