Bear Family Photos

This was a long backpack in the Sierra Nevada range of California. We started on a trail for the first part of the journey then switched to cross country over numerous ridges finally meeting up with a different trail to our destination. The way out was just the reverse.

It was a fine trip with beautiful country all around us. I think we were a little surprised by the steepness of some of the ridges we needed to cut across but everything else went as expected. The trip in was without incident but the return trip, not so much.

We broke camp early on the last day expecting to reach the trailhead by dusk. We were in the cross country portion of the hike when we stopped for a leisurely lunch. There, one of my friends was taking photos of the scenery while I was sniffing trees! Over the years, I've developed an addiction to the scent emitted by the resin of Jeffery pines. Some people claim it smells like butterscotch but to me is smells like vanilla.

After lunch, we resumed our hike. We were in the hardest part of our trip, those steep ridges – up one side then down the other, over and over again. Finally, we took a break at a very picturesque spot. I was too tired to smell any trees but my friend still had enough energy to take more pictures. Digging through his pack, he made a heartbreaking discovery. He had left his camera on a rock back where we had stopped for lunch!

That lunch spot was now three ridges back which meant about a three hour hike back to get the camera then three hours more just to get to where we were now. From this spot, it was another four or five hours to the trailhead. We were looking at making it back to the car around midnight at best assuming no one got killed during the night hike!

Everyone still had extra food and water so we offered to extend our trip another day to allow him to retrieve his camera. My friend magnanimous declined. Saying “Screw it! ”, he chose to abandon the camera and continue the hike out. Well, perhaps he used other language besides that.

It was a courageous decision considering how expensive his camera was. He had a 35mm SLR Cannon that was several orders of magnitude more expensive than what I carried on trips. Since the place he left the camera was off trail, I have no idea if anyone ever went by and found the camera. To this day, I still imagine a family of bears taking pictures of themselves!