Day 134

20 Miles

Ups and downs today. Climbed up to a nice alpine lake, but then immediately dropped down the other side of the mountain, losing all of the elevation we had worked to gain. As we approached Waptus River, it had started to sprinkle. No big deal, we had planned to stop there for lunch anyway. We pitched the tent with just the rainfly because we just needed some cover. The rain stopped shortly after we got under it. On the climb up to camp, we were clambering over lots of downed trees. After one such obstacle, we both looked up the trail and saw a small bear. It was likely about 50 yards or so ahead, but was tough to tell exactly how big it was. We yelled at it and it walked off. Erring on the side of caution, we looked all around to see if there was a mama bear nearby. None that we could see, so we made more noise as we continued up the trail. About a half mile before camp it started raining again, so we put our jackets on. Of course, by the time we got them on and were ready to keep walking, it stopped. What a day.