This trip wound up being a solo affair, and I’ll write in the first person for a change. The hike up Bear Creek has been on my radar for several years now, the biggest obstacle being negotiating the 2.2-mile 4wd road leading from Mono Hot Springs to the Bear Creek Diversion dam. Earlier in the year, I installed a small lift kit on the Jeep, allowing me to run 31″ tires on it, and I snagged the necessary backcountry permit with a shakedown cruise of the new gear in mind. As many of these things seem to go these days, the four spots I had on the permit ended up being filled by only me as having both the will and the free weekend for such pursuits, and I set out early this Friday morning for the 4-1/2 hour drive. After stopping by the Sierra NF office in Prather to get my permit, I meandered east up Hwy 168 through the astonishingly large Creek Fire burn area to Shaver Lake, thence up to Huntington Lake, and finally onto the Kaiser Pass road. Not sure what I expected the drive to be beyond Huntington, but I was surprised to find the road in such poor condition. The road narrowed to a single lane long before reaching the pass, and the asphalt surface got worse and worse the further I went beyond the pass. Between steering around potholes and squeezing to one shoulder or another to get around other vehicles, going was tedious to say the least. Finally, I reached the turnoff for Bear Creek – I turned right onto the dirt road, threw the Jeep into 4-low, and started up. Though I was happy to have the extra clearance, there were only a couple of steep and loose spots where I felt the traction control engage, and I caught up with a Subaru near the trailhead who was able to get up the road just fine (click here to watch the complete video of the drive). I parked near the expansive granite slab used as a helipad, organized my gear, and started up the trail just before noon. I had no concrete plan for today’s destination, but I had initially targeted the junction of this trail and the JMT about 7 miles in – from there, I was thinking I could day hike up into the Bear Lakes area or perhaps up the Lake Italy trail, one of the more remote areas in the Sierra. The trail started out on a gentle gradient, and the intermittent shade was welcome in the warming afternoon. The path runs close to Bear Creek through much of the lower valley, and the alternating views of rapids and placid pools were lovely – quite a few photos here. The further I went, the steeper the trail felt – what looks like a gradual gain on the map in reality is a series of flat stretches separated by rocky stair-stepped sections. By the time I had completed a few of these intervals, I began to concede that the JMT junction was a too-ambitious goal, especially as the trail goes up and over a shoulder of Bear Ridge before dropping back to the junction near the creek. I decided to stop at Twin Falls, where the trail leaves the creek to climb over said shoulder – here, large slabs mixed with stands of trees separate the creek from the trail, and I found several wonderful campsites, eventually selecting one with a view over the dual cascades that give the place its name. I had seen a couple of other people on the way in, but from this point on, I wouldn’t see a soul until reaching the JMT the following day. I set up my tent, soaked my feet in the creek, and sat in my chair with some herbal tea watching the water churn by, thus beginning the longest single stretch of solitude I’ve ever experienced. It was quite nice.