44823
From: Chuckles, [DNS_Address]
Subject: My Bear Encounters In The Trinity Alps
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On different two week trips into the Trinity Alps, I had a couple of bear encounters with one being up on a mountain peak, and the other at the headwaters of a river off trail in a remote isolated canyon. The first encounter was up above Little Bear Lake when I was along the spine of a mountain peak and was observing this black Bear trying to catch a squirrel in a granite basin down below me. After watching for a few minutes as the Bear was doing circles around a granite boulder unsuccessful in catching it's afternoon meal, I'd walked a little further down from the peak along one of the three Ridgelines. I came across some large rock cropping when these bright cute eyes of a baby bear cub looked up right at me about three feet away. He just sat that not knowing what to do as I quickly glance down where I saw the bear down below. Seeing the bear far down below, it was running hard and swift as I quickly ran back over the other side of the mountain peak and down another ridge far away from that cub. The cub when we made contact didn't make a sound, it was as though the mother telepathically knew it's cub needed help. What I did learn from that, is that a mother bear will leave it's cubs in a safe place up on a mountain ridge near a peak hidden in the rock out cropping, and it normally would have been a safe spot, but I showed up. I did write a short story called the Bear Cub and I! The second encounter was in the heart of the Trinity Alps on the north west side of Thompson Peak which is the highest peak in the Alps. It was right after me and my backpacking buddy just came from a wonderful lake called Mirror Lake on the southeast side of Thompson Peak. My friend injured his groin at the base of one of the hardest climbs in the Alps with over 90 switch backs up a steep mountain side that eventually leads to the Caribou Lakes area. I ended up carrying his backpack strapped to the back of my backpack with a combine weight of somewhere around 90 pounds or so. We finally made it to the Ridgeline on top, good thing I was young and healthy. Even though he was still in a lot of pain, we decided to head along the ridge going towards Thompson Peak and on over to a isolated canyon where he could do some healing for a few days. As we were above the headwaters of the canyon below on the Ridgeline, we see a mother bear with her cubs turning over rocks with her front paws where the spring water was bubbling out of the ground. She didn't see or hear us as we quietly made our way further along the Ridgeline and made a wide angle away from her and her cubs to our camp spot by this little pond that had a flat area. We never did see her again as we sat up our tent. The next morning I just got out of the tent to stretch out only to see this 500 to 600 pound cinnamon black Bear laying on a large flat granite rock stirring right at me not more than 30 feet away. Walking slowly backwards to the tent, I told my backpacking buddy that there is a big bear watching watching us. He just laid there watching with the look,"get out of here, this is my area", I received the hint clearly. We casually packed up our gear and hiked about a mile to the trail and headed to a regular campsite and rested up there. The link provided is a video of Little Bear Lake that has no trail leading to it, one of my favorites. The video was made many years later as the lake was seldom visited as not many knew about it back then without the internet. Great lake to skinny dip if you're into it! |
44827
From: karen, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: My Bear Encounters In The Trinity Alps
| what a story and a beautiful lake ... thanks for sharing |
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[44828]
44828
From: Chuckles, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: My Bear Encounters In The Trinity Alps
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You're welcome! At the back of the lake in the video is where a white wolf appeared to me in a dream vision years ago, very spiritual! Weebear Lake is just a two minute walk from Little Bear Lake where there is a hidden Alpine Garden with numerous wildflowers with a beautiful waterfall that has a natural granite recliner where you lay back with the waterfall running right next to you. To top it off, is a beautiful distance view of Mt Shasta, such a beautiful place. |
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