We had breakfast at the B&B in Waynesboro with Chase and Jen and then they took us back to the trail. It was awesome to see them.
We entered the Shenandoah National Park and hiked a lot of the day under threatening skies. This section of the park was pretty uneventful with two exceptions, ticks and bears. I pulled 4 ticks off of myself throughout the day. Ugh. As far as bears, the first was a younger bear hanging out near the trail rooting around some rocks for food. He wasn’t very frightened of us and didn’t really care about our yelling and banging on stuff. He scooted enough into the woods to let us pass without any issues. I got a lousy picture.
Blurry bear
The next was near the end of our day. We came upon some other hikers who were standing in the trail not moving forward. They told us they’d been trying to get this bear to vacate his spot right by the trail for quite a while without any success. The bear apparently started displaying some aggressive behavior, so no one wanted to mess with it of course. They said it snorted, stood up to its full height, and fake charged them.
Bear crouching by tree right off trail
We all decided to take a very wide berth through the woods around it, so that was fun.
Otherwise the day was pretty easy. We got the tarp up just a few minutes before the storms of the evening hit. Tomorrow we go deeper into the park. Let’s hope we are done with bears and ticks.
Vital stats :
Miles hiked today – 21.1
Mood – barely good (ha…. Ha…. Sorry, that was awful)
Physical state – bareable
Smell – barely tolerable
Song stuck in my head – none today, one of those rare days
It is beary important that you read these comments:
If you haven’t shaved for a while, you’d be looking kinda grizzly. If you wear a sleeveless T-shirt or if you carry a gun, you have the right to (bear) bare arms. If you didn’t pack a swim suit, you can bare it all and jump in the next lake. …Get ready for this one with a drum roll……..I understand your dilemma though, it was your bear to cross.
(I hope I didn’t tick you off!)
The first photo looked like Bigfoot! More bear steaks! And I bet your Pa ticked you off (hehehe). But then again, you are your father’s son! And the song wasn’t “the bear went over the mountain…”?
yes, a Sashquash photo (however you spell bigfoot’s name.) bears, Yeti again.
First, I apologize for your fah-ther’s comments. Some things are out of my control. 🙂 However, the thought going through my head is that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!! That being said, it looks like your brain was bare of music. Sooo glad you were smart enough to circumvent an unhappy bear. Good going! Hope you’re having a good day today. After a rainy week, today was supposed to be sunny and warm here, but it’s been cloudy, breezy and not all that warm. Oh well. Stay safe and healthy! Sending beary good thoughts, prayers and lots of love!