6/11 Addendum: Hey Bear!

I also saw a bear after lunch! Tim hung behind so he could write a journal entry--he's a faster hiker than I am so we knew he'd catch up--and I was cruising down the trail when I saw something large on the trail ahead, about 50 feet away. Since none of the hikers we'd met had seen bears, I was not expecting to see any! It was a well-fed black bear, on all fours and quite large, the height at the shoulders 3.5 or 4 feet. Its head seemed enormous. I made some noise so it would know I was there [I guess the wind must have been blowing toward me for it to not smell me initially!] and backed away slowly while maintaining eye contact, talking, and clanking my trekking poles. It looked at me and sniffed and meandered away. I wasn't too scared but it definitely made me look up more than I had been previously...looking up on this kind of terrain can be hazardous as the rocks are always present and ready to twist your feet into interesting directions.