Hi Tully and Tweets,

North of Steven's Pass, Janet and I saw 4 bears last Friday on West Cady
Ridge on our way to Benchmark Mtn.

Just at the top of the ridge were were walking along when suddenly a large
brown colored mama bear and two cubs BURST onto the trail about 20 feet in
front of us and thundered away. It was quite starling in the still of
the mountains.

At the summit of Benchmark we enjoyed some wonderful close up views of a
TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE. A number of other solitaires were visible during
the hike.

After sleeping a while (recovering, whew!) on the summit we returned along
the ridge. Going over one of the ridge humps we saw a large black bear,
by himself grazing on blueberries. [Perhaps a lone male?] He was about
30 yards away. Rushing off, he stopped to look back at us before
disappearing in the bushes.

Quite a bearable hike. ;-)

Ciao,

Dan Victor, Seattle, WA <dvictor at u.washington.edu>