Bears, Icebergs, and a Scary Hike

For years, I have wanted to hike to Iceberg Lake. It’s a long hike for me (10 miles round trip), and I keep thinking I’ll be too old if I don’t do it soon. The trail has been closed for the past 5 days because of grizzly bear activity, but this morning it was finally open. I took off up the trail, and all was well until a mile in, when grizzly bears were spotted on both sides of the trail. Lots of people turned back, but since I’m not getting any younger, I quickly took a picture and hurried on.

I caught up with 3 very nice, brave guys from Ohio, and stuck with them the whole way. We got to the lake just fine and it was a beautiful hike. Lots of wildflowers, including bear grass, on the trail, and icebergs in the lake. However, this was supposed to be a very popular trail, and when no one else showed up, we realized they must have closed the trail again. Uh-oh... I had been counting on lots of human traffic to keep the bears away. The trip back was a little scary, but we were rescued half-way by a ranger who escorted us down. And he didn’t even yell at us. He did point out a big pile of bear poop that we had stepped over on the way up. These rangers really enjoy looking at poop.