Date: 2003-08-02
From: Nicholson Hollow Trail

To: Gravel Springs Hut
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: light rain

(Craig says) We saw 8 bears today! (5 cubs, 1 big momma, 2 young adults) Five of the sightings were in just a three-mile span from Thorton Gap to Skyline Drive. Not to mention a fawn and 2 does in there too. The first bear, a teen, was lounging in a poplar tree and would have gone unnoticed if it hadn't startled and made a loud noise scrambling down the tree and running into the woods. It would seem that bears definitely do not like being around humans. The three cubs that followed soon thereafter were like small dark shadows, gone almost as quickly as we'd seen them --(momma bear was not accounted for and made for some very AWARE hikers). The third bear encounter of the morning was a medium-sized (think plump St. Bernard) that doddled in the trail a short distance ahead picking at berries. I managed to get our first bear photo of the trip by grabbing a frame of his big furry rump sticking out into the path. As soon as he caught wind of our presence he was off too, but not in such a hurry as the others. He just nonchalantly meandered into the thickets and was soon out of sight. When we continued down the trail and passed the spot where he was feeding, we were startled to find his honey colored snout and beady black eyes peeking at us through the dense brush about thirty feet to our right. In the middle of the day we were caught in a sudden soaking downpour about twenty minutes from the Elkwallow Wayside where we were planning to take a break and get food. It stopped not long after we got there, the sun came out, and we hung our things out to dry. Then we went in to the wayside, got lunch, sat outside at the picnic tables (there were no inside tables), and just as we were about to dig into our sandwiches, the rain came down again. So we rushed back under the pavilion, finished our lunch, then rolled out our mats and laid down on the cement like hobos amongst other weary travelers, mostly bikers. We waited for an hour for the rain to stop.Just before we made it to the shelter as the sun was starting to set, we spotted a small bear cub rolling about just up the trail. This was by far the smallest cub we'd seen and from our distance it looked almost like an animated teddy bear. You know, like that Downy fabric softener bear, only black and non-english speaking. Not long after, another furry black puff ball came out to join it. We kept our distance and watched. Then, another big fat ball of fur waddled out into the trail. Mom. She spotted us immediately and nosed the two cubs up a nearby tree and stood guard at its base. We stood for a few, watching the momma bear watch us, but decided to back out of site so that they would feel safer, the bear cubs would come down, and we could continue on. When we turned the corner again they were gone so we continued up the trail. Just like the last bear they had not ventured far, only about fourty or fifty feet to the left of the trail. But the brush wasn't dense and you could see both the cubs and the momma bear perfectly. I went quickly past, looking at the big bear who was sitting back on her haunches and appeared rather calm and complacent given she had two babies perched on the hill behind her. Erin, the brave soul that she is, lingered longer than I and snapped three shots. I'm not sure how they will come out yet, but I'm psyched to find out! Although at the time I was too filled with excitement and adrenaline to notice much of anything except their big black presence, in hindsight it was a little unnerving given all that we've been told about the aggressiveness of momma bears with cubs -- if she really wanted to, she could have ended our happy existance on this earth with a solid, well-placed swipe of the paw for the both of us or some toothy gnawing on the skull and neck. But this one didn't show any sign of wanting to expend that kind of energy. We weren't worth it. Her expression seemed to hold more of an air of "yeah, here we are, now snap your pictures and get going so we can continue eating grubs out of this rotten log."