Today woke up right off the trail in the Smokies to a deer walking by on the trail. Started hiking, climbed the rickety firetower on top of Shuckstack Mtn and took some pictures. About a half mile later was heading through a gap when I saw kinda dark shapes maybe 30 yds to my left. Took a few seconds to sort out that it was a family of bears. Sorta tweaked, turned around and walked quickly back the way I came. I think I waited 10min or so thinking what the hell does one do here. Went back to see if they were still there. They were. Entirely unphased by my presence. Finally a hiker named Too-Bob came along and actually seemed as freaked out as I was. So once Smiling Bandit came along we decided to walk by them with safety in numbers. The walk-by went off without a hitch though I think my heart was racing. I finally started to come to terms with bears that day.
Came up on the first shelter. The shelters in the Smokies used to be caged in to protect from the bears until hikers started feeding bears through the cages, which only encouraged the bears to hang around the shelters more. Cages are gone but they're pretty old stone shelters and sleep a lot of people. The black flies in the smokies were awful though. You couldn't really sit still. That much I remember very well. That day we hiked on to Spence Field shelter where we spent the night. Smiling Bandit, Forest, Willow, Gaucha and some weekend hikers were there. Some nice woman from South Carolia (Georgia?) gave us a muscle relaxant to split and it was the BEST night's sleep I had had in weeks. I literally was out like a light in a shelter full of smelly, snoring people. The smokies are beautiful.
No comments:
Post a Comment