Trail Day 23 - Bears - Prof

Yesterday I didn't feel the greatest and fell asleep before writing a post. Today was a great day though!

It finally happened! I saw bears! I'll talk about that in a moment, I should start from the morning. We found a cool stealth site on top of high top mountain last night and for the second night in a row we were able to watch the sunset from a beautiful spot. 

I slept in again this morning, my my excuse being that I was woken up by two owls last night and was wide awake for a few hours. I got on the trail by 9.15 though which isn't too bad. About an hour down the trail I came across some amazing folks doing trail magic! They had amazing sloppy joes, snacks, beer, chocolate milk, and they even gave me a new smart water bottle which was clutch because mine was starting to get a little tires on me. As I was saying my farewells and leaving camp they gave me a small sampler bottle of liquor and two more for Eagle and Sunshine who had just left without some. Thank you very much folks, you made my day! 

 

I headed out down the trail floating on a belly full of sloppy joes and beer. I caught up with Eagle and Sunshine down the trail after about an hour and gave them their bottles. Then off I went again flying down the trail. I went around a corner and in front of me were two bear cubs. I saw just the fuzzy butt of one but the other one ran for another 10 yards down the trail before ducking off into the thick undergrowth. I immediately stopped both out of appreciation for how cute the chubby little cubs looked and also because I hadn't seen the mom and didn't want to end up between them. I never did see the mom and I co tinued down the trail.

An hour later I came across another bear (yes that's 3 bears in one day!). This bear was older but still a juvenile, probably only about a year old. I stopped and he stopped digging and we both froze and stared at each other. I took out my phone and just as the camera was focusing on him (or her) he bolted up into more brush and then stopped. Sadly I couldn't get a picture of him. 

I ate lunch at a campsite and just as I was about to head out again on the trail a guy gets dropped off at the campsite to start the trail. He was wearing a bear bell. There goes my chance of seeing a bear....

I'm going to take a moment here to let people know about eastern black bears. They aren't going to attack you unless provoked. Most bears will do what the ones I just mentioned did and will run off right away. It may actually be more dangerous to wear a bear bell because other hikers will get annoyed with it and they would be more likely to attack than a bear. 

Luckily the guy was slow and I still had the energy to to speed down the trail so I quickly passed him. Sadly I didn't see anymore bears. 

I did a 20 mile day to Big Meadows campground where Doc was waiting with a campsite. He wasn't feeling very well this afternoon and yellow blazed (hitched) up to the campground. He must have looked especially pitiful because the lady who gave him a ride payed for our campsite tonight in the campground. I think there are two other hikers, Wonder Boy and I didn't catch the other guys name, who are also staying with us at the site. 

I just showered and I am writing this while I wait for my laundry to finish (yay for being clean) then I am going up to the bar in the lodge and they have personal pizzas that I will have for my supper. I didn't have many views today but I did get one just outside of the campground. 

 

Thanks for following along and let us know if you have any questions! 

-Prof