September 1, 2008

After eating an entire box of donuts and 4 sausages, 30-30 and I left Snoqualmie at 9:00a.m. Today was cold, in the 40's all day, but I remained dry for which I was thoroughly thankful. This section was loaded with day hikers and although the terrain was rocky, the mountain vistas were stunning. 30-30 spotted a mama bear with 2 cubs and stopped to show me. The bears were cinnamon in color with black ears. Another hiker hiked p and we shared the sighting with him as well. We all stayed motionless waiting for Britt to hike up. Britt had not seen any bears so we wanted to make sure that he saw these beautiful creatures. When Britt hiked up he said, "What, more bears?" Britt had just captured a close-up photo of a black bear that we three hikers apparently hiked right by. He spoke about the bear having no gumption and wondered if it was sick. I cannot believe that I walked right by a huge bear and didn't even know it! I wonder how often that happens. Tonight 30-30 was sure to hang the bear bag and he cooked us both hot dogs for dinner.