On Saturday we didn't see or hear any signs of the bears, so we had ourselves a nice dayhike up to Lakes 3 & 5 and had a better night's rest. But on Sunday morning I was awoken to the sound of campers near us yelling at the bears and the baby bear crying out for a solid minute. I figure she must've gotten separated from her Mom to keep crying out for so long. Needless to say we decided that we'd had enough bear excitement and started to pack and left a couple of hours earlier than planned.
Even though I was nervous and didn't get much rest, especially right after seeing the bears on Friday evening, I was very excited to see them. They were a beautiful shade of honey brown and appeared very healthy and happy. Watching Mamma play with our canisters was incredible. She appeared very cub-like and playful with them. I'm glad they held up. Albert's is the newest Bear Vault model, while mine is the oldest with the retrofitted lid. Unfortunately I didn't get very good photos of the bears, because I'd forgotten my SD card for my camera - so I had only my cell phone on this trip. It takes decent photos when the light is bright, but terrible when it is dim.
Overall it was a good weekend - Hilton Lakes are in a beautiful basin surrounded by granite peaks to the west of Rock Creek. The hike to get to Lake #2 is about 6 miles, so combined with dayhikes to Lakes 3, 5, and Davis Lake (twice) we did about 20 miles. The lower 4 lakes have many great campsites. Davis Lake in particular had so many sites all around its shoreline that it would be hard not to have privacy if that's what you want.
In between the lakes are tumbling streams and waterfalls lined with wildflowers. We saw leopard lilies, ranger's buttons, monk's hood, lupine, paintbrush, elephant heads, phlox, aster, shooting stars, corn lilies, skyrocket gilia, and many others. We timed our trip right to catch some flowers, but after the majority of the mosquitoes had already left.
Debra had planned to hike with us, but she had to bail out Friday morning because she wasn't feeling well. So my trusty hiking partner Albert was my company for this trip. He's one of the best hiking partners, he never complains, he's helpful and has a great sense of humor, and when he's along on a trip we usually have good luck seeing animals. This time the luck overran us lol
pics here
http://www.tarol.com/hilton
