“May your search through nature lead you to yourself” – quote from – sign at trailhead.

We did the Mt Wilson via Chantry Flats loop. It is beautiful. Also difficult. Also much longer than 14 miles. Also BEARS (plural). Also mosquitos. Also don’t get stuck there past 8p, you will be locked in and need to call the cops to unlock the gate- ps cop wasn’t thrilled about this.

Since this hike had many wonderful moments, I’ll tell the most notable story.

We were tired, and uncertain how much longer the trail was. We wondered if we should be concerned with the time, esp since the only other people we had seen in hours were now running down the trail. Our feet weighed 100’s of pounds. Our ankles burned. Each step was slow and heavy. Unbeknownst to me, my friend was secretly hoping to see a bear; she was disappointed my husband was the only one of us to see a bear earlier in the hike. Then, There he was. In my friend’s words, “God loves her”. He was about 100 ft ahead of us. Fortunately he was not a mom with his baby, nor hungry for human flesh. He kept his eye on us, just to see what we were up to. We did our very best to keep our distance from the bear. We were both terrified and excited. After calmly trying to take a few pictures, we slowly made our way to the other side of the river, and out of his sight. He just did his bear thing, trying to drink water and fish. Once out of his sight, we moved very quickly. It’s amazing what adrenaline can do. Nothing hurt anymore; I had the speed, grace, and lightness of a gazelle. From this experience I learned I am calm under pressure, and also now understand how people can lift up cars when it is necessary to save lives.

We finally got to our car. 18miles, 10 hours later.

My advice: Plan for a long hike. Start early.