made that traverse (First Divide, around Mt. Hopper, to Lake of the Angels) and funny enough we saw a bear where you described seeing one. this was the hike my mom had made us "Rocky Mountain Spotted Frog", a mixture of ramen noodles, onion soup, and some other stuff (good and cheap for us po' white quilcene kids), and all the kids except me and one other got sick at Lake of the Angels. We didn't find the intended traverse over to scout lake, so we just beat brush down to the road north of the putvin trail. It was the end of a 75+ mile hike we did, linking up a bunch of trails.