As a humorous side note, at Jerry and Andrea's property the day before while we prepared for this backpacking trip, Jerry pondered whether one of his bear spray containers was still good. I told him that the chemical itself doesn't really expire but the propellant does and that he could test it out, as I recently had, by just triggering it for a half second. He walked about 75 feet away from us and fired it off in the opposite direction.

Either the slight breeze changed or he mis-judged it, because he soon started coughing as the bear spray drifted back on him. Knowing there was no serious harm being done, we all thought it was mildly humorous and started laughing. Then the invisible drifting cloud of bear spray floated all the way to where we were sitting at the trailer and we all headed for the hills, teary-eyed, coughing and laughing our butts off. With that, Jerry spawned a running joke for the trip about him bear spraying all of us instead of any bear we might encounter. While I certainly found the whole event extremely amusing, I can definitely say that after getting just a tiny dose of bear spray, I would hate to really get hit with the stuff, and I can understand why it works even on angry bears!

Throughout the day I noticed that none of the other hikers we encountered followed the recommendation of making a lot of noise while hiking in grizzly country. While I find it annoying myself, I still participate in the noisemaking. I’d rather be mildly annoyed than be forced to hold my bloody scalp on my head after a bear attack, as other folks have had to do when they surprised a bear, presumably while not making enough noise to make their presence known.

Once we reached Upper Kintla Lake we paused for a short while to take a break. After watching a few of the numerous interesting bugs along the shoreline, I enjoyed the lakeside views while eating a little snack before continuing on up the trail.

We got to Upper Kintla Lake campground at around 4:30 and proceeded to set up camp. There were a number of folks there when we strolled in, it seemed most of them part of a group of folks from a Vanderbilt University outdoors club. After dinner, we all went to the food preparation area and made our dinners. I wouldn’t normally have eaten so early, preferring instead to make use of whatever daylight I have to wander aimlessly and see what there is to see, but since I had a lot of daylight left, I decided to get the cooking thing behind me. I then relaxed on a log along the shore of the lake, filtered some water, watched the common goldeneye ducks and a lesser scaup on the lake, and generally just enjoyed a beautiful afternoon. I also took the opportunity to wade into the lake to wash a bit of the sweat and trail grime off my body. The water wasn’t as cold as I had anticipated and it felt really nice. If I’d had swim trunks or clothes I could afford to get wet, I probably would have gone for a swim.

As the sun approached the horizon, Jerry and Andrea went to bed, leaving just Z and I at the lake. We alternately chatted or sat in silence, depending on what struck us. Z spotted a moose swimming across the eastern end of the lake, which was cool, though it didn’t remain in view for long. Soon after that Z went to bed, leaving me alone with my thoughts. As the sun set and darkness descended, the glassy lake absorbed my attention. A handful of other folks came out of the woods not far from me to enjoy the view, but no words were spoken. Only a solitary loon spoke out musically from the opposite side of the lake. Eventually, everyone returned to their camp except me. So much the pity of everyone who missed the transition to ever darkening night, made doubly beautiful by the mirror of Kintla Lake.

While wandering around camp I also saw a cool boreal toad.