Black Bear
I forgot to share the coolest part of my Mount Rainier adventure from a week ago. While my friend Nick and I were on the road (in my car) returning from our day of hiking on the Paradise side of Mount Rainier, a black bear jumped out into the road about 20 feet in front of the car. It was the coolest experience and most unexpected. The bear jumped onto the road from the left side (no other cars were on the road) he crossed the road in front of us and climbed up the slight bank on the right side. After the bear climbed up on the right side of the road, he (or she?) proceeded to climb (hug) a big tree. Instead of climbing up the tree, the bear hugged the tree and basically stopped to have a look at us. I came to a complete stop to admire and be in awe of this special moment. I had put my e-brake on and flashed my emergency flashers so the cars that may come from behind me would notice something was up. We didn't stay stopped in the road to long, but this quick/short experience was one of big highlights of the trip.
Not sure if I mentioned that the forest around here are filled with wild blueberry plants. You can go into the forest right now and live off the abundance of blueberries. I am sure this is what Mr. or Ms. Bear was enjoying. I had to pee after the bear experience and saw a pull off spot up on the left and pulled over to use natures facilities. I realized we were by a nice flowing river and asked Nick if he wanted to trek through the woods to see the river that was making the lovely sounds. It was a hot day, but to make it even hotter we had been practically out in the heat hiking earlier so the water sounded so refreshing. We marched through the tiny trail filled with blueberry bushes and my thoughts were "I wonder if there is another bear nearby?" however, we continued all the way down to the rivers edge and it was gorgeous. The water looked blue and it was so cold and refreshing. We are at about 4,500ft of elevation so the water is being fed by melting ice (maybe) so cold. I told Nick to take his time in the water, but I wanted to head back to the car since I left the windows down and it was unlocked. Once I got back to the car, I crossed the bridge that we were next to on the road and discovered on the other side the big beautiful blue holes of water in the creek leading to the river. I patiently waited for Nick to come back up to the car and motioned him over. I was excited to show him my "discovery." There was a path by the bridge leading down so we grabbed our towels and headed down for a dip. Neither on of us had our "swimsuits" on, but I wanted to get in the water so badly to cool off from being in the hot sun all day. I decided to take a skinny dip! I climbed a spot where instead of slowly walking in to the freezing swim hole, I could kind of jump into the water. I feel this makes it easier to go for it when the water is so cold. There were rocks of all shapes and sizes around since this is a creek bed, so it wasn't the most comfortable without shoes, however, it was so much fun! After I got out and warmed up slightly in the sun, it was Nick's turn to jump into the water to cool off. We had the best time at this spot and what I loved about it the most is this was not planned. This was not a tourist spot or a famous hike where everyone is going to see and or be in the water. We had this little magical spot all to our selves. Well, and the people passing by on the bridge above which was not that many.
Most of the best things in life are the things we haven't planned out for weeks, months, or years. What I have discovered in my life is that most of the best things happen when you least expect them and they are the most simple yet blissful things. Nature is a wonderland full of surprises and I am so thankful that my friend Nick and I were lucky enough to be surprised by the black bear and blue swim hole.
