PCT 2024 Section H Day 14 – Where’s the Bear?

Goal for the day: Mono Creek

Maybe because it had been a long hike the previous day, I enjoyed the morning light much more than the Sunset colors the prior night when I was exhausted.

From the bright Moon, to the light’s first appearance over the ridge line, to the light shining against the surrounding mountains and cliff sides. It was a nice way to wake up and enjoy breakfast.

Even a re-hydrated breakfast scramble.

The sun hadn’t climbed above the ridges before I set off for the day. That did give me a chance to see the morning’s light from different vantage points and angles. Never ONE perfect spot to see the Sunrise for Sunset… there were always choices to be made.

Once I left the rocky shore of Marie Lake, the trail descended into some nice open meadows.

As I hiked past the mountain called Seven Gables, I started to look for the large tree I had taken shelter from the rain during my JMT trek. I found it odd that the area was a lot more forested than I remembered it. Maybe it was searching for cover from the rain that made me misremember how many trees were in the area. Or my searching for a place to take shelter that had a good view of Seven Gables. 😀

I finally did find the large tree (below to the right of center) that I had taken shelter under. Twice.

I had setup my tent in the first flat-ish area beyond the tree that had the most cover from the rain. As the rain had trailed off after a little bit, I had relocated my tent to a spot with some protection from the rain, but with a better view of Seven Gables.

For this hike, it was way to early to stop for the day, so I kept going North.

The stroll through the meadow and forest was nice and I enjoyed it, even knowing I would have to climb up and over Bear Ridge. While not anywhere near as bad as climbing any of the passes I had in the past 8 days. Still grumbled about it.

With it not raining, the climb up to the high point of Bear Meadow wasn’t that bad and had some nice views as I went. I even made pretty good time, all things considered.

Once passing the high point I had a pretty smooth descend towards Mono Creek. I had wanted to reach the trail junction there that led to Thomas A Edison Lake that day and I had a pretty good chance at the pace I was going.

That junction going to the lake would normally have had temptations for me to abort. There was a resort at the far West end of that lake and beyond that paved roads to civilization. But having had the Zero Day at Muir Trail Ranch, I had no reason to abort.

I ended up a campsite near the bridge over Mono Creek. Not much of a view, but this was always going to be a easy casual day’s hike due to the terrain not being that bad and the weather still being pretty cool over-all.

But with my having covered almost 15 miles, it was a nice giant leap towards Reds Meadow.

Never did see a Bear on Bear Ridge. 😀