August 13-Bear...!

Miles Hiked: 14.34  Total: 108.59
Elevation Gain: 3823 ft

"In my first interview with a Sierra bear we were frightened and embarrassed, both of us, but the bear's behavior was better than mine."
~ John Muir

OUR NATIONAL PARKS - pub. 1901

Bear Ridge looking toward Seldon Pass

[John]
After breaking camp we headed down the trail to the Mono Creek crossing. I chose the recently fallen tree to cross, maneuvering among its many branches. Christi opted for a water crossing and donned her Tevas for that purpose. Just before she crossed, Toshio and Masao appeared – we hadn’t seen them for a week and had assumed they were somewhere ahead of us, but there they were.

While descending to the Lake Edison Trail junction, we encountered another JMT Yahoo Group member, Judy Palmer, who was returning northbound after hiking southbound from Tuolomne Meadows to Muir Trail Ranch (MTR). While chatting about trail conditions, we found out she had decided to return to Tuolomne Meadows rather than continue to Mt. Whitney because she was hiking alone and, at age 70, preferred not to risk an accident traversing snow fields on the higher passes south of MTR.

Bear Creek

For the first time, we didn’t have crystal clear skies all day. There were a few occasional clouds throughout the morning and early afternoon, which we appreciated as they made for cooler climbing.

Oh, yeah, bears! We then ascended Bear Ridge and, yes, we did see some bear scat on the trail. But, despite the fact we later crossed Bear Creek, we never encountered any bears. The only ones we ever saw were outside motel rooms before or after completing the JMT. The bears aren’t stupid, why bother trying to grab some calories from unopenable bear canisters carried by backpackers, there’s better pickings down lower where “civilization” interfaces with the wild.

Much to our surprise we ran into Zoe and David, who had hiked up to Bear Ridge from VVR, where they parted ways with their two compatriots, Wayne and Isaiah. We had assumed they were well along beyond Muir Pass in order to keep their 14 day pace. After exchanging some tales, we moved on but they did eventually pass us before the creek, and we never saw them again.

Marie Lake looking toward Seldon Pass

We were anxious to cross the infamous Bear Creek, doing so in early afternoon, since it was over 10 miles from our previous night’s campsite. We had learned that Bear Creek can be one of the most difficult crossings, as I’m sure it had been the previous month. But it was uneventful, not flowing too fast and only a little above our knees.

We closed the day with a long climb up to Marie Lake about 400 feet below Selden Pass.  The mosquitoes were delighted to have us join them as we set up camp and gulped a cup of broth.  We both “bathed” in the lake before crawling into our sleeping bags. Regardless, my journal notes “Wow, this tent stinks!"

[Christi]
We'd heard about Bear Creek as being a nasty one so we spent the entire first half of the day hiking to it and wondering about what we'd face when we got there.  I'm glad we found a gently flowing stream that we easily waded across in our boots.

Marie Lake campsite

Marie Lake was absolutely gorgeous and I think we had it all to ourselves!  Not another soul in sight.  We were both tired (yes, again!) by the time we reached our campsite at the edge of the lake so we didn't waste any time, feeding ourselves (and the mozzies!) before diving into bed so we could wake refreshed for Seldon Pass in the morning.