10-7-06
Start: Tahoe City, CA
Destination: Pacific Crest Trail, CA
Elevation: 7161 ft.
Miles: 13.7
Weather: Cold up high
Cathy dropped us off and we hiked toward the trailhead for the Western States Trail. We got on it, and maybe a mile into the trail, we heard a big "CRASH" in some pine trees ahead of us, followed by some low, short grunts. It kind of sounded like a deer snort, only not as airy - more clear. And no deer went crashing. I turned around to look at mom, and I could feel that I had the same look on my face as she did.
"That's a bear," I said.
"I know," she replied.
We slowly stepped up a little bit, and a good-sized bear, brown in color, walked across our trail to the left. Then, through the trees, I could see another brownish-colored bear of the same size. It crossed the trail, too. Then I saw more movement. Black. BIG. It was momma bear, and she was a big un'!
Oh... boy... we stepped back, turned around, walked slowly down the trail backwards and gathered our senses together.
The worst thing you EVER want to do is step between momma and her cubs. And the two smaller brown ones crossed the trail, and momma was sticking to the right side. So we sat for about 10-15 minutes, blew our whistle, talked loudly, and tried to make as much noise as we could. When we got the courage to try again, we stepped up the trail, and they were still there! They weren't budging, and they were right on our trail. Finally, after a total of about 45 minutes, we ended up taking a different trail fork that sort of went around them. Trouble is, they were right on a waypoint for a junction on our trail, and we couldn't see where it went. We had to bushwhack.
We ended up getting away from the bears, safe and sound. Whew. And now we were trudging up a steep mountainside over bushes and through pine trees. We came out on a road and followed it to a ski hill, and dropped down into Squaw Valley. We had a really tough time finding the trail again - not many people knew where the trail even was.
After going in circles, asking around, and finally just heading up towards the peak, we came across a guy who knew where it was. He said he could drop us right on it. Enough screwing around - we took him up on his offer. Just a short ways up the road was the trail, and he pointed out where we had to head. Ahh, back on track. It's the bears fault! :)
On our way up the road something really funny happened. It was a "double BIF." A huge vehicle with huge tires was coming down the narrow road, and the ditch had about a 1-1/2 foot drop-off. Mom and I decided it would be bright to hop in the ditch and get off the road. I hopped in and my pack weight followed the law of gravity, and took me with it. I went down on my butt. Then in the middle of my fall, before she knew I was falling, mom jumped in and did the exact same thing. When the truck went by, I gave them a thumbs-up and smiled. They had to have been laughing at us!
We got onto a section of the Pacific Crest Trail today, and now we're camped right on it. With the bears and the screwy morning we had getting turned around, we didn't make it to our campground. We are set up, fed, and we're hoping for no critter visitors.
The food bag is hung in the pine tree with care... in hopes that there won't be any bears out there...
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