Something interesting we learned after we were home and looking at the pictures is that these beautiful and large white plume grasses are called Beargrass Blooms. They are from a plant that is tied to the lily family and are found in subalpine and coastal meadows. Supposedly they only bloom one every 5 to 10 years and the conditions must be ideal. They grow up to 5 feet in height. The conditions must have been great this year as I've never seen anything like it. We walked thru meadow after meadow filled with these gorgeous plumes. There you go, your education for the day:)
All in all we had a fun little hike with the kids, I had Marla on my back and Andy had Abby. It was steep uphill on the way there so obviously downhill on the way back. We ran out of water and filled our bottles from the clear streams. Rowans shoes were too small but he loves the shoes so much he bravely hobbled around like a little old cowboy. :) We were tired by the end and only had about 500 metres left when Tristan and Rowan (who were merrily tramping on a bit a head of us) stopped and turned and loudly whispered "BEAR!" And there on the path in front of them about 15 feet away was a huge bear (after much discussion and analyzing we are sure it was a grizzly) making his way up the path. We turned and booked it back up the path, all seven of us. I know now you should not run from bears but we were fear struck. We booked it at far as our strength would allow and turned back to look and, yes there was the bear, still coming up the path. Everytime we turned a corner to catch a breath we looked behind and sure enough, he was still coming. Not aggressively or anything, he just had a place to go and he wanted to use the narrow hiking path to get there so we had to get out of the way as he wasn't planning on it. It was honestly so frightful, the kids were champs - quiet and calm although I know a few of them thought it was the end of our lives. Even Abby had been whining about a buckle on her carrier that was annoying her and she was as quiet as a mouse thru out the ordeal. We ran up about 500 metres. At the end Andy had to pull me as I was done. 😟Totally done - no more energy at all. We finally climbed about 50 feet up the side of the mountain to get off the path and we hid behind a boulder and prayed and waited for others to come down the path. After approx. 20 minutes another couple came, Andy flagged them down and they were willing to walk back with us as the man had bear spray and a knife in his belt. They were also christians and had earlier heard the boys singing "Jesus loves me" while hiking so we all were convinced of the providence of God. The lady even carried Marla on her back for me as I had no energy to do that. Mama bear can only handle so much when the littles are in danger ;)
We made it to the van safely with no other signs of wildlife and celebrated by having icecream in town. After filing the reports we heard that Lineham Falls trail was going to be closed to the public due to more bear sightings. I'm glad I heard that afterwards. In the meantime we have purchased bear spray and have done alot of reading up about black bears, grizzly bears, their behavior and self defense.
Even Abby says things about it frequently as it was close up enough to get a good look. The other day she was walking along in our driveway and said, "Mom, I have bare feet!" I said "yes, yes you do", as there were no shoes present. She laughed and said "No I don't! Bears have claws! I saw them!".
It was a cute play on words.
I think you people are awfully brave!
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