Sept 16

Bullwinkle

We said our goodbyes this morning, and Don dropped us off at the trail head.  Our first obstacle was Old Blue Mountain.  Bear had warned us about the climb.  There were a couple of nice views early on.  The climb actually wasn't terrible.  Sections had nice stone steps again.  The climb was less steep after the first mile, but pitched up again as we neared the summit.  The forest began to change from leafy trees, back to more evergreens.  At the summit, a small sign read 'Old Blue elevation 3600ft'.  Only stunted firs and small shrubs grew up here.  I continued on for about 2 miles before stopping for lunch at no place in particular.  In the afternoon, I hiked over Bemis Mountain.  The trail through this section was very interesting.  It was a series of quick ups and downs, meandering through groves of short fir trees.  The scent from the firs is invigorating. The book listed a lean-to after Bemis.  I'm not sure it's accurate though.  By the time I reached the shelter, based on how long it took, and what the terrain was like along the way, I think it was listed a couple miles too early.  The terrain the rest of the afternoon was really nice.  Easy hiking, gradually losing elevation for several miles.  I came to a dirt road.  Just after the road there was a really nice campsite area, with a stream just beyond.  Some of my other hiking buddies were already there.  By the time everyone rolled into camp we had Atom Bomb, Old Tomato, Yogi, BooBoo, Apache, Rainbow Eyes, and myself.  We all sat around a  simple campfire, and started cooking our dinners, as the sun went down.  Just after dark, we heard a loud noise just behind us.  Branches breaking, a few dozen yards away.  Great.  Now we have to deal with scaring off some bear.  I shone my headlamp over toward the stream and the light picked up a large, dark silhouette.  That's a moose! I yelled.  I jumped up and cautiously walked closer to the stream.  This was no bear.  The outline I could see was as big as a cow, or bigger.  I thought I could make out antlers, but with all the tree cover it's hard to say for sure.  It turned its head for a second and its eyes reflected the light from my lamp back to me.  The animal just continued on, heading upstream along the bank, paying us no attention.

A view on Bemis Mountain.