Posted on 06/11/2015 3:51:20 AM PDT by SJackson
Grizzlies ARE brown bears.
Wasn’t too rare in the kids case, was it?
From reading it they may have started out there but it was obviously on the North Carolina side. It sounds like since a boat was used to transport to help and he went to Ashville instead of Knoxville it was near Fontana Lake or a nearby smaller one on the Little Tennessee river on the NC side of the Smokies. It sounds more likely the Hazel Creek or Eagle Creek area to me. That would put them near the lake if they went down either trail and were hiking out on the Fontana Lake end of either creek. Oh and bears isn't the only issue. Hogs are in the Smokies also but easier to escape if you can climb a tree.
Laws is laws but back country hiking minus a firearm of at least .357 caliber IMO isn't smart. I've hiked back country in that area before. You accidentally get bet wen a female bear and her cub and you can have hell to pay. You may not even see the cub.
From personal experience, it is hard to get every bit of food into your Hanging food pack. Yes, maybe he left a candy bar in his pocket.
They are about. I live in the Cumberland Mountains near the Cumberland Gap National Park and black bears seen all the time. I have also had them on my property and my mother in laws. You just have to watch with your garbage and pet food mainly. I used to feed the deer corn but had to give that up as the bears were being drawn to it and were destroying my feeders.
When out and about on our property I usually carry a .44 magnum or .357 magnum with one snake shot load and the rest hunting rounds for bears, snakes and two legged miscreants who my be about without permission. I carry more for snakes than bears or goblins. I hate copperheads, nasty, aggressive little bastages!
Don’t leave home without it.
I didn’t know if you lived in bear country or just traveling through. Parts of Texas have mountains lions but no bear( that I know of ) I don’t want to live near neither one .
When we first got here we asked about bear protection. The consensus went like this:
1. 12 ga shotgun loaded with magnum bear slugs
2. .45-70 gov lever gun*
3. .30-'06 or .308 rifle*
4. .44 Rem Mag or larger revolver
(*Because they can also be used for moose hunting)
Any mention of bear spray or smaller calibers is met with scorn and derision or outright laughter.
I’ve read that the Chisos Mountain in Big Bend Nat. Park have some bears. The wife and I love Big Bend, and have driven into the mts. as far as we could go in a car. Didn’t see any bears though.
My cousins hunting buddy saw a black bear on Norris Freeway the other night. Looking at the news one was spotted in Campbell Co also. Last year on I-75 at Callahan Drive one was killed on the interstate. With this bad dry spell I’d say it’s put them on the move this spring.
According to something I just read on the BBNP off. website there is a small colony of bears in the park. They re-emerged in the ‘80s after many decades of being absent due to hunting and other factors. The figure some sow from Mexico crossed the Rio Grande and met up with some lonely male. They have some photos of bears in the park.
Nice, I hope they do well there!
Other articles say their food was properly hung. I admit to sometimes viewing black bears as kinda cute overgrown raccoons, but they’re dangerous, and said to be more likely to attack as a predator than browns. Don’t think they made any mistakes. Glad everyone is ok, bear excepted. I wouldn’t have been there unarmed.
They’re said to be in the Chisos.
I kinda wondered about that “camp”. Homeless? Illegals?
Or big cities
Don’t know if anyone keeps stats. Blacks (bears) are more likely to eat you. And young males, likely unattached, can be a problem. Wouldn’t be surprised if blacks are responsible for more deaths, but there are more of them. And closer to population centers.
Whether someone carries is personal choice, however other than designated structures, firearms in National Parks are governed by state law. If you can carry in TN/NC, both reasonable states in terms of reciprocity, you can carry in the park. Other state regulations regarding possession of firearms would apply.
It's still a federal crime to discharge your weapon, and people have been charged with that after stopping near fatal attacks.
No nothing like that. Probably a place long the trail others had previously camped at. The area was Hazel Creek which drains into Fontana Lake. It's back country, no man made hikers shelter, and they were likely sleeping in a tent or lean too. They were in North Carolina and the dad obviously knew his whereabouts enough to wisely head down to the lake otherwise it would have been a much longer hike back over the top of the mountain and down to the Cades Cove road area.
Where they were is not a well traveled area. A person can camp in there for even a few weeks and possibly see no one else. Bears in that area are notorious for busting into tents, lean-too, etc searching for food. We came back to our camp once in Eagle Creek {next water shed over} and a bear's butt was sticking out of our lean-too LOL. We had our food secured in a tree thankfully and had been out Trout fishing that afternoon.
Most of the time you can yell at them and they will break and run. But a Sow with cubs can kill you on a whim. It's a very serious situation then. I've gone through Cades Coves area and seen Morons get out of their cars with camera and try to see how close they could get to bear cubs to snap a picture.
Too in back country if the bear has been going around established park service built shelters they have learned how to bluff people for their food. Someone posted the park service removed the cages off the front of the shelters. Very bad idea. If you are in the shelter there is no back exit. The shelters are basically a wood {log} structure with three sides and a roof and fireplace. The front side is left completely open. They have maybe room to sleep 8-16 depending on size.
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