Date: 2005-07-12
From: Kay Wood lean-to

To: Chesire, MA
Miles today: 12.3

Kay Wood lean-to to Cheshire, MA We saw a bear this morning! This is extremely exciting because, well, seeing a bear is really cool.  But also, we thought our bear encounters chances were gone.  There are a lot of bear in this Smokies, but we were there too early and they weren't really active so we didn't see any there.  We did see the one young yearling in Shenandoahs, but it was somewhat far away (probably about 50 to 100 yds) and it was small and skittish.  We were told that everyone sees it least one bear in New Jersey.  They're supposed to be something like one bear per square mile in the forested area around the AT.  We didn't see a single bear there.  Still some hope in New York.  Nada.  Same in Connecticut zilch, though there was that scary bear encounter story with the bear shredding the section hikers tent and snagging his food bag.  By the time we got to Massachusetts I thought that was it.  But lo and behold there he was.  Just as we were leaving the shelter on the blue blazed trail back to the AT I heard a rustling that was distinctly different than what a chipmunk or bird makes. The first time I heard it and looked, I saw nothing.  The second time I heard it, looked over into the forest and there he was, maybe 50 ft. away.  He was sitting behind a log, looking quizzically at us, brown fuzzy ears poked up and forward, alert.  Clearly he saw us first but didn't seem particularly afraid, which I'm not sure is so good.  I didn't want to take my eyes off him when Gravity asked me to get the camera out of his pack.  I was unsure if he might charge, and I'm pretty sure it was a full grown male close to 300 lbs..  He stood up on hind legs briefly, then walked towards the shelter, parallel to the trail we were on.  Gravity followed some, though kept a distance, to try and get a picture.  Sadly, all the pictures came out blurry.  It looked like the guy was going to the shelter to look for scraps.  We yelled to warn the hiker who was still there that the bear was coming his way, but it turned off up the hill and ambled away.  He stopped to turn and take one last look at us, then disappeared into the forest.  Nothing really tops that experience for the day, so I'll mostly leave it at that.  It was hotter and the skeeters seemed especially ferocious.  I had just healed up from being eaten alive in New York, but am covered with pesky itchy bites all over again.  Oh well though, at least I saw a bear! Tonight we're in this strange quiet little town of Cheshire, MA.  The Church of the Assumption allows hikers to sleep in their rectory.  Tonight were sleeping in the cool(ish) room, under a roof, and safe from the blood suckers.  We're here with Munchkin and Stephen (who we met a couple weeks ago in Connecticut).  They had heard about a bar underneath some big house with blue rooster's painted on the front across from the pizza place.  We decided to go check it out and maybe have a beer or something.  From the outside it was hard to imagine that there was one, but sure enough in what would amount to a (mostly) aboveground basement there was a tiny little galley bar under the house.  It looked like something left over from prohibition and we felt like we should know a secret knock or handshake or something to be admitted.  We were admitted with just IDs though and enjoyed beer from a strange dungeonesque establishment.  What a life this; from bear encounters in the morning to beers in the super secret underground bars in the evening.  If you always expect the unexpected then you'll never be disappointed.   :-) Danger