Date: 2006-07-02
From: Skyline milepost 15.9

To: Lefty's Bear Stories
Miles today: 0.0

By Lefty Ok, I better get my big, delicious bear stories up before they all blend together in my memory. First of all, I have seen SIX bears since beginning this hike, all in the state of Virginia. I am so happy that I didn't embarras myself by writing the earlier journal entry that detailed my bear obsession., I am very happy to report that I am no longer obsessed with seeing a bear. Let me start from the beginning. I don't have exact locations now. Will go back and update later.Bear #1: Less than five minutes before mom and I had a break together and she had started hiking first, I came up a small incline and saw a huge bear rooting in the trail probably 30 feet in front of me. I saw him from the side and I know that he looked at me but I do not remember seeing his face. My lower jaw dropped the moment I saw him. Within a second or two of seeing him he was off. He didn't run, but he got out of the area without wasting ang time. I immediately started to go into the ugly cry (twice), but I dindn't let myself. It seemed kinda silly to cry over seeing a bear. But it made me so happy. I had finally seen my first bear! I snapped about 10 picutes of the area I had seen him. I know there was no more bear, but I wanted to remember the place I saw him. I thought at that time that I may never see another bear. After a minutes of two of hiking north I turned around and went back to the area hoping to see the bear. I walked into the direction he had walked. I then realized that I didn't want to have to tell Buoy that I stalked the bear I had seen, and I got myself back on the trail and looked forward to sharing my story with mom and Buoy (who by this time already had bear encounters of their own).#2:In Shenandoah National Park. Siting 2 was very exciting for me because I got to take pictures of the bear and film him. Remember that picture a few days back where I ask if you can see it? Well, that was my bear number 2. He had been on the side of the trail and I startled him. He moved a bit faster then bear number 1, but he didn't go far-only about 100 feet. This answered one of my questions about bears. Do they sit and watch hikers or do they always run? They sit and watch us: from trees, from deeper in the woods, from just a few feet away. This guy didn't mind me snapping dozens of picutes and taking video of him. yes, he was very far away, but I was estatic that I could stand there and look at him for 5-10 minutes.#3:In Shenandoah National Park. I came around a corner where the trail hugged the side of a steep hill. On my right the hill sloped up and to my left it sloped down. I saw a bear on my right at eye level, so close that I could have toched his bum with my hiking pole. I scrambled to get my camera out and ready for what would have been an incredible close up, but I missed both the picture and the opportunity to get a really good look at him. He jumped down right in front of me about 10 feet up the trail, looked at me and then ran down the hill. I was so disappointed that I didn't get a really good look at him, I promised myself if I get that kind of opportunity again I was not going to go for my camera first, but first just enjoy the view.#4: In SNP.This was my all time favorite bear encounter. I was so lucky. I will never forget it. I saw the bear on the right hand side a little off the trail, about 10 feet away. He was sitting, looking right at me (like he had been expecting me) and he appeared to be small. My first thought when I saw him was, "oh shit, where's mom?" He got up and started to walk away. I fought my first urge to go for my camera and just watched. I watched him for about 15 mimutes. It was wonderful. After a few minutes I did take my camera out. The bear never went to far. I did have to move a few times to get a better view of him, but he didn't seem to be bothered by me. Every couple minutes he would put his snout in the air, take in my yucky hiker oder, look right at me, and then go back to his business of turning over rooks and digging up roots. Fun, fun, fun! After I flet like I had seen enough I moved a little further away from him and took out my whistle. I have been carrying one because many people have said that a loud whistle will scare a bear away if he comes too close to you. So I blew it hard and for 10 seconds or more. The bear was startled for a quick second, but only jumped a foot or so. He then sat down and looked right at me. I kept blowing, he kept sitting. so much for my whistle. The next day when I ran into Webbreaker (SNP's Trail runner) I told him what I did and he kindly informed me that the bear had probably never hear a whistle before, and he was probably interested in what it was, and that it wasn't a good idea to have a bear interested in you. I got it.#6: Just outside of SNP. The trailrunner told me that that would probably be my last bear siting until New Jersey. Lucky for me I saw one more. He was in the path eating berries. It took him a second to decide which way to go. Then he was gone.