Date: 2016-05-24
From: Stealth spot mile 746.3

To: Petite Gap
Miles today: 28.1
Weather: overcast clouds

This day was the first day in a long time where it was all sunny all day long with no chance of rain. It also warmed up considerable getting into the eighties. The day itself was pretty uneventful. The night however was a totally different story. I hiked alone most of the day. I did cross paths with Tick Talk and chatted with him a bit. I stopped for lunch at a shelter and met a nice guy named Big Stick. We chatted a bit before I headed out. After lunch I had a good climb and drank a lot more water due to the heat. I had a lot of great views and it was nice not to have to think about rain or storms. My mind wondered on a lot of things that have gone on in my life over the past five years. I thought about Harry. He is such a good dog and we had endless good walks together on days just like today. As the day neared its end I came to a clearing and a big building with a huge white type ball on top. It was a major aviation center of some kind. It was massive. I almost stopped and camped there because I had over twenty miles in and it was 6:00pm. The next shelter was only a mile in a half away but it has been closed due to heavy bear activity. All the signs I was seeing along the trail to this point said everyone had to go at least to the Harrison Ground Springs Camp Area. That campsite was only 3.1 miles away and I knew I could make it there by dark. I decided to eat my dinner at the clearing which had an incredible view and then I headed down the trail to the campsite. The sun was setting and the views of it were very good so I stopped to take some of it in. After all, that is what I am here for. I arrived at the camp area just before 9:00pm. It was odd because nobody else was there. Then I saw a posting that this camp area has had heavy bear activity and that is was strongly discouraged to camp or eat there. It was now about dark. This was a bad situation. If someone else was there I probably would have stayed, but nobody was there. There was no way I was staying there. I got my headlamp on and started hiking to the next campsite which was 3.8 miles away. It got dark fast. About a half mile away from the camp area the trail split into two paths. I took the one that went uphill. About twenty feet up I stopped to make sure I was on the write trail. I turned around to see if I could find a white blaze. Well I did not see a blaze but what I did see was a big black bear about 25 feet following behind me. I was shocked and shaking. I yelled and banged my trekking poles together but it just stopped and starred at me. I then went to bang my poles again but slipped and sent some rocks down the bank. That seemed to spook it a little as it turned around and moseyed back down the path the other way. I started walking up the trail and my pace quickened. Before I knew it I was practically jogging the down hill parts of the trail. I just wanted to find people, but I had three miles to go. I was extremely nervous and anxious. I came to the top of a hill and saw lights down in the valley. I thought maybe a house. I was going to go to those lights no matter what. It turns out it was a group of thru hikers who had also had an earlier encounter with the bear. I was so happy to see them and told them so repeatedly. They told me I was flying down the trail as they could see my head lamp. I quickly told them what had happened to me and no sooner did I finish when we all looked back up the trail with our headlamps and there was the bear about thirty feet back on the trail looking right at us. It appeared that it stalked me all he way there. We were at a road crossing with a little pull over. They had there tents all set up. We yelled at the bear and banged our polled and thought it had ran off. We all talked a bit. These four people were so good to me. There names are Snickers, Elsa, Murph, and Doolittle. They are hiking as a group of four and also go by the name Team Blue, although now they are thinking about changing it to Team Bear. They ran into the bear in the actual campsite back a few miles where I had come from. They were also planning on staying there. After we talked and calmed down a bit we decided to go hang out bear bags. We wanted them away from where we were tenting. We struggled to find a tree and were not having any success getting the rope hung. After fifteen minute Murph went back to the tents to find the bear standing in the middle of our camp area. He yelled at it and we all came running back. The bear just slowly walked into the woods thirty feet or so and turned and just starred at us. We yelled, banged things, threw rocks near it. All it did was circle our camp and keep looking at us. We could see it plain as day ggbecause of its eyes reflecting from our headlamps. Team Blue packed there tents and then called 911. Then the park patrol officer called back and and said they would come out. Around 11:00pm two SUV patrols vehicles showed up. They had super high powered lights to see in the woods. They found the bear. After getting our story the two of them went into the forest with pretty big guns and high powered lights. About five minutes later a very load shot was fired. It made all of us flinch. They came back and said they had a shot on the bear but it did not go down. It was all so crazy. They eventually took us back up the trail three in a half miles to a parking area so we could set up our tents and call it a night. The one patrol officer who I rode with actually thru hiked the trail a few years ago with his wife. There trail names were Bark and Berry. He was very helpful and friendly towards us which was greatly appreciated because of what we had all gone through, especially me. So thank you very muck Bark, and I also can not thank Team Blue enough either. We all set up our tents after midnight. I slept in my hiking cloths and did not even clean up at all. All I can say is it is very scary to be stalked by a bear. Thank goodness my Mom had been praying for my safety in her bible studies. and my Dad gave me a neckless with a cross with Mary and Jesus to keep me safe. I also can not forget the cross neckless Sue gave me too. I know all these things helped protect me and all I can say is thank you God.