With all this evidence of big and unfriendly natives, we did the unthinkable after a long and tiring day: we packed up the tent and moved down the valley to a less ominous campsite, where we warned nearby campers about all the bear signs we had seen.

The next day dawned dark and cloudy, but we decided to hike up to the head of the valley. We stopped along the way to photograph a beautiful patch of columbine--and I thought unavoidably of the Columbine High School killings in Colorado.

While we worked with our camera gear, a highly self-confident blond woman in her 30's hiked up the trail, accompanied only by her small black dog. Carrying an ice axe (used in crossing snow fields on steep mountainsides), she said she was heading up to a glacial tarn tucked in the valley head. I thought to myself how independent and courageous women have become in the wilderness.

About an hour later, it started to drizzle; then the drizzle turned to soft curtains of rain falling from the damp gray clouds. While navigating around a giant log that had fallen across the trail, I spotted a dirty and tarnished brass belt buckle beside the trail. I immediately thought of an incident in Yellowstone National Park a few years back. A photographer was missing; when the search party went out all they found was the brass belt buckle he had been wearing, and a roll of film showing that he had gotten far too close to a grizzly bear. He had then been eaten by the bear. I wondered what happened to the wearer of the belt buckle I had just discovered.

A few minutes later, we encountered the same blond woman who had passed us earlier, but she was heading back down the trail. Only this time she had completely lost the self-confidence she had exuded earlier, and seemed on the verge of panic.

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