Day 86,      18.5 miles

Last night was my last night in the Sierras.  This morning I have 3.5 miles to hike where I will be back at the very spot we had to leave.   Around five weeks ago I had a terrifying descent during a snow storm on Glen Pass,  shiver… it was the most frightening experience I’ve had so far.

Today I hiked back down the same exit for 15 miles,  Paradise Valley Trail to Roads End.  I was so excited about reaching 1500 miles.  Yes!  And hiking over two passes in the Sierras in one day!  30 miles in the Sierras!  A woman asked me where I had been and I told her.  She was so excited too!  She wanted our picture taken together.  Amanda who is going to hike the JMT, insisted she give me a bag of goodies.  I didn’t realize I was so hungry,  I ate them up as I hiked.  Mini chocolates, nuts and bolts, fruit cookies.  Yummy.  Thank-you Amanda from Bakersfield for your interest and enthusiasm.

I was almost out of food.  Coffee enough for 1/2 a cup, a few tablespoons of potato flakes, few table spoons of oats,  1/2 a dehydrated meal,  and a pack of blueberry granola that I was going to eat for lunch.

I was getting hungry and as I came to an open wooded area I slowed down to seek a spot to sit.  I heard a clawing on the tree beside me.  Right there, at eye level, so close I could have plucked it off the tree for a cuddle, was the cutest, most adorable, tiny…OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD…BABY BEAR!…  Sprinting I went, down the trail, poles flailing….where’s mama, where’s mama!?  I swung around to look back up the trail, pole tips facing outward, eyes darting everywhere looking for movement.  I must have looked bonkers.  Then I sprinted farther down the trail.   Oh my god, oh my god, where’s mama? Where’s mama?!

After about a mile, I calmed down.  I sat and had lunch as my heart raced.  More hikers came along and I warned them.  They got their cameras out.

At Roads End, Cedar Grove, I got a ride from a  very nice couple, Sam and Brin.  They were great company and they drove me to Fresno.

On the trail today I passed a doe and her fawns, and a stock train (mules transporting stone steps to repair the trail).   I fell in a stream first thing this morning and then again on the trail.