Miles hiked thru June 1 (35 days on the trail): 467
After a short hike Friday, about 11 miles, I decided to camp at a nice spot by Lake Watauga, which was formed by a dam, in eastern Tennessee. The night was calm and mostly quiet, the silence interrupted only by the sound of boats on the water and the waves reaching the shore. I slept well in my tent and awoke around 6 a.m.
While debating in my head about whether to get up or go back to sleep, I heard something scampering through the bushes nearby. I glanced out the mesh window in my tent and saw a flash of black fur buzz by. "Oh shit," I thought. I listened for a second and heard a scraping sound. I knew it was a bear up in the tree that my food bag was hanging from -- about 12 feet from my tent.
I paused for a second, remembering the stories hikers had been sharing about a mother bear and her three cubs who have recently been "terrorizing" hikers at shelters in the area, stealing their food.
"I hope it's just the cubs," I thought to myself before getting out of the tent to try and save my food.
I got out of the tent and turned around to see a bear cub, probably around 80 pounds, up about 11 feet in the tree swiping at my bag, which was just far enough away from the tree trunk so that the furry thief couldn't get a grip on it.
On the ground, waiting anxiously, was another cub about the same size as its sibling.
I looked around and didn't see mama bear anywhere. I shouted at the bears, "Get out of here!" But they just looked at me -- clearly this wasn't their first heist and they weren't scared of humans.
The campsite was littered with stones and rocks, so I picked one up, took aim, and pelted the bear in the tree. It immediately dropped down and ran over a mound. I threw a rock at the bear on the ground and it ran away up the mountainside before stopping and facing me.
The other bear came back over the mound, took some rock fire and scattered up the mountain next to its partner in crime. There they both watched and waited for my next move.
"Stupid bears," I said as I went over to the tree to take down my bag, keeping an eye on the cubs about 70 feet away.
I sat down on a log and looked up at the bears, my food bag on the ground in front of me. One of the bears decided to make a valiant attempt at the bag now that it was on the ground. It ran down and stopped about ten foot short of me. I grabbed a 5-pound rock and threw it just to the side of the fuzzball, not wanting to seriously hurt the little guy. The cub scampered back, and two or three more stone tosses put it back up on the hillside.
I lobbed some big rocks in the general area around the bears. They finally got the point and ran up the mountainside, disappearing into the woods. The whole episode lasted about five minutes.
Wanting to leave the area before mama bear showed up to see who was bullying her kids, I took down my tent, packed up my backpack and headed out. I stopped about a half-mile down the trail on a road that crosses over the dam and ate breakfast while taking in the view of the lake with the mountains in the background.
Better me eating my food than the bears, I thought.
- Hova
Note: The sad thing about the bears stealing food is that they will probably end up being caught and "destroyed." The best scenario is they are relocated. The lake is near a town and is frequented by locals and tourists who camp and stay at the shelter by the lake. So there is always plenty of trash and food left around (people do a poor job of cleaning up after themselves). The bears become accustomed to going to the shelters and campsites to find easy pickings, and once they realize there is no threat from humans they will steal food while the helpless people look on.
Whenever you go camping, don't intentionally feed bears and don't leave food and trash behind. "Pack it in, pack it out." That's the motto.
