Bears are nature’s clean up crew.
Gun shot to the foot/knee?
A good metaphor for a sports writer...
Cleanup on Trail 8...
This bear may have just been scavenging remains of a person who died of natural causes. Not much way to tell now.
I once worked as a biologist for three years in a National Park. My job typically involved working in wilderness areas. I often worked alone. I saw hundreds of black bears. The biggest predictor of bear habitat in the eastern U.S. is an area that doesn’t have humans in large numbers. Bears that aren’t acclimated to humans (repeat, aren’t acclimated to humans) will almost always run when they see people. Out of the hundreds of black bears that I saw in those three years, only three worried me. I was charged once. I also had the largest black bear that I had ever seen (easily 500 pounds plus and obviously aged) deliberately change its course to come in my direction before eventually opting to move elsewhere. My biggest fear, though, was when I was followed by a bear at fairly close range for approximately six miles in the most remote part of the park. Definitely not typical bear habitat.
Over 99% of bears will not bother you. In fact, they will typically run from you. However, that one percent...
"Sometimes you eat the bear..."
As an aside, I don’t know offhand exactly where Backcountry Campsite 82 is, but I do know that Hazel Creek is in one of the most remote areas of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. You don’t get there by accident. Unless you take a boat across Fontana Lake, it is at least a ten mile hike.
Of the bear?
Might be tough, the article said there was poor cell phone service.
We have bears here wandering around in peoples yards and nobody thinks of what could happen. Until is does.
Bear spray is just seasoning. Use a gun.
I took my son and daughter across the Smokies on the Appalachian Trail three weeks ago and had an aggressive bear incident in one of the shelters. Two bear came into the site and started pawing at a couple of nearby tents, scaring the campers into the shelter. The bears followed them into the shelter (essentially open faced lean-tos with sleeping platforms) and started harassing us all. One camper sprayed a bear with bear spray and he backed off a bit. It took quite a bit of stomping, yelling, and throwing objects to get them to back off and go away.
I’m from Michigan and have seen my share of bear. These were particularly aggressive for blacks. The Smokies have had their share of incidents over the past few years. We had to cancel our last attempt two years ago because several shelters had been shut down due to another bear-related death making the trek between them too long (the Smokies don’t usually allow tent camping in non-COVID years).
Holy krap! We’re at a Swain County camp ground RIGHT NOW. We’re a 12 hour hike from that campsite. And the wife wonders why I brought bear spray and a firestick with us.
Read this in the online paper this morning. Thanks for posting it here for discussion.
BLM.... Bear Lives Matter????