Palisades Lakes — Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025

TL:DR - I encountered a mama bear and cubs about a mile down the trail so I turned around and did Dege Peak instead.

I’ve only hiked this once before, and the mountain was playing hide-and-seek so I thought why not? The trail starts out straight down into the valley. Some wildflowers remain. It was so lovely and quiet, I didn’t see anyone for a full mile.

There’s a big rock slope on the way down and I saw and heard at least six pikas. I’ve never seen so many at once before!

Then in the meadow beyond that, I stopped to listen and watch birds for about 10 minutes. Beautiful and peaceful.

I think I was getting close-ish to Clover Lake when I heard my first other people on the trail. They were up ahead of me - and hollering for me to look out. They saw a mama bear just to my right, and her cubs in a tree on my left. I did what you aren’t supposed to do, which is turn around and walk away. (You’re supposed to back away!) At least I went slowly. I think. I could hear the mama bear grunting but I never saw any of them.

I walked back a few hundred feet to the edge of a long stretch of trail to see if the other hikers were coming through. After several minutes, I decided to move along, but I didn’t want to finish the trail - especially since I was hiking solo.

When I got back to the rock pile, the two hikers caught up and said the mama bear was just off my right shoulder - so I am lucky they caught me and I didn’t make her mad!

I hope to try this hike again sometime soon. It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful.