Into the Wild

Todd and I just returned from a 15 mile roundtrip backpacking trip into the North Cascades this past weekend. It was my first time ever and Todd’s first time in about 12 years. The weather was wonderful, blue skies and warm! We originally planned to go for three days…Friday, Saturday & Sunday…but returned Saturday evening due to soreness and pulled muscles (mine) :) The hike was hard for me, I can’t even remember the last time I went on a hike, let alone carrying 20+ pounds and going for 7.5 miles one way. The hike home was tougher, we were both sore and half of the hike was climbing 2,000+ feet in 3.5 miles…that was tiring :) The cool part about backpacking is that you are pretty alone for most of it. It’s quiet, except for a few hikers here & there, and it’s also quite scenic!

On Friday we made it to our camp in about 6 hours and set up our tent and made dinner on our tiny one-burner stove. I think we went to bed around 9pm because we were exhausted. Before we left I was told there were no bathrooms in the forest, and why would there be. So I had my shovel and toilet paper in preparation for the worse. Much to my surprise there were a few “toilets” along the way and at our campsite. The “toilets” were actually wooden boxes with a hole on top sitting out in the open air, what can you expect :)

We definitely had an adventure, including almost being eaten by a bear! Well, not quite, but we thought we were bear food for a few seconds. Here’s the story…

Todd & I had just eaten lunch in a large clearing and were getting ready to continue down the trail. We were told there was a bear somewhere in the area but weren’t sure where he was. The trail thus far is open except for a small patch of trees that we have to pass through to continue on our trek. I am in front to set the pace, since I am a sloooow hiker. We start to walk through the treed area when all of a sudden I hear a loud thrashing, snapping of twigs sound about 20 feet from us. I freak out knowing it’s a bear and thinking it’s coming after us. So I quickly try to bolt back up the trail knocking Todd off balance and he falls into the bushes. At this point I am not sure if should keep going or help Todd get up. I couldn’t leave Todd to the bear so I try to help him up while keeping an eye out for the bear we can’t see. We both make it back up the trail several yards and see our bear, a beautiful black bear staring right at us! We had startled him by getting too close and luckily the loud noise was him running away from us, not towards.  To keep our distance we decided to go off the trail and hike way around to give him plenty of space (that’s when I took photos). He was munching on blueberries (reminded me of this cute story) of which I tried a few as we passed around him. So that was our bear experience, a little too close for comfort, but we lived :)