The weekend before last my buddy Esteban and I decided to go on another backpacking/fly fishing trip. Originally we had planned to head to a lake that was south of Vail called Whitney Lake, but because it was only a 2.5 mile hike (we wanted to go a little further) and there were still fire restrictions in that county, we decided to head up to Lost Lake near Green Mountain Reservoir. As far as the scenery goes we made the right choice, but as far as the fly fishing goes we did not. We were both skunked and did not see one fish in that lake!
The most exciting part of our trip happened on the hike down the mountain. I was walking behind Esteban with my head down so that I could avoid tripping over one of the many rocks in the path. And just as we approached this little creek I heard Esteban say, “Oh Shit!” I look up and see two small black bear cubs just staring at us about 20 feet away. Not a second after I looked up to see the cubs, the mama bear jumps out of the creek and takes off up the mountain! It was a very intense and unexpected moment. I grabbed my bear mace he grabbed his pistol and I told him “we need to back up slowly” and he told me “get out your camera.” I was pretty nervous right at that moment because I have always heard that the most dangerous bears are ones with cubs. It was a little confused though, because this mother bear didn’t appear to be too worried about her young as she took off up the mountain and never looked back. By the time I did get my camera out the cubs had run off too far to snap a good picture, but were close enough to keep watching what we were doing. Esteban was able to get some video of one of the cubs climbing up a tree. Running into those bears, although quite nerve racking at first, was one the coolest moments I have ever had up in the mountains!
Now it’s time for some pics and videos:
Here is a look down to the Blue River Valley on the way up.
Me posing in front of the Brush Creek Trailhead.
A few pictures of the lake.
Trail intersection.
We haven’t been able to have a fire in over a month.
A little video about the flammability of whiskey.
And finally, the bear cub climbing up at tree.