These images are from our thru-hike of the JMT in 98. We hiked from August 16 through September 3, southbound. The hike took 18 days to complete, covering about 220 miles. Solophile and I are indebted to Big Bird (of AT 97 fame) for the splendid hospitality in the Bay City, the time he took off to be our personal tour guide, and the great hitch out to Yosemite.
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Bear track! One of the things Solophile so wanted to see and capture on film would be a bear print. After the first four nights of bear battles, we had not seen bear in the last ten days. There had been stories, though: Two rangers told of us of a dumb hiker who slept in the open with his food bag as a pillow. Late at night, something was sniffing his face so he swatted it. The bear elected to swat back, roughing the hiker up quite a bit. A second story involved a hiker who did a bad job of hanging his bearbag. Two cubs spent an hour "entertaining" the hiker as they worked to down the bag. Finally, the cubs figured it out and scored the bag. At that point, the hiker realized he just lost his food, so he attacked with shouting, sticks and rocks. He was unaware momma bear had been watching from the woods. She charged him and gave a mild mauling while the cubs padded off with their winnings. (The notice on a post earlier didn't mention the incredible stupidity of the humans that usually lead to the problem encounters.) |
