The road to the trailhead wasn't as bad as we had seen in the past-a sedan or two were even at the trailhead! The hike into Spider Meadows was fairly easy and the views in the meadow were gorgeous! We saw two marmots pushing each other around on a boulder! We stopped for a water resupply before heading up to Larch Knob and over Spider Gap. There was water at Larch Knob so we probably didn't need to carry as much up that climb as we did. It was a climb but the textbook perfect views of a glacier-carved valley were spectacular!
Up and over Spider Gap and the glacier wasn't bad. We skirted the first section as it had some crevasses. After that we simply followed the boot path across the rest of the glacier. We were happy to have our poles! One of our group only hikes with a staff and I expect he would have rather of had two poles at this point.
We hiked past Upper Lyman and it looked beautiful. It even looked like you could find some places to hammock. We continued onto Lower Lyman and camped there for the night. There were a couple other groups camping there as well that night but it was pretty quiet. We had a curious deer keep coming through camp but we just shewed them away. The bugs weren't really a problem either. The backcountry toilet was also appreciated. It was cold so with the fire ban it was an early night for us all.
We continued down to Hart Lake the next day and found the small beach area to eat our lunch and take some very refreshing dips in the lake at! Hart Lake was quite pretty and there were a few people camped here as well. (Also! Another backcountry toilet!)
BEARS:
We continued onto Holman Village and camped at the ballfield there. This is where we saw all the bears! First, in the afternoon while part of our group was filtering water one bear wandered past them and into camp where the rest of us were resting and eating gorp. We made noise and "Hey,Bear!"-ed him to the other side of the river. Then later that evening, hanging around and chatting outside my tent a mama and baby bear showed up. We backed up, "Hey, Bear!"ed again and then moved my tent further away from the river up near the rest of the group in their hammocks. And the next morning, as we were headed to retrieve our bear bags from the bear locker across the field the mama and baby cross the field first, headed toward the privy area. We are usually pretty bear aware as a group but we were extra cautious making sure all scented items were placed in the bear locker. Hopefully everyone who camps near Holden is doing the same. I'm sure the village is an attraction for the bears.
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