![]() ![]() I backed away slowly (internally panicking while the bear continued to not care about my existence) and then, once out of the bear’s eyesight, ran back to the campsite and alerted everyone else to what I had spotted. There is just something about the image of a giant fuzzy muscular bear that really gets the heart pumping. Not to take anything away from the dangerous power of a black bear but seeing a grizzly was almost haunting. It wasn’t my first time seeing a bear while hiking but it was my first grizzly, and let me tell you, that’s a different experience all together. It was walking towards me, seemingly aware but uncaring of my presence. About three seconds after realizing that wandering around by myself wasn’t the smartest idea, I ended up spotting a grizzly bear about 100 meters from me. For some reason, I got it in my head that the outhouse we were supposed to use was the same one that was sitting beside the Halfway Hut (I later discovered that the Hidden Lake campground had its own outhouse). It was at this point I got the genius idea to start looking for the outhouse…by myself…without bear spray. Explore the most beautiful alpine scenery in Mount Rainier National Park, passing picturesque Sunrise and Clover Lakes enroute to magnificent Hidden Lake. ![]() After Pam asked a group to take our picture, we set off. The group will tell you that I led them astray (as I thought the trail head was at the parking lot itself, not a few hundred meters north past the gate) but I’m fairly certain that I was just checking to see if they were paying attention. The sky was relatively clear of grey clouds and the temperature was a balmy 20 degrees as we began our journey. Once we finished with that, it was about 10:30 am (we managed to get everyone fitted with their rental gear fairly quick if I do say so myself). After parking at the Fish Creek Parking Lot, we began organizing everyone’s bags, making sure everything fit properly and that everything was packed the right way. Hidden Lake is more of a pond but still a pleasant destination. The trail passes Hidden Lake on the way to the Pacific Crest Trail 2000. From there, we began driving out towards Lake Louise, meeting up with Morgan, Kim, Pam and Jen along the way (Curtis and Shelby would be meeting us on our last night out). This trail enters the Mount Hood Wilderness on the southwest side of Mount Hood and climbs to the small wooded lake through rhododendron bushes, which bloom in profusion in June. So on July 2 at 8:00 am, Matt and I found ourselves at the Outdoor Gear Shop at the U of C picking up various gear for the hikers that were going to be hiking with us. ![]() They told us that the gear was pretty cheap and in decent condition. When Matt and I went on our very first backpacking trip, we ended up sitting around the fire with a couple who had decided to rent all of their equipment from the University of Calgary. ![]()
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