On Trip: Duane McCully, Brandon Watts
These sort of hikes are fairly routine for me and I do not normally write up trip reports for them as they normally do not involve any serious caving. But this, however, is the exception.
I tried to make this hike nearly every day of this week. On Tuesday, blizzard. On Wednesday, too much work. On Thursday, no one can go and I don't want to do bushwacking alone in the winter. On Friday, we finally make it. I originally asked Brandon if I could borrow his GPS receiver for this hike but noticed that it would be nice to invite him as well. This was his first winter hike of this type. It had been eight years since I had been to Marmot cave but I seemed to recall that it was straightforward to locate. Besides wasting ten minutes checking the wrong cliff we basically walked straight to it.
The cave is about a twenty vertical foot climb above the base of the cliffs. The climb is extremely easy but you can't see directly into the cave until you have done the climb. As I climb up I say to Brandon, "It looks like someone has been here, there are footprints." "These have to have been left since it snowed last Tuesday." As I finish the climb the snow is well worn from traffic. "There must be a geocache at this cave for there to have been this much traffic. Maybe they are still in the cave!" I say.
I am now up the climb and am walking toward the cave entrance. I see that the party that is in the cave has left their dog in the entrance. Wow, this is the biggest dog I've ever seen. A little switch now flips in my brain and this entire situation finally makes sense. There are no people in the cave. No geocachers have been here. I am now walking straight towards a black bear who is coming out of the cave and toward me making a snorting noise. Surprisingly, there is no huge surge of adrelaline, only simple thoughts. Turn around now. Climb back down. Climb back down fast. Don't look back.
As I come down the climb Brandon asks me what is wrong. I don't say anything until I'm all the way down. "There is a bear in the cave," I say. His whole face lights up and he looks like he is going to sprint off of the mountain. "He isn't right behind me is he?" I ask. "No." "Then no worries." We discuss whether or not there is a safe vantage point where we can see the bear. We decide to quit while we are ahead.
The hike back down was uneventful. Since I was not planning on actually doing the cave, it was a success in every way. The actually found the cave. We collected a GPS coordinate. There was entertainment with no cover charge. We returned home safely. Sweet.
| Photography | ||||
 Just Before the Bear Brandon Watts |  Panorama Brandon Watts | |||