STILL IN YOSEMITE 

We enjoyed a leisurely morning and then we decided it was sunny enough to keep us warm enough in 45 degrees to hike a trail outside of our hotel.  We chose the Mirror Lake Trail which should have been about 3.2 miles.  Well…we had a very nice hike on a very nice trail (for the most part). The scenery was just indescribable and I couldn’t stop taking photos.

Here are just a few…started from the hotel, nice and flat. 

It got rocky and some uphill slopes…still pretty…

Lots of huge boulders that had rolled down from the cliffs…

And some trees that had fallen as well…

A couple hikers were interested in watching climbers on El Capitan, the dog, not so much.

By 3:00, we agreed that we head back due to the early sunset and that we didn’t really relish the idea of being out on the trail at dusk or dark.  We started backtracking.

But then we got quite a surprise!  We came around a turn and about 30-35 yards in front of us was a bear 🐻 drinking from a puddle that we had passed.  We looked at each other and I asked Carl what we should do.  He told me to quietly head back where we had just come from and he would try to scare the bear away if he came toward us.  I said no, I won’t leave you.  So we skee daddled back up the trail as quietly and as quickly as possible.  My thoughts were racing!   I thought of the protein bar in my bag that I could throw at the bear to distract it, then I thought maybe it would be better to throw my whole bag at it.  Then the thought was to Google how to escape a bear in the middle of nowhere when no one else was around.  We got to a clearing and decided to wait five minutes to see if the bear was following us.  Then we started back down the trail and the bear was not to be seen (he was probably above us somewhere laughing his head off.)  Hearts still pounding, we hiked the rest of the way back to the hotel in pretty good time.

Back in our room, I googled to see what kind of bear it had been and what to do.  It was a black bear but its coat was actually a rusty brown (which is the most common color).  Google said that you should not get closer than 50 yards from a black bear (we only spotted him when we were 30-35 yards away) and if you are around other people to gather in a group to appear to be a bigger threat and more intimidating to the bear (no one else was around).  What we had done by quietly getting more distance between was Google’s best advice.  My only regret was that I didn’t get a picture, being so focused on “skedaddling”.