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 from the Sun’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 from the rain that ALSO had a good view of Seven Gables just jaded my view of the area. 😀

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 too 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, I still grumbled about it.

With it not raining, the climb up to the high point of Bear Meadow wasn’t that bad and Ihad 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. 😀