Day 9 Aug 9, 1982<br>We were visited by a ghost
bear last night. I awoke to see the shape of a bear
just beyond flashlight range. I stared and stared and
it looked like it moved and it didn't look like it.
I finally figured it was my imagination, maybe. In
the morning it turned out to be a stump and it still
hadn't moved. At the time the trail junction was in the
forest but when I returned in '92 an avalanch had
removed all the trees. Under way 8:45, have to remedy
this abberation of starting so early. I try to
identify a flower every day, today it is the Mountain
Bluebell. On the way to Silver Pass we passed two groups
going north. Their stories, bears ahead south of Muir
Pass. We will hear similar tales all the way down. We
ran into a fair amount of snow before the pass but it
was clear on the south side. The view from Silver
Pass north is as good as that from Donahue. Makes
sense since it is the same view backwards. It's all
there; Banner, Ritter, the Minerets. Words fail me it
just has to be seen. We spent a half hour at the pass
and found a second flower, Drabo, just growing out of
a small crack in the rock. We started down from the
pass and the next people we ran into had horror tales
of stream crossings. Just past a meadow that I can't
remember the name of now the trail breaks out onto a
hillside with a grand view of the north fork of Mono Ck.,
a very deep and wide U-shaped canyon. Then the
trail switchbacks downs to the base of the cascading
creek from the meadow above. It was running quite full
and was an exiting sight. A little further on we came
tof the crossing of the N. fork Mono Ck. It also was
running quite full. We went upstream a ways and found two
logs crossing the torrent. I started off with one foot
on each log but the farther I got the more
vertically seperated they became. With each step I leaned
over a little more until I was on hands and knees for
the last 10 feet. I took off my pack, started to
breath again and went to help Owen. Owen didn't need any
he put his feet on the lower log and his hands on
the upper and moved sideways. The next person we ran
into had left the Mexican border on 5/27 and was
headed to Oregon. he also told us he had see a grizzly
at Mono Hot Spgs. Our eyes rolled and then he said
they were using it to make a commercial. When we next
saw Gary we couldn't wait to tell him but he already
knew because they had also made one of the commercials
in Bakersfield. Every time I saw one of those
commercials I was reminded of that encounter. We continued on
past Pocket Mdw. where we saw a camp which later
turned out to be that of a friend who was at Mott Lk.
that day. We finally arrived at Mono Ck. crossing
after Owen asking only 3 times how much farther. We
made camp at a site on the north side of the creek
just downstream of the bridge. It was on top of a
small cliff with a view down to the bridge and had a
nich bench. Wood is plentiful here just near camp,
which is a surprise considerding the number of people
here. I soaked my feet in the creek until I could feel
them again and we fixed dinner. Near that time a
couple came walking down the trail, the woman walking in
sock feet and carrying her boots. They had come from
Mosquito Flat and were headed to Mono Hot Spgs. They asked
how much farther I said 10 miles or so and suggested
they stop for the night. They did and immediately
rolled out their bags. 10.9 hard miles today.
