[Killer]

Everyone's familiar with this hike so I'll just point out the unusual luck we had. Our first view of Image Lake included a mystical swimming bear! My fortune cookie was right! The bear was only a couple hundred feet away. We spooked him, unfortunately, and only got to watch for a minute before he finished his bath and headed out of there. I was only able to unpack the camera for a quick snapshot. We were all jealous since swimming is prohibited in the lake at this time of year. But who's going to enforce that rule with a bear? Bears aren't stupid. We saw two other bears during our wanderings, one running across a high meadow east of Cloudy Pass (with a golden eagle? circling above), and one smaller one we practically stumbled into his dinner just off the trail on Miners Ridge. When he finally saw us, and us him, he galloped like a horse down the meadow. Quite a sight and sound. We dayhiked to Cloudy BTW and returned west along the meadows of Miners Ridge as the sun was setting. Beautiful. Other highlights: one owl circling low above camp after dusk, a night hawk that jetted by at dusk, and of course the marmots and blueberries. Lots of delicious blueberries. Bears aren't stupid. Fires in the area, one east of Dome Peak and a small one on the NE arm of Glacier Peak, limited visibility on a couple days. The other days were spectacular. Met some nice people on the trails, too. Many people, actually. One more thing, water is available at three places on the trail up to the lookout from the Suiattle River -- one before the lower switchbacks, and two smaller creeks near each other below the trail junction at 4800 ft. You don't have to carry a full water load up the first 28 switchbacks! I leave you with a shot of bear, and the token image of image lake.

[dpeter1]

Going to stay a couple of nights a image lake in a few weeks, any other problems with large animals??

[Killer]

no problems with large animals. it's the small ones that bother me. mice. bold and smart. keep an eye on your food.

[Bob K]

i don't know if she still does it, but during huckleberry season, the anderson mountain bear used to take breaks and swim in the little pond at anderson pass several times a day. you don't normally see a bear doing the backstroke everyday, but you could here (several times a day).