Ran up Timp this morning. My third summit of the year and #59 all-time. I was on the trail a little before 2:30 a.m. I knew there was no one ahead of me on the trail because I was breaking through the spider strands across the trail. But as I neared the rockslide below the basin, I noticed sets of lights coming down. I met this group on the rock slide. A guy warned me that there were some bears "in the meadow." I went on, but as I neared the basin, I slowed my pace and made sure I was making plenty of noise. As I reached the junction to the Emerald Lake trail, I shined my light in that direction and sure enough, saw two pair of large eyes off in the distance. Pretty spooky. Thankfully my trail went in the other direction, so I quickly went on my way be continued to make noise.
I reached the summit in 2:32, not very speedy. The trail still has a snow traverse below the saddle. The snow was frozen and pretty slick. I did feel much stronger and faster above 11,000 feet. Coming down, I met three guys at the chimney section who came up from Aspen Grove. They were climbing without flashlights. One guy was holding a sleeping bag. Pretty funny.
On the return through the basin, I made plenty of noise, yelling, growling, etc. As I passed by that area, I did hear something large climbing up some scree, but it was still dark so I couldn't tell for sure if it was a bear. Further down, I practically ran into a deer. I saw some movement as I reached a corner and when I turned it there was a deer on the trail. It wasn't too concerned, moved a little of the trail and I came within 10 feet of it.
The streams are still flowing pretty good, but some are disappearing. I counted 21 stream crossings coming down. Some were just trickles. Several streams were gone from last week. As dawn arrived more hikers were coming up. When I got at the bottom, a group of young, fast runners were starting out. They were dressed in skimpy shorts and singlets. It was 48 at the trailhead, but it was near freezing at the top. Oh well, hope they didn't get too cold.
My round trip was 4:25. A slow trip, but a good workout. I got into work about 40 minutes later than usual. | 