SUMMARY:  As I got ready to hike this morning, for the first time, I put a bear bell on my trek pole. So now, it’s jingle, jingle as I walk along.

(Note:  Later on, once we got to know the locals who LIVE in grizz country, they laughed at our bear bells.  “We call those ‘dinner bells,'” they said.  “The bears hear them and are curious.  What you want to do is every time you’re heading into bushes or thick forest, MAKE NOISE.  Yell.  Sing.  Whatever.  That way the bears know you are a hiker and will leave. And if you do see a grizz, sit down and act relaxed.”

But the only large, hump-shouldered dark-furred critter I saw all day was an Angus bull, right by the trail. We spent this morning walking up the gorgeous Green River valley. I would rate it right up there with Yosemite Valley—huge cliffs with impressive mountains up behind them, and the Green River as it gradually widens into 2 lakes, with happy campers and kayakers.

Then we had a long and sometimes horrendously steep climb over to the Roaring Fork River valley. Now we’re heading north through meadows and forests we share with the cows.

DETAILS:  Not long after we started this morning, we got to cross the Green River on a nice log bridge.  And it is still green in color.  We found out later that it’s because the Green is a GLACIER melt river, not just ordinary snow melt.  We passed some backpacker camps, but nobody was up yet.  Continuing along the river valley, we had to cross some avalanche debris fields–scary, seriously scary.  I would never want to be around when all that mud/rocks/stuff came roaring down the mountain.

When we stopped for breakfast, along came Tatoo Joe.  He wanted to know about the fire situation up ahead, so I showed him all my ranger info that I got in Pinedale.  Then he took off, and we caught up with him a short time later, having a 2nd breakfast with a bunch of Boy Scouts.  We were invited to join them too (apparently they had plenty of food) but we needed to make miles, so kept going.  I felt like singing “Jingle Bells” since now I have the bear bells on my trek pole, and I jingle nicely as I walk along.

The Green River valley is absolutely gorgeous.  It’s surrounded by dramatic mountains and cliffs and peaks.  Eventually the river widens out into two lakes.  Scenery-wise, I would put it right up there with Yosemite Valley!  The lakes are long and large–turned out that the Boy Scouts had CANOEed in with all that food they were sharing!  The only problem with hiking through gorgeous scenery is that you want to look at the scene instead of the trail.  Fixit was getting way ahead of me because I kept looking at stuff.  Then when I tried to catch up, I caught my toe on something and went down, very hard, in a faceplant.  Fortunately, the spot I fell was just dirt–no sharp rocks or roots–otherwise it might have been pretty bad.  But I was now absolutely filthy with red dirt all over the front of me.  Grrrr.  I was just starting to get up (not easy, with the wind knocked out of me and a heavy pack) when along came Tatoo Joe.  “Are you OK?” he asked kindly.  “What happened?”   I told him I tripped and did a faceplant, but was OK.

I got back on my feet and then sat down for a minute till I felt a bit better.  Meanwhile, Fixit was way down the trail.  He finally stopped, and when I caught up to him, he said, “Where’d you go?  You just disappeared.”  “Yeah,” I said.  “I was on my face in the dirt.”  Bummer.

Finally we reached the bridge where the ranger had told me they would post the “latest & greatest” about the fire.  Yes, there was a notice there, but the date on it was older than the one I had from Pinedale.  Tatoo Joe said he plans to hike as far as Union Pass, then turn off the trail and roadwalk around the fire.  Sounds like a good idea to me!  We continued on, tackling the big climb up & over the mountains, then down to the Roaring Fork.  The climb was very steep, slow going in places.  Down by the Roaring Fork, the trail went meadow-forest-meadow-forest, with cows everywhere.  As we approached the “brushy zones” by creeks, I would start yelling, “Hey, grizz!  Hikers!  Coming through!”  In one of those zones, suddenly a large, dark, hump-shouldered critter rose up–yikes!–but it turned out to be just an Angus bull.

Because there were so many cow paths, the Garmin once again was very useful, whenever we were in doubt about which way to go.  We finally ended the day camping in a meadow near a spring, with a whole bunch of cows.  There is still no sign of any fire up ahead–not even a tiny bit of smoke haze.  But I guess there is grass pollen in the air, because most of today I was sneezing a bit and dealing with itchy eyes.  Tomorrow we will have to decide which way to go, when we reach Union Pass.  But what magnificent country we were in today!