The night was windy. And the sky was covered in clouds when I left the tent at 5.15am today. Pretty epic lenticular clouds formed by the strong winds over the mountains.
A few minutes after that I had a beautiful encounter with a very large black bear. He was probably 200ft away from me a bit lower on the slope. Since I was downwind from him he couldn’t smell me. So I just stood there and watched him while he was cruising through the little clearing looking for food. One of these magical moments. What a beauty.
I was flying again today. 24 miles left and I wanted to make it to South Lake Tahoe for lunch. It was fun to “fly” through this beautiful scenery. I enjoyed myself.
When I arrived at Carsson’s Pass a little surprise waited for me. The adorable volunteer ladies from the visitor center kept some trail magic for the hungry PCT hikers. All organized by themselves. Fresh fruit, cookies, eggs, soda. That was a perfect fueling. Thank you so much Patt & Millie for your hospitality!
The rest of the day led me again through the wildflower meadows. This one captures it quite well. Millions of flowers. And you can see most of the ones I captured a couple of days ago in there. Stunning!!!!
After 49 hours I had 75 miles in and arrived at South Lake Tahoe. What a run…
A hitch, a bus ride and a lift from Ray’s coworker Andy later I made it. Reunited with my hiking companion. Even though it had only been two days it felt very long. A lot of stories, food and the usual town chores I fell asleep. Unfortunately I had to get up every hour to supervise my updates on the phone. My photo editing software broke down and I was not able to do anything for the last six days. I had to back everything up, delete, re-install and download everything again. Annoying but ya gotta do what ya gotta do…
Hey mate, long time reader, first time commenter!
That looks very much like a brown bear bud, a grizzly, not a black bear!
Keep up the great blog posts, I’ve followed you through the TA and now the PCT.
Hey Leon, That’s great to hear! Thanks for staying tuned for so long 👍
So apparently the last Grizzly was shot in the 20’s in California. They black bears here vary in colour very much – from black to sand! But maybe I just made a big discovery 😂😂😂
But keep an eye out for them when you go next year!
I’ve come back to apologise!
I’ve just been educated myself about the Black v Brown bear situation in that area. So my apologies, I was incorrect! Always happy to learn though.
Can’t wait to get out on the PCT next year, and if the post hike blues are too much, I’ll head down to NZ and do the TA, then back for the CDT? Who knows!?!? Haha.
Hike well mate.
I also believe this is a grizzly… the head of black bears is much more flat … oje Cheers s
The only grizzlies in California are in zoos and on the state flag. Black bears are often brownish looking.
Thanks!!!