Ampitheater Lake

In 2001 I hiked up to Ampitheater Lake, above the Timberline and well into the rocky portion in this photo. I wnet up 3,000 ft in 5 miles over 15 switchbacks. I hiked alone and encountered a bear about an hour into the hike. I knew a bear was nearby after I saw bear scat that had steam rising from it, indicating that the bear recently left it there. I took the bears photo, I remember the bear as huge. When I got the photo back, the bear was not very big at all, but he could have eaten me if he wanted to. But he was more interested in berries than in me. He looked at me for awhile and then rambled down into a ravine.
Three hours later when I reached the lake, 9,000 ft above sea level, there was only one other person there. The grade was so steep, about 12 percent, that I had to stop about every 15 minute to let my heart back off from my max heart rate (220 - your age) or about about 180 at that time. I don't need a heart rate monitor to know my heart rate. There are 3 levels. Breathing hard, breathing really hard, and heart pounding gasping for breath, that is max heart rate.
After an hour or so, another 20 or so people joined me. No one was smoking cigarettes and no one had a beer gut.
W