Trail Tales-Bearsville at Windy Gap

Within the first couple of minutes of getting out of the trees near Lake James at Mt. Rainier, we saw our first bear. Matter of fact, there were a whole bunch of them on the hillside meadows looming about, but still a safe distance away. When we finally got up to the Gap proper, there were two on the trail, one small black bear and one big cinnamon one. The little guy hit the bricks and took off across a meadow, but the cinnamon bear stood her ground, snorted at me and slowly ambled off the trail. We saw a gang of teenagers milling around a tarn with no packs and wondered what was up with them. When we were coming down to Yellowstone Camp, we spotted their packs, with cloths and food bags strewn about in a clearing and some hikers that were passing by were concerned for their well being, I was too. Anyway, we got down from the Gap, set up camp and were getting dinner ready away from the spots when we saw the bears again on the hillside. They were slowly getting closer to camp when we saw those teenagers looking for a spot in our filled area. They were all worked up, and telling us that when they got back to their packs, the cinnamon bear was sniffing them and charged at the group in a aggressive manner. The bears disappeared into the trees as the sun went down and I climbed into my sleeping bag and promptly fell asleep. I was awakened by people shouting “The bears are in the camp” as I laid still, groggy and confused. Just then, I heard them snorting and running by my tent, they were so close that I could feel the ground under my sleeping bag shake. The bears disappeared into the night and I never saw them again.