Upper Priest Lake

The best adjective I can use for our outing yesterday is...wet. The forecast was for rain and thunderstorms in the higher elevations so Walter and I decided to stay down a bit low for a change. I usually have at least one trip to Upper Priest Lake a year, either via kayak/canoe or backpack and I don't think that is going to happen this summer (I need a dog sitter!), so we just went up for the day.

Now, a curious thing happened while I was there. I am not afraid of bears. I have respect for them, and when I am camping or backpacking I do the right things like keep my camp clean, cook away from my tent, hang my food when not in use or put it in bear boxes when not in use, that sort of thing, but I don't ever really feel uneasy or afraid when I enter the woods in bear country. Yesterday was sort of weird though. Walter and I started walking and within about ten minutes I started to feel really uneasy and was thinking of bears. When I got to the trailhead there were several signs up and a photocopy of a map. One sign was a warning to boaters that fire aircraft were using the lake to fill their buckets for a nearby fire. I did not read the one in small print because I figured it was the same thing. At any rate, as I got farther and farther down the trail I got more and more apprehensive so I started talking to Walter in a pretty loud voice, pulled out my bear bells and stuck them on my shoes, and made sure before I went around a turn in the trail that I made a lot of noise.

We got up to the upper lake to the Plowboy campground and just kind of goofed around for a bit, had a snack and that sort of thing, but I started feeling more apprehensive as time went on. At the campground (which you can only get to by boat or on foot), I noticed those pieces of paper tacked to the tables and the outhouse, so I stopped to read the one in small print. I had also noticed that the Forest Circus had installed another bear box since last year. The sign said that it was now illegal in the mapped areas to store food anywhere other than by hanging it, putting it in your car, or in a bear box because of increased bear activity at both the lower and upper lakes. Hummmm, I think.

Now, I submit for consideration, my bear story from Glacier Park. Several years ago when my sister and I went (the trip where my sister sprayed me with pepper spray...thanks Ellen) I took my kayak along with me. One afternoon I took a paddle across Lake McDonald. I had gone half way up the lake and decided to get out on the beach in a little cove and look around and stretch my legs. I was sitting on a log on the beach just looking at the scenery and enjoying the quiet when this sudden fear and anxiety overtook me. I mean, it was powerful and this little voice in my head said, "Get back in the boat and get the hell out of here." It was not a conscious decision to get into the boat, it was as if my mind just took over and I just got up and did it. I was in the boat and paddling backwards away from the shore when I looked over my shoulder in the water and saw something sticking up. It was about ten feet from where I was. I thought, oh look at the beaver (but still my heart was racing and adrenaline was flooding through me). Then I realized, that was no beaver. It was the head of bear that was swimming in the water, and it was headed right for the blind cove where I had been sitting. I could tell that it had no clue that I was there even though we were so close. It all happened in a matter of seconds. If I had waited just thirty seconds more to get in the kayak and push off shore, the bear and I would have met each other on the beach. It was heading right to where I was sitting...which was down wind from where it was coming. Bears have pretty crappy eyesight so I don't think it could see or smell me. Had I not moved when I did, we would have scared the crap out of each other and who knows what would have happened.

So why did I react so strongly to a dangerous situation that was going to happen and not be aware of it consciously? Some would say it was God or a gardian angle. I think it is more that there is some kind of primal awareness in our brains that can sense stuff. I think some part of my brain sensed the bear, like I smelled something unknowingly and it triggered my fight or flight response on a subconscious level.

I submit even more for consideration. The fire that the fire crews were working on was Plowboy Mountain (I found that out after I got back to the trailhead and talked to a Ranger Rick guy). The trail I was on goes along the base of Plowboy Mountain. This time of year, the bears are usually up on the upper slopes of the mountains eating berries. Now if there is a fire on the upper slopes, they are going to get away from it, and like us they want to take the easiest route. Bears use trails too. Remember, there has been increased bear activity in the area. There are either more bears in the area or they are just more used to people. Now I am beginning to wonder, as I was walking on the trail, did I subconsciously pick up the scent of bear in the area because they were coming down to escape the fire and had been using the trail I was on? It was a strong feeling, one that almost made me turn around and go back to the trailhead. I was not just concerned. When it first hit me, I truly had an adrenaline rush, just as I had on that beach at Glacier Park and it was about something that never really sticks in my mind too much. I don't "worry" about bears. I do the things you are supposed to do in bear country, but I do not fixate on it. I am comfortable in the woods. I have been camping since the age of six months. I have over 30 years experience hiking and backpacking in the wilderness. I can make a fire without matches, knock rocks together to make cutting implements, and find shelter in a pinch. I am not fearful at all. But I was suddenly nervous. Walter was acting a bit anxious as well, though he may have been picking up on my anxiety. Curious.

Aside from the fear/anxiety/bear thing and the rain and cold, it was a pretty good hike and a good day. I had planned to hike an extra five miles up to the northern end of the lake but my nervousness and the rain caused me to change my plans. After we got back to the trailhead, we walked down the 1/4 mile trail to the Thoroughfare, the river that links the upper and lower lakes. On the way back up, I saw something fly up from the trail and into a tree. It was pretty big. When I got up there, I saw an owl sitting on a branch of a tree. Now that was cool.

The pictures from top to bottom are: Walter in his raincoat (yes, Walter has a raincoat. He also has a down vest and a snow suit); the start of the Navigation trail; a lovely meadow along the trail; an old pioneer cabin; from Plowboy Campground looking north to the top of the upper lake; looking across the lake...normally on a clear day you can see mountains behind the lake; and the owl in a tree (can you see it?).