June 7:Snow and a Bear

Fairly normal day in most respects. We went over (well onto) Cottonwood Pass in the morning. It wa our first shot at being over 11,000 ft, and someone had told us that Cottonwood would be a good judge of snow levels in the Sierras. We were more than surprised to find very little snow up high. Cottonwood was completely melted out, and there were only small snow patches elsewhere. Even though we knew there would be snow on some of the bigger passes we would go over, this was good news.

Toward the end of our day we stopped to get water. The spring was a short ways off the trail and Mark volunteered to go and get some for us while I stayed with our stuff. Shortly after he left I was looking around and glanced down toward the meadow near the spring where Mark went to get water only to see a bear. He was just in the opening between two trees, and still quite a distance away. My first thought was, "I'm not entirely sure where Mark went"; my second was, "I bet he's taking pictures." I then spent the rest of the next few minutes until Mark appeared sending the bear the vibe, "stay down there. stay down there." As son as Mark returned we hi-tailed it to higher ground to camp; and, yes, Mark did get a picture!

Total Miles:744.0
Miles Today:22.7
Camp 41:Mulkey Get Pass(t) the Bear

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