Date: 2017-04-14
From: I-81, Atkins, VA

To: Morgantown, WV
Miles today: 0.0

4/14/17 Morgantown, WVMiles hiked: 544.4, Miles to go: 1645.4I am back in Morgantown, WV, with Marguerite. We now have the unenviable task of packing up and moving our home to Knoxville, TN. I heard from 1st Sgt today. He made it back to Marion, VA, dropped off the rental car, and headed back out on the trail. If you haven't already, you should check out 1st Sgt's blog on TrailJournals.com. My daughter wanted to hear about bears on the AT. When I talk about hiking the AT, probably no subject piques people's interest more than bears. I get all the standard questions: "Aren't you afraid of bears?" "Are carrying a gun?" "What about bear spray?" No, no, and no. The only bears on the AT are black bears, so forget all those movies you've seen about rampaging Grizzlies. And the bear in the "Walk in the Woods" movie was a brown bear. However, weighing between 100 - 500 lbs, black bears are still a consideration. Every night, after setting up camp and eating dinner, we all put our food and other aromatic items like trash and toothpaste into a bag and hang it in a tree where bears can't reach them. In Georgia and North Carolina, most of the shelters have bear cables where you just clip your bag to a hook and pull it up in the air. As we moved farther north into TN and VA, the shelters quit having cables for some reason. Now we have to hang our own bear bags. This process involves finding a suitable tree limb, attaching a small bag to a 50 ft piece of cord, finding a small rock to place in the bag, tossing the rock bag over the tree limb, attaching your food bag to the cord, hoisting the bag into the air, and securing the free and of the cord to a tree. Sounds simple. It's actually quite a pain. This process actually provides hours of entertainment - when you are watching someone else do it. It's fun to watch them tramp through the underbrush looking for just the right tree, getting hung up in the greenbrier and other underbrush. Then it's fun watching them find just the right limb - not too high, not too low, and strong enough to hold your food bag. Then they have to find a rock. The woods are full of rocks, right? Until you need one about the size of a tennis ball, or so. Then there are none to be found anywhere! Next they have to toss the bag in just the right arc to sail up and over the limb. This is the most entertaining part of all! There's always that one athlete who can toss the bag in a beautiful arc and drop the cord right onto the limb with ease. However, most people toss the bag again and again, trying in vain to get the bag over the limb. First throw is way too low. Second throw goes too high and gets tangled on a small branch above the limb. They pull on the cord to try to retrieve the bag. It hangs up. They pull harder. The rock bag suddenly comes loose and comes rocketing straight towards their head. They somehow miss getting brained by the rock bag and make a third attempt. This throw is arcing just perfectly! Unfortunately, they are standing on the end of the cord and the bag abruptly stops and comes falling back on their head. Argh!Finally, they get the cord over the limb and start hoisting their food bag into the air. Since they've just resupplied in town, the food bag is very heavy and the cord cuts into their hand. Ouch. They get a friend to help hoist the food bag. Unfortunately, they didn't pick their limb carefully and it breaks, sending food bag, cord, and limb showering down on their heads. Lather, rinse, repeat. They finally get the bag in the air ten feet off the ground and at least six feet from the tree trunk and then comes the debate about how best to tie off the loose end of the rope:"Just tie it around the tree""No. I've heard the bears have figured out how to get the cord loose.""That's silly. Bears don't have opposable thumbs.""They don't untie it! They cut it!""With their claws!?""I don't know!""Maybe they bite the cord...""Why don't we tie it off using the PCT method?""Great idea! Do you know how to do the that?""No. Google it""I don't have phone signal""Don't you have Verizon?""No. AT&T""You know what they say - No AT&T on the AT.""You have Verizon. You Google it.""Can't. We're down in a gap. No signal""Well, poop!"As you can imagine, people tend to get lazy and begin to stop bear bagging. They decide to hang their food in the shelter instead. This leads to arguments with people who have taken the effort to bear bag. I have heard that by the time you get to New England, no one is bear bagging anymore. The reason that bear bagging is such an issue is that bears are lazy animals. If they can just eat human food, they don't have to spend all day foraging. And once bears become habituated to human food, they don't want to go back to roots and berries and they become aggressive. We have passed through two areas on the trail now that we're closed to camping due to aggressive bears. Unfortunately, aggressive bears usually end up being dead bears. There have been actual bear attacks on sleeping hikers in the Smokies in both 2015 and 2016 and the only fatal black bear attack in the southeast occurred in the Smokies in 2000. So, bears need to be taken seriously. On the other hand, I have backpacked my entire adult life and have never seen a bear in the woods. In fact, I have only talked to one thru hiker who has even seen a bear on the trail this year. So, even though bear concerns are real, I'm not too concerned about bears. Like most thru hikers, I just hope to get to see a bear in the wild.