Sequoia National Park, High Sierra Trail backpacking trip - day 5
07/06/07 12:00 AM Filed in: travel | backpacking
Upper
Hamilton Lake to Bear Paw
Thursday, July 5, 2007
We woke up at 7 am, made coffee, packed up camp and headed out at 10 am. The hike leaving Upper Hamilton Lake was beautiful. Chris took many photos of Valhalla & the amazing views on the way back down the trail. With each step we took extra note of the scenery, hoping to never forget the beauty of this remote area and its unique landscape.
Chris packing up camp
View of Upper Hamilton Lake
View of Upper Hamilton Lake - rock island
View of Valhalla / Angel Wings
Downhill trail following Angel Wings view
At Hamilton Creek falls, we ran into two female hikers on their way up to Precipice Lake. We warned them about the heat up there from yesterday and wished them luck. About a half an hour into our hike after that, we were walking along a very rocky cliff pass and as we start to hike around a corner, when it happened - I spotted a baby bear cub heading in our direction! The dark-brown cub, maybe two feet tall on all fours, was light-heartedly trotting along without a care in the world until he saw us and we saw him - immediately we scream go away bear to scare him off - the last thing we want is to be between those cubs and the momma bear. Within milli-seconds, Chris made his way around the bend spotted mamma bear and the other cub and was able to scare them up the granite hill. At that point the bears were completely out of my view, but I quickly made it around to where Chris was and was able to witness an image of a lifetime. The bears climbed the granite hill as I mentioned, and the hill just happened to lead to a ledge right above us. We both look up to see three gorgeous black bears about 15 feet above us looking directly at us. This moment only lasted three seconds, and we unfortunately didn't get to the camera in time to get the bear photo we'll never forget.. but we did get the scenery immediately after the bears had walked away.
Bear view photo - just imagine three bears on the top of the granite ledge next to the pine tree.. that's what we saw!!
Minutes after our encounter that got the blood pumping again, Chris was back to taking photos of the scenery & wildflowers.
Chia & Indian Paintbrush - wildflowers
Posing on the trail :)
trail view south towards Bear Paw
We arrived at Bear Paw camp @ 12:45 pm. Our old campsite was vacant again, so we gladly took it back. Our food remained untouched in the bear box as expected. We had the entire area all to our selves all afternoon, which was very nice. A storm started to roll in at 2:30 pm as the trees began swaying more in the wind, we saw dark clouds in the distance and heard thunder. At that point we dropped everything to set up our tent and get prepared for a potentially long haul in the tent if the storm were to unleash itself in the next few minutes. After hanging around the campsite for what felt like hours, waiting for the storm to hit, it never came. Watching and listening to the giant, 150 - 250 foot trees sway in the wind was a priceless experience. The wind brought with it the cool breezes we wished we felt at Hamilton Lake yesterday, and it was nice to sit and just enjoy the forest undisturbed. Settled in at camp, we discovered that our water filter was not broken, but needed a desperate cleaning from the lake water. Although we should have thought of that SOONER, at least our water filter wasn't damaged and it wasn't an altitude pressure issue and also, we were able to pump water like normal - 10 or so pumps filling a 3 liter Nalgene bottle in two minutes versus an hour. That was good news :)
Nightfall approached so we gathered wood to start our fire. There's nothing more soothing to ones soul on a trip like this than a camp fire! We ate dinner, another meal of Mountain House turkey tetrazini and went to bed shortly after. Although we were having the time of our lives, we were ready for a hot shower, a soft mattress and a non freeze dried meal.
our campsite amongst the boulders at Bear Paw - note the adorable log table & chair set!
Our tent at Bear Paw
Thursday, July 5, 2007
We woke up at 7 am, made coffee, packed up camp and headed out at 10 am. The hike leaving Upper Hamilton Lake was beautiful. Chris took many photos of Valhalla & the amazing views on the way back down the trail. With each step we took extra note of the scenery, hoping to never forget the beauty of this remote area and its unique landscape.
Chris packing up camp
View of Upper Hamilton Lake
View of Upper Hamilton Lake - rock island
View of Valhalla / Angel Wings
Downhill trail following Angel Wings view
At Hamilton Creek falls, we ran into two female hikers on their way up to Precipice Lake. We warned them about the heat up there from yesterday and wished them luck. About a half an hour into our hike after that, we were walking along a very rocky cliff pass and as we start to hike around a corner, when it happened - I spotted a baby bear cub heading in our direction! The dark-brown cub, maybe two feet tall on all fours, was light-heartedly trotting along without a care in the world until he saw us and we saw him - immediately we scream go away bear to scare him off - the last thing we want is to be between those cubs and the momma bear. Within milli-seconds, Chris made his way around the bend spotted mamma bear and the other cub and was able to scare them up the granite hill. At that point the bears were completely out of my view, but I quickly made it around to where Chris was and was able to witness an image of a lifetime. The bears climbed the granite hill as I mentioned, and the hill just happened to lead to a ledge right above us. We both look up to see three gorgeous black bears about 15 feet above us looking directly at us. This moment only lasted three seconds, and we unfortunately didn't get to the camera in time to get the bear photo we'll never forget.. but we did get the scenery immediately after the bears had walked away.
Bear view photo - just imagine three bears on the top of the granite ledge next to the pine tree.. that's what we saw!!
Minutes after our encounter that got the blood pumping again, Chris was back to taking photos of the scenery & wildflowers.
Chia & Indian Paintbrush - wildflowers
Posing on the trail :)
trail view south towards Bear Paw
We arrived at Bear Paw camp @ 12:45 pm. Our old campsite was vacant again, so we gladly took it back. Our food remained untouched in the bear box as expected. We had the entire area all to our selves all afternoon, which was very nice. A storm started to roll in at 2:30 pm as the trees began swaying more in the wind, we saw dark clouds in the distance and heard thunder. At that point we dropped everything to set up our tent and get prepared for a potentially long haul in the tent if the storm were to unleash itself in the next few minutes. After hanging around the campsite for what felt like hours, waiting for the storm to hit, it never came. Watching and listening to the giant, 150 - 250 foot trees sway in the wind was a priceless experience. The wind brought with it the cool breezes we wished we felt at Hamilton Lake yesterday, and it was nice to sit and just enjoy the forest undisturbed. Settled in at camp, we discovered that our water filter was not broken, but needed a desperate cleaning from the lake water. Although we should have thought of that SOONER, at least our water filter wasn't damaged and it wasn't an altitude pressure issue and also, we were able to pump water like normal - 10 or so pumps filling a 3 liter Nalgene bottle in two minutes versus an hour. That was good news :)
Nightfall approached so we gathered wood to start our fire. There's nothing more soothing to ones soul on a trip like this than a camp fire! We ate dinner, another meal of Mountain House turkey tetrazini and went to bed shortly after. Although we were having the time of our lives, we were ready for a hot shower, a soft mattress and a non freeze dried meal.
our campsite amongst the boulders at Bear Paw - note the adorable log table & chair set!
Our tent at Bear Paw