Cascade Pass, Sahale Peak

What a beautiful day...We started from the Cascade Pass TRailhead at 7am and were at the Sahale glacier camp by noon. Five hours nearly on the dot. A little slow, but not to bad. We took a while due to a bear on Sahale Arm near the trail about middle way up the arm. It was a small black bear but you never know where the momma is. We took about an hour break on slabs near the camp. There was a LOT more snow than i have ever seen up there before. I heard one guy say that there was about a foot more snow on the glacier than just a week before. We headed toward the top a little after 1pm and got to that little col just below the summit at about 1:45. There was a guide climbing starting to repell off the summit so we waited our turn. We waited for nearly 2 hours!!! We headed up toward the summit and were on top in 20 min. The scrambling was a little sketchy due to a little snow here and there and wet rock, but definetly dueable without gear. We stayed on top for a while and were back to the camp by 6:15ish. We started heading down and were hampered by a grizzly bear near the trail. Yes, it was a grizzly. I was very surprized to see one so close to a trail that is so popular. We slowly made our way down the arm trying to stay ahead of it. We got down to the lowest part of the arm in well over an hour and were getting really tired. We pushed on and got to the car at 7:45. It was a great hike. Summit, Wildlife, Flowers and 2 rockslides off Mixup arm..(we got to see them, not just hear them). 14 miles RT, Nearly 13 hours!