Relaxing Afternoon in a North Cascades Alpine Meadow

I left my camp set up at Walker Park and hiked up here with a light backpack. Food, water, camera and emergency stuff. It is 4.5 miles from camp at 4200 feet. I gained about 1000 feet. Walker Park is at 3200 feet. I slept great last night. I found that putting the air pillow inside the hood of my mummy bag and drawing the string tight works well. The pillow then supports my head and my shoulders. Also I placed my clothes bag under my knees. I slept soundly and was not sore this morning like I was the first morning. I hated to get up.

I had some disturbance last night in camp. Several times during the night I was awakened by an animal snorting just outside my tent. All I had to do was make some small noise and the animals would take off running. The running sounded like hooves so it was elk, deer or mountain goat. This happened 6-8 times. I have to admit I was more than a little scared at the time about bears. I had my flashlight and knife beside me in the tent. A flashlight will sometimes scare an animal or at least make him stand still as if paralyzed. The knife was so I could cut myself out of the tent if a bear came in after me.

I hung my food from a tree away from camp. I figured it would be gone but it was still there. A squirrel or chipmunk however had chewed through the nylon and eaten some of my trail nut mix. I salvaged less than half of it. I was lucky. None of the other food was touched.

I tried making pancakes this morning. They were a flop. The hot chocolate was a good idea. I think I will stick to hot chocolate and granola bars in the future. My calves are sore from yesterday. I'm hoping the shorter hike today (9 miles) and lighter load will work some of the soreness out of them. I had no problem with my back this morning.

Started on my second roll of film about one mile ago. My hat is working great, so are the blow up pillows. I'm using one as a writing desk now. I've seen lots of humming birds and this morning a snake ran across my boots. He was small and moving too quick for me to see what kind it was. I saw an animal through my binoculars about the size of a medium dog. I don't know what it was. I'm being very careful about walking up on some animal and spooking him and I'm being careful with my feet. Sprains, blisters, etc. I haven't seen anyone for a whole day now. Saw a bird this morning about the size of a chicken with her kids.

1:34PM Preparing to leave. It has been great. I dozed on and off near a snow bank. It is 4.5 miles to camp but mostly downhill. The barometer is falling. There may be a storm on the way.

7:21PM I had supper and I'm in my tent now. The flies and mosquitoes would kill me without this tent. I had lasagna, mixed fruit and an apple cinnamon muffin for supper. The lemonade was a good idea. It taste great with meals and when I'm hot and dry.

I had a good scare this afternoon on the way back. I was walking through some low brush at the edge of a meadow about a mile from the head of North Fork. With my shoes and plastic frame pack I don't make much noise when I walk. I rounded a curve and a brown bear crossed about 50 feet in front of me. I froze. I looked around for a tree to climb in case it charged. There wasn't any. I unfastened the hip belt on my backpack and rigged it so I could dump it in a hurry. I thought he was still on the trail and I didn't want to have him in front of me while I was walking out of the valley.

I didn't know what to do next so I decided to take a picture. He had gone on around the hill 20 feet below some low brush. About that time I also saw a black bear. Double trouble. When I snapped the picture the black one stood up on his hind feet and ran. When I walked on down the trail 40-50 feet I was happy to see that they had gone through a meadow and not down the trail. I got a picture of the brown one also before he high tailed it into the brush. I was glad to find out that they were as scared of me as I was of them. I've read that when people know they are in bear country, they sing or hang a bell on the pack. So I sang for a while. Ha! Ha!

I saw a rabbit here at the camp last night and two tonight. One came within 10 feet of me. They were brown with big white back feet. Finally saw two other human beings. They were resting at my camp when I returned today. They were going to climb Goode Mountain and come back down Park Creek. They came in the same way I did and commented on the long walk back out. They are camping at Grizzly Creek, one mile north of here.

I feel a little down tonight. I may be a little home sick. The threat of bears has also got me a little spooked. I hung my food from a rope tied between two trees but I don't think it is high enough. If a bear tried he could get it.